Download My deaf child`s hearing tests

Pure tone audiometry and tympanometry hearing test
video transcript
Sharmila: So Georgie, today we’re going to do the hearing test and you’ve done this
before. What I’m going to do is, I’m going to put the headphones on your ears and
you’re going to hear some beeps. And I’m going to give you a button and I want you
to press down on the button for me every time you hear a beep, even if it is really
quiet. Before we do the test I need to have a quick look in your ears with my light. Is
that ok?
Brilliant.
So hold onto the button, I’m just going to pop these headphones on.
Is that comfortable? Ok.
So I’m just going to start testing now Georgie ok?
Ok Georgie, the next one’s going to be a different noise, this one’s going to be a
squeaky sound.
Brilliant, ok all finished.
The pure tone audiometry (PTA) is designed to find the hearing thresholds a person
has, so with Georgie we put the headphones on and I presented sounds, pure tone
sounds in each ear, at different frequencies and she responded by pressing a button.
Which allowed me to find the quieter sounds she could hear at each frequency.
Georgie: My first one I can remember when I was about two or three and I didn’t
have to press the button. When I heard a beep I would stack blocks on top of one
another but now I press the button when there’s a beep.
Sharmila: Younger children would do what we call conditioned play audiometry and
they would put a toy in a bucket or build stackers like Georgie was saying, when they
heard the beep instead.
With pure tone audiometry there are two parts; air conduction testing with the
headphones and bone conduction testing. Where a band, a headband with a box
transmitter is placed on the mastoid bone behind the ear.
And the bone conduction testing is not done on everyone, it’s only if there is a
discrepancy with the air conduction thresholds or if there are not within normal limits.
And the reason to that is to make sure there’s no conductive component to the
hearing loss or if it is a permanent sensori-neural hearing loss.
The next test is called the tympanometry test Georgie. What I’m going to do, I’m
going to put a little tip in your ear and you’re going to feel a puff of air going through
and this machine here is going to tell me how well your middle ear is working.
You don’t need to do anything for this test but I need you to sit nice and still for me
and if you could look forward that would be great.
Lovely, now I’m just going to do the same on the other side.
All done.
So the next test after the pure tone audiometry will be the tympanometry test, which
tells us about the middle ear function. It’s a great test to use in conjunction with the
hearing test results we’ve obtained because it will tell us if there is any conductive
overlay on the hearing results that we’ve got. In children it’s quite common to have a
condition called glue ear, which often means that their air conduction results will be
worse than the bone conduction results because the fluid behind the ear drum is
preventing the sound going through to the inner ear.
After the testing we would discuss the results with the parents, so we would explain
the hearing test results, explain where the thresholds fall, what would be considered
normal hearing and if there is a hearing loss we’d explain where it falls within what
we call the ‘speech banana’, which identifies different sounds and phonemes within
the speech range.
If required the child would come back for further testing and additionally if there is a
need for hearing aid provision the audiology team would provide that.
Georgie: Don’t worry it doesn’t hurt, it’s never hurt me. I’ve always had fun, I’ve
always liked finding new ways of being able to hear. And I’ve always liked
understanding it, being told what’s happening, not to be in the blue. So whenever I
get a hearing test I like to know how it’s gone and how we can do different things and
being able to do everything else anyone else can do.
I play hockey, netball, water polo, cricket, football, swimming, rounders, pretty much
most of the sports...basketball. The only sport I don’t like is running.