Can I check my child’s hearing? What are the ways to diagnose it? This is a matter of concern to millions of parents, especially when it comes to the baby and there are suspicions of possible deviations from the norm.
Checking the audio sensitivity in children is a paramount duty of medical auditory care, because audiological diseases should be treated in a timely manner.
How to check a child’s hearing?
In the arsenal of modern medicine there are opportunities that are unavailable (at least) about 20 years ago, which allow you to diagnose the presence or absence of auditory abnormalities immediately after birth.
Over the years of active development of audiology, a lot of useful knowledge has been accumulated, and many examination methods and hearing screening programs for newborns have been developed, as well as early hearing aids for babies aged 3 to 6 months with congenital pathologies.
It should be noted that it is impossible to check the hearing in a child, as in an adult, since this requires more complex diagnostic methods. This task is not easy and entails great responsibility, since the sooner the disease is detected, the more favorable the prognosis for rehabilitation will be. The most important aspect in the diagnosis of hearing impairment in children is the correct and thorough sequence of actions that allow you to outline a strategy for combating the disease.
How to check the hearing of a month old baby?
A comprehensive audiological examination of young children appeared thanks to a technique invented back in 1976 by Debra Hass and James Gerger. Its basic principle is that in pediatric audiology, the correct diagnosis can be made by passing only a few tests, not just one. Therefore, the diagnosis of the baby’s auditory abilities should include behavioral audiometry, as well as general research methods in combination. Modern research methods consist of:
- Behavioral Audiometry (depending on the age of the baby).
- Audiometry objective.
- Audiometry impedance.
- Registration of otoacoustic emission.
- Registration of VSWP (short-latency auditory evoked potentials).
The results of behavioral measurements of sound should be confirmed by the results of objective audiometry, since each of the tests helps to separately examine the desired area of the auditory organ.
After a thorough analysis of the results, the doctor collects all the information into a single whole and recreates the real picture of the condition of the child. But how does an audiologist test hearing in children? Based on the general principles of audio diagnostics in infancy, the doctor experiences behavioral reactions in response to a sound stimulus, and then draws conclusions.
What does an objective comprehensive examination include?
This diagnosis includes the following aspects:
- Collection of data on the possible causes of auditory pathology.
- The study of ENT organs.
- Analysis of the course of pregnancy, childbirth and the development of the baby in the first weeks of life.
- Check for the presence of genetic pathologies and their possible impact.
- Drawing up a questionnaire for parents to be able to assess the characteristics of the baby's behavioral reactions according to age.
- KSVP screening, which allows to examine hearing in infants immediately after birth. It is he who allows you to exclude or determine auditory neuropathy.
Conductive disturbances
With these pathologies, the inner ear works as expected, but the main problem is localized either on average or in the external organ of hearing. Such disorders are often temporary and treatable, and one of the reasons may be the sulfur plug, which clogged the narrow ear canal and interfered with the sound path to the eardrum.
Sensorineural disorders
With these lesions of sound patency, the cause is the pathology of the inner ear, which, unfortunately, cannot be corrected. There can be several reasons for such a defect, and the main ones are:
- genetic diseases in which hearing impairment occurs;
- maternal viral infections during pregnancy;
- pathological toxicosis;
- taking certain antibacterial drugs;
- birth injuries;
- asphyxia of the newborn;
- deep degree of prematurity;
- childhood infections (encephalitis, meningitis, scarlet fever, complicated flu).
Auditory Test
Despite scientific and technological progress, not every modern maternity ward is equipped with the necessary equipment, which allows diagnosing hearing impairment in newborns. Therefore, if your baby was not examined immediately after birth, then at the slightest hint of deviations, go with him to the polyclinic to an audiologist, otologist or otolaryngologist, without waiting for a physical examination, which is usually performed at the age of four months.
How is a newborn diagnosed?
