Pediatric Testing
It’s crucial to have your child’s hearing tested within the first three months of life. We offer the following pediatric hearing tests at Pee Dee Hearing Center.
- Otoscopy: Visually inspecting the patient’s outer ear, ear canal, and eardrum. This test is necessary to ensure that there is no excessive wax, drainage, redness, or other abnormalities.
- Tympanometry “Picture” Test: A quick measure of the eardrum movement while checking middle ear status. The patient will feel a slight change in pressure in their ears during the test.
- Otoacoustic Emissions (OAEs) “Inner Ear Test”: Measure the health of the hair cells of the inner ear. The patient will be listening to clicking “birdy” sounds. This is NOT a hearing test, but it is a good indicator of normal hearing or possible hearing loss. Very sensitive to noise and movement.
- Hearing Tests: Based on the patient’s age, tolerance of Otoscopy, and Tympanometry, questions answered by parent/guardians, the Audiologist will choose the appropriate test to obtain information about your child’s hearing.
What to Expect at a Newborn Hearing Screening
Otoscopy, tympanometry testing, and otoacoustic emissions testing will be performed on all newborns.
- If your baby passes both tests and has no indicators for hearing loss in the future, no further testing will be required.
- If your baby does not pass, or there are indicators for possible hearing loss in the future, we will schedule you for repeat testing or a more comprehensive test called the Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test.
Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) Test: What to Expect
During this test your baby will be sleeping while we analyze how your baby’s brain responds to sound. We have two very important goals that we much achieve to have a good test:
1. We must confirm if your baby has hearing loss or not.
2. If we confirm that your baby has hearing loss, then we need to find out to what degree or how much hearing loss your baby has.
Based on these two very important goals we need the following from you:
- Someone (mom, dad, grandparent) who will be able to be very relaxed while holding your baby. We understand that not knowing the status of your child’s hearing could cause some anxiety. However, it is critical that you have a calm and quiet disposition for testing. If you’re nervous or anxious, that tension will transfer to your child and negatively affect the test results.
- Your baby’s sleep window is very important. Your child needs to be as hungry as possible when they arrive at our office. We will feed your child after they are prepped for the test. Please do NOT feed your baby in the lobby when you arrive. Feeding your baby could cause them to go to sleep and wake up prematurely.
We will send you instructions via mail or text prior to your test. If you have any further questions, please let us know.