“How can I test my baby's hearing?”

Your pediatrician can refer your son to ENT audiologist for either ABR or OAE testing.

Every state in the US requires that newborn infants undergo a special hearing screen at birth to test for congenital hearing loss. The details of that screening, including when it's done, the type of equipment used, how to interpret the results, what constitutes a "PASS" or a "FAIL," and what happens "next" is determined by State law. Infants who pass should then have their hearing (and all other aspects of their growth and development) closely monitored in accordance with the "Bright Futures" recommendations by their pediatricians from their first days after discharge from the hospital, all the way through until adulthood. This includes hearing. After the initial newborn period, it is very difficult to assess a child's hearing until s/he is old enough to respond to the "ear phone" test -- usually around kindergarten. Prior to that, a complete assessment of BOTH conductive and sensorineural hearing (the only *complete* hearing testing) must be done under sedation by a specialized pediatric audiologist, usually at a children's hospital. Tests of only the *conductive* portion of hearing are commonly performed by ancillary organizations such as daycares, etc., but do not adequately test the entire hearing mechanism, which must include sensorineural.

Shelley C. Springer, MD, MBA, MSc, JD, FAAP

Testing the hearing on a one year old can be done, but must be done by an ENT (Otolaryngologist) and/or audiologist specially trained in this. There are two methods. First is Otoacoustic Emission and is done routinely in most hospitals shortly after the child is born. The second is Brain Stem Evoked response and is a better, but a more expensive and extensive test and often requires sedation. Please consult with your pediatrician for resources in your area to have your child’s hearing tested.  

Dr. K

Your pediatrician may be able to test the hearing. We have a device in the office to do this.

Most states give newborns a hearing test at birth to rule out hearing loss. At age one there is a special test called OAE’s that a pediatric audiologist can perform because at age 1 it can be hard to get a reliable test To see if one ear better than the other. I would schedule an appointment with a pediatric ENT , they will have better equipment for small children. The OAE is an automatic test of sorts that will tell you how the inner ear is working. They can also test your baby in a sound booth using speakers to make sure they are hearing very soft sounds at the frequencies important for Hearing speech.

You can take him to an audiologist and they will do Visual Reinforcement Audiometry and a few other things to determine his hearing status.