The fact that the baby, located in the womb, hears sounds, has long been proven. Here are just some children surrounded by deep and impenetrable silence, and according to statistics, the probability of this is about 15: 1000, and there can be very different reasons for this. It is impossible to check the baby’s phonemic hearing without a screening analysis, since the baby cannot tell you if he hears something or not. And it is carried out using a special sensor that transmits special sound signals, and the responses of the ear cochlea are transmitted to a special microphone and recorded. After that, the obtained data are analyzed, and the doctor gets an idea about the state of hearing of the newborn.
After confirming the deviations, the method of CVS (short-latency auditory evoked potentials) is assigned, which allows to determine the degree of auditory pathologies. Later, acoustic impedancemetry is prescribed, which helps to detect the presence of fluid in the eardrum or dysfunction of the auditory canal.
Test for parents of an infant
Immediately after the birth of a baby, attention should be paid to his reaction to sound stimuli. If he regularly does not pay any attention to them, then you should be wary and answer yourself the questions below:
- Does your baby react with a jerk to loud sounds?
- Does he freeze from a loud voice in the first month of life?
- Does the monthly baby turn to the voice that sounds behind him?
- Is there a reaction to the mother’s voice in a three-month-old baby?
- How does a four-month-old baby react to the sound of a rattle? Does it turn its head?
- Did your two- or four-month-old baby learn to walk?
- Does he babble at the age of five months?
- Does the baby make new sounds at the age of ten months?
- Does the child understand the meanings of such words as “dad”, “mother”, “give”, “not”, “bye” or “hello” at the age of ten months?
- Does he pronounce simple words at the age of one?
If you can answer all of the above questions in the affirmative, then there can be no cause for concern.
Test for children after a year
After a year, the child becomes older and it is easier to notice deviations, the main thing is to be careful and know the answers to the following questions:
- Does the child notice that someone is talking to him if he does not see him?
- How often does the child ask again when you turn to him?
- Does the child show increased attention to the speaker’s facial expressions?
- Does it turn up the volume on the TV excessively?
- Have you noticed that the child does not hear the voice ringing on the phone? Does the tube attach to one ear, then to the other?
If you are interested in the question of how to check the hearing of a child of 3 years old, then check his reaction to the simple sounds of musical toys (harmonica, drum or pipe). How does a child navigate in space when you reproduce sound moving outside his field of vision? If he turns his head, freezes, begins to actively move in search of a source of stimulus, then everything is fine and there is no reason for concern.
Having noticed such deviations, you should visit an audiologist for advice and a further plan of action.
Which method is suitable if the baby is older?
How to test hearing in an older child? If he already speaks words well and clearly, then you can learn about the state of auditory abilities with the help of speech. To do this, you need to move away from the child by 6 meters and pronounce various words from this distance in a whisper. First, it should be facing you with your right side (with your left ear plugged with cotton wool), and then vice versa. If the baby does not hear the words, then the distance must be gradually reduced, he must repeat the words you said. To make the child interested, you can imagine everything as a fun game.
What to do?
From the moment of diagnosing auditory anomalies in a child, one should first of all think about acquiring a hearing aid, since timely acquisition of it will allow a small person to adapt to society and the surrounding world as a whole. His future directly depends on this.
The choice of a hearing aid should mainly be guided by quality, as the longer it lasts, the better.
If you conduct diagnostics in a specialized center for the rehabilitation of children with hearing problems, most likely, experienced specialists will select the right device on the spot, which, of course, will save you time and nerves. After all, the hearing aid is a purely individual thing, and selection should be done based on: the baby’s age, frequency, size of the ear canal, as well as the state of the ENT organs. Therefore, when answering the question of where it is possible to check a child’s hearing, several aspects should be guided.
For children under 15 years old, devices that are attached behind the ear are suitable. During the recovery period, each trimester of the baby should be examined by a specialist who monitors the positive dynamics and adjusts the hearing aid, as the slightest cold knocks down his settings. It is impossible to do this on your own, as an improperly selected frequency or increased volume can finally atrophy what remains of the auditory nerve. It is also important to attend special classes for deaf children, which are conducted by experienced audiologists, in order to teach them to listen and pronounce words correctly.