Download reading an audiogram and explaining it to a

READING AN AUDIOGRAM AND EXPLAINING IT TO A CHILD OR ADULT – THE INITIAL
DESCRIPTION.
Paul Peryman, Senior Audiologist, Van Asch Deaf Education Centre, November 2013.
Unaided air and bone conduction audiograms typically show hearing thresholds for pure tone
stimuli as a function of pure tone frequency. The use of air and bone conducted stimuli is to
help determine the type of hearing loss in each ear.
The lower down on the dBHL audiogram scale the threshold entry, the greater the degree of
hearing loss at any frequency.
The audiogram can be read at individual frequencies, or as a whole in terms of:
- the overall degree of hearing loss or the pure tone average, and
- the shape of the audiogram graph for each ear.
Categories of degree of hearing loss are shown on the audiology resource sheet “Audiograms –
An Explanation”.
The pure tone average is usually calculated from the thresholds for hearing at 500, 1000 and
2000Hz. These frequencies are considered to represent the most important frequencies for
understanding speech, and may help in estimating the degree of handicap that a particular
hearing loss is likely to cause.
The shape of the audiogram graph for each ear is found by reading across the test frequencies
(usually at octave intervals) on the audiogram from left to right.
The classification of audiometric configuration is as follows:
-
Flat
≤ 5dB average difference per octave
Gently Sloping
6-10dB fall or rise per octave
Steeply sloping (Ski slope) 11-15dB fall or rise per octave
Precipitously sloping
≥ 16dB fall or rise per octave
Rising (reverse slope)
better hearing in the high frequencies
Trough shaped
≥ 20dB more loss in middle frequencies than at 250 or
8000Hz
Dome Shaped
≤ 20dB more loss in middle frequencies than at 250 or
8000Hz
Notched
Sharply poorer at one frequency, with recovery at the
adjacent frequencies
Examples of audiogram explanation and description can be seen at:
-
http://www.raisingdeafkids.org/hearingloss/testing/audiogram/corner.php
http://www.raisingdeafkids.org/hearingloss/testing/audiogram/ski_slope.php
http://www.raisingdeafkids.org/hearingloss/testing/audiogram/slope.php
http://www.raisingdeafkids.org/hearingloss/testing/audiogram/ome.php
Read, describe and interpret the following audiograms ( [= right ear masked bone conduction,
and ]=left ear masked bone conduction; the rest of the symbols are as used in NZ)