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Evaluation for Newborn Hearing Screening

What to expect at your child’s Newborn Hearing Screening

A newborn hearing screening is performed if a child refers on a previous hearing screening before discharge from the hospital or if they missed their newborn hearing screening in the hospital (or were not born at a hospital).

Many children do not pass hearing screenings in one or both ears prior to discharge from the hospital, HOWEVER, it is VERY IMPORTANT to have a re-screen performed at about four weeks of age to make sure that everything is alright.

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

If your child fails our screening again, we will refer you on to further testing including an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR). We do not currently perform this test on infants in our clinic but will provide you with information for other testing sites in the area.