Hearing Tests for Children

A child is never too young to have their first hearing test.

Infants are often screened for potential hearing loss before they leave the hospital, but if your child shows any indication that he or she may have a problem with their hearing make sure you have their hearing properly tested. There are several types of hearing tests for youngsters. The type of test used to evaluate a child's hearing will depend on the cognitive function and the age of the child.

Infants have their hearing tested in two ways - behaviorally and/or electro physiologically. Behavioral observation assessment (BOA) testing is performed by an audiologist who is specifically trained to detect an infant's bodily reactions to sound - such as the child's cessation of activity, body movement, eye widening, eye opening or change in sucking rate.

The Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), is an electro physiologic test that is used as an additional method to evaluate hearing, as is Otoacoustic Emission (OAE) testing. Both tests are usually conducted while the child is sleeping as they don't require any active response from the child.

As children get older their ability to respond to sound grows. At six to seven months of age, normally developing children usually turn toward the source of sounds. At this age, children are tested using either earphones or in a sound booth using speakers. Sounds used for testing generally include low to high pitch tones; which are included in the normal speech range. Turning toward the source of the sound is reinforced with a lighted toy. This style of testing is called visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) and is typically accurate in determining a child's hearing levels.

When children are two and a half to three years old they can be tested by a technique called conditioned play audiometry. During this test, earphones are placed on the child and they are conditioned to play assorted games when the test tone is heard. Standard audiometry testing is used with older children and adults. This method requires the person to raise their hand or to press a response button when they can hear the test tone.