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Testing

• Otoscopic Evaluation - Visual inspection of the outer ear, the ear canal and the ear drum


• Diagnostic Audiometry - This involves testing the child’s hearing however possible. For young children this will involve using loud speakers and toys to reinforce listening (Visually Reinforced Audiometry). For older children this may involve the child dropping a block or toy (Conditioned Play Audiometry) or raising their hand when they hear a tone.


• Tympanometry - (including acoustic reflexes and 1000Hz probe tone). Tympanometry is a test used to examine the condition of the middle ear, the mobility of the eardrum (tympanic membrane). It does so by creating variations of air pressure in the ear canal and graphing the response of the middle ear system. Tympanometry is an objective test of middle-ear function. It is not a hearing test, but rather a measure of energy transmission through the middle ear. It can be very helpful in helping the audiologist diagnosing the site of a temporary or permanent hearing loss.


• Otoacoustic Emissions - This test is also used to help the audiologist diagnose the site of permanent hearing loss in infants and young children. It involves presenting a soft tone into the ear canal and looking for a response/reflection of the stimulus sound back from the inner ear hair cell structures. It is not a measure of hearing but a measure of inner ear health.


• Aided evaluation including speech perception - Testing how well your child can understand spoken words is very important in the process of evaluation the aural (hearing) habilitation. Children will move through the basic steps of detection and then discrimination of sound and spoken words to the more complex tasks of recognition and finally comprehension of spoken language. The audiology department works closely with the classroom teachers and speech pathologists to ensure speech perception testing is conducted at the appropriate language level for your child.


• Speech in Noise testing - Once your child is able to reliably comprehend basic vocabulary (first 100 words) we can start to examine how the addition of noise to the environment can adversely affect their ability to comprehend speech. This helps us modify and control the learning environment, make recommendations for transitions into mainstream classrooms and helps us decide if and when we need to provide a personal FM system to assist the child.


• Functional Listening Evaluations - The purpose of the Functional Listening Evaluation is to determine how listening abilities are affected by noise, distance and visual input in the child’s natural listening environment (the classroom). This will help the audiologist make very specific recommendations regarding classroom accommodations, such as assistive listening devices, note-takers, captioning, special seating etc.


• Auditory Brainstem Response Testing (ABR) (Coming Soon!) - This test objectively assesses the auditory status of new born infants who cannot participate in play audiometry.When sound travels through the ear and then on to the auditory nerve a large waveform is seen if and when the nerve responds to sound. The specialized ABR equipment looks for this waveform created by the auditory nerve when sound is transmitted. ABR testing consists of putting small electrodes on the head and insert earphones in the ear canals. A frequency specific tone is presented at various frequencies and loudness levels. We can then obtain a good representation of how the child hears across the frequency range for each ear and does not require their participation. This makes ABR invaluable for testing very young infants and children.