Hearing Tests & Results

Working Together With Your Pediatric Audiologist

Your baby needs hearing tests that give information about what she can hear and how a hearing device may help. You can work together with your pediatric audiologist to provide observations and ask questions so that each visit with the audiologist is a step toward finding out what works best.

Hearing tests are designed for different ages and for finding out different kinds of information. With Impedance Testing, a tympanogram measures functioning of the middle ear which is important to know before doing other types of testing. Babies need to be tested more frequently than preschoolers, usually around every 3 months.

Two tests commonly used with babies are Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE), which measure the inner ear’s hair cells response to sound, and Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) which measures the auditory nerve and brainstem response to sound (see Newborn Hearing Screening).

Older babies and young children can respond to sounds by looking and doing actions that demonstrate they heard a sound. This is called Visual Reinforced Audiometry (VRA) and Conditioned Play Audiometry (CPA). Both of these tests help to determine the amount and the type of loss. Different equipment, such as speakers, earphones and bone oscillators (for bone conduction testing to determine what amount of the hearing loss occurs in the middle ear versus the inner ear) may be used depending on your child’s age and what information is needed.

The last two tests provide information to graph an audiogram. An audiogram shows what amount of loudness was required at a variety of different pitches so that the audiologist was certain that your child just barely heard the sound. These are called thresholds. Thresholds are the quietest levels at which we hear different sounds.

How Can I Make the Most out of the Audiology appointments?

• Take a list of questions to ask your pediatric audiologist. For more help click here to see a sample checklist of questions.

• Record observations about your baby’s hearing at home. Make sure you also keep track of how often and when your baby uses (or removes!) the recommended hearing aids.

• If your toddler is around 2 years of age, he may start transitioning from VRA to Conditioned Play Audiometry. Ask your early intervention service provider for help with sound conditioning, so that you can practice for the audiology appointment.

• Visit your doctor if your child has a cold. You may need to postpone hearing testing until any congestion with fluid in the middle ear clears up.