Hearing Tests for Children

Hearing tests measure how well your baby or child can hear different sounds. Some babies are born with hearing problems. Other children are born with normal hearing and begin to have hearing problems later in childhood.

Hearing loss in infancy and early childhood can delay a child's ability to talk, understand spoken language, and develop social skills. Hearing tests can find problems early so that children with hearing loss can be treated and get help learning language skills as soon as possible. Hearing depends on a series of steps that change sound waves into electrical signals that the brain understands as sounds.

Hearing loss happens when there's a problem with any of these steps: Sound waves enter the outer ear and travel to the eardrum in the middle ear.; The soundwaves vibrate the eardrum, which sends the vibrations to tiny bones that make the vibrations stronger.; The vibrating bones make tiny waves in the fluid that's inside the cochlea. The cochlea is a snail-shaped structure in the inner ear. It is lined with sensory cells that have hair-like structures.

When the hair cells move with the fluid waves, they create electrical signals.; The auditory (hearing) nerve carries the electrical signals from the inner ear to the brain, which turns them into sounds you can recognize and understand.; There are three main types of hearing loss: Conductive hearing loss happens when sound waves can't reach the inner ear. Earwax or abnormal fluid in the ear may be blocking the path, or a hole in the eardrum may prevent it from vibrating. Ear infections are a common cause of this type of hearing loss in infants and young children.

Medical treatment or surgery can often improve hearing.; Sensorineural hearing loss (also called nerve deafness) happens when there's damage to the cochlea in the inner ear or the auditory nerve. This type of hearing loss ranges from mild (difficulty hearing certain sounds) to profound (not hearing any sound). The hearing loss is usually permanent, but it can improve with hearing aids or other devices.; Mixed hearing loss is a combination of both sensorineural and conductive hearing loss.; One type of sensorineural hearing loss is called auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD).

With ANSD, there's problem with how the inner ear or the hearing nerve sends sound to the brain. This type of hearing disorder may happen if your child has health problems before or during birth or as a newborn. These problems include premature birth (being born too soon), low birth weight, and jaundice.

ANSD may also be caused by a genetic disorder.

How to prepare

There are no special preparations for a hearing test. But it's helpful to tell you child what to expect. Let your child know they will hear sounds.

If you have a pair of headphones, you might let your child try them on to see what they feel like.

Other names for this test

audiometry; audiography, audiogram, sound test