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Hearing Evaluation for Children

What to expect at your child’s hearing evaluation

Interview

• Please have your paperwork filled out with as much information as you can provide us. The audiologist will more likely than not ask you some follow up questions from your questionnaire.

Otoscopy: looking in your child’s ears

• The audiologist will perform a cursory inspection of your ear with a handheld otoscope or videoscope. We will be looking for excessive wax, abrasions or infections in the ear canal and the status of your tympanic membrane (ear drum)
• Please let us know as soon as possible if your child strongly dislikes having their ears touched or looked at by the pediatrician. We may alter the order in which we do testing if this information is provided.

Immittance: middle ear function testing

• We will place a small probe in your child’s ear to evaluate their middle ear function. This does not hurt, but it does feel a little strange. They will have a feeling of pressure (driving over a mountain, taking off in an airplane) that should last no longer than 5 seconds.
• We will also evaluate auditory nerve function in your child by presenting a few loud, short sounds to look for a muscle reflex. This test is imperative to rule out a hearing loss known as auditory neuropathy/dys-synchrony.

Otoacoustic Emissions (OAEs): testing of tiny hair cells in the cochlea

• A small probe will be placed in your child’s ear. They need to sit very still and very quiet for this test. They will hear a series of clicks and we will be recording a very tiny echo out of their ear. This information will tell us if the outer hair cells of the cochlea are working correctly and will rule out about 98% of hearing losses

Behavioral Testing: testing your child’s hearing in the sound booth

• For a child between the ages of 1 year and about 3 years old, Visual Reinforcement Audiometry will be used. (VRA)
• You will be asked to place your child on your lap and act as a seatbelt (making sure that they do not leave your lap and are focused on the task the audiologist is working on)
• We will present sounds through sound field speakers, insert earphones, or headphones (depending on age and what your child will allow us to do). We will then light up a toy on the side of the sound booth to reinforce the child for looking for the sound. Please let us know if your child does not like loud sounds, mechanical objects, or startles with an over-reaction
• For a child between the ages of 2.5 and 5 year old, Conditioned Play Audiometry (CPA) will be used.
• The child will be asked to place a block in a bucket, give a high five, point to their noise, or some other task when they hear a beep. You can us by practicing this technique at home by simply singing a beep beep beep and then having them give you a high five.
• Speech testing will also be performed and usually includes a child pointing to body parts (eyes, ears, nose, tummy), picking out colors, or other toys that may be available. Please let us know if your child does not know their body parts.