Testing your child's hearing is an especially important task of parenthood. An infant who has undetected hearing loss may not be able to develop normal speech or acquire the cognitive abilities needed for learning. Children who are not properly diagnosed with hearing loss until they are 2 or 3 years old could suffer from permanent impairment of speech and learning capabilities.
Instructions
Test Hearing in Children
1. Pay careful attention to possible indicators that your child needs a hearing test. Indicators of hearing difficulties may include delayed speech, frequent ear infections, infectious diseases that can cause hearing loss such as meningitis or measles or side effects from taking certain medicines and antibiotics.
2. If your child is an infant, he may be able to take part in a Behavioral Observation Assessment (BOA), which is a test performed by an audiologist. As part of the BOA, the audiologist observes the child's reactions to sound.
3. Infants may also benefit from a test known as Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR). ABR is a test that is usually conducted while the infant sleeps, as it does not require an active response from the infant. ABR works by emitting a brief click or tone pip transmitted from a headphone. The child's response is measured by electrodes typically placed on his scalp and earlobes.
4. If your child is older than 6 months, she can likely be tested using either earphones or a sound booth using speakers. At this age, children who are developing their hearing without difficulty will usually turn toward the source of sounds sent from the speakers or earphones. This testing is referred to as Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA).
5. Children older than 30 months can be tested by Condition Play Audiometry (CPA). This test works through the placement of earphones on the child. The child is tested on his ability to raise his hand or press a button in relation to the playing of a test tone.
6. In the event your child is diagnosed with hearing loss, the treatment could include a variety of options. Treatments for hearing loss in children range from non-medical options, such as the use of a basic hearing aid, to more advanced options, such as the use of a cochlear implant.
Tags: hearing loss, your child, diagnosed with, diagnosed with hearing, Hearing Children
