Paediatric Audiology

A hearing screening program is tailored to each day-care centre depending on whether staff would like only children identified as ‘at risk’ of a hearing loss to be tested or offer the hearing screening test to all children at their centre. Parental consent is required prior to testing and parents can attend their child’s appointment.

Testing is preferred in the mornings when children are most alert and cooperative. The test is painless and takes about 5 minutes per child to complete. It is designed to give a quick indication if the child has a hearing condition and whether a more comprehensive test is required.

The testing offered to each child includes the following:

Tympanometry- A test of middle ear function for both ears.

Transient Evoked Oto-Acosutic Emissions (TEOAEs) Testing-This automatic and objective test, tests the function of the outer hair cells within the cochlea. This is a screening test of the function of a child’s hearing up to the level of the cochlear for both ears.

Speech Audiometry- A test of a child’s speech perception using live voice with no visual cues. We use the PSI picture-pointing test. This is a closed set speech perception using 5 animals for a child to identify. Ie. Point to the pig, cat, duck, fish or goat.

Screening hearing test with an audiometer (depending on the child’s age).