The traditional
audiometric evaluation of adults consist of placing the
patient in a sound-treated enclosure that reduces the
effects of outside sounds. The individual will be asked
to listen to a series of tones through earphones and to
respond by raising his/her hand every time a tone is heard,
no matter how softly it is heard. Tones of different pitches
or frequencies will be evaluated to determine the softest
sound the individual can hear at each of the frequencies.
This part of the evaluation is called puretone
air-conduction threshold.
Similarly,
tones will be presented through a bone-conduction vibrator
placed on the mastoid bone behind the patient's ear. This
is called bone-conduction threshold.
The speech reception threshold test is
performed by asking the patient to repeat two syllable
words that become very soft. Word intelligibility,
or word identification ability, is tested
by presenting single-syllable words at a comfortable level
that are repeated by the patient. Sometimes a
tympanogram may be performed. This test is a
test of the mobility of the eardrum and the bones behind
the eardrum and a test of the volume of the external canal.
Also acoustic reflexes may be evaluated by having the
patient listen to loud sounds that cause a special reflex
in a normal ear.
Testing
Children for Hearing Loss
Many children ages three to five-years-old
and up can be tested with the same techniques as adults.
For younger children operant conditioning techniques
can be used to teach the child to respond to the test
sounds by rewarding the child's response to the test sound.
These techniques, called visual reinforcement
audiometry, can be used on children six to eight
months old and older. Other special tests are also employed
to evaluate children's hearing.
100
West Fourth St., Suite 320
Cookeville, TN 38501
(931) 526-8863
2069 New Smithville Hwy
McMinnville, TN 37110
(931) 473-3833
1700
West Ave. North
Crossville, TN 38555
(931) 456-2952
