Re: testing babies

[Guest guest]

> Several of you seem to think we should have an audiogram on our 15

month old

> son, , by now. The only " conclusive " findings we have

regarding his

> hearing are the two ABRs he had almost a year ago.

If he has a progressive hearing loss, if his ear canals have gotten

bigger, if anything has changed, he could be under-amplified (or OVER-

amplified!). When my son was born, the audiologist recommended a

hearing test (unaided, and then aided if we had time) every three

months for the first year, and then as needed (but closer to every 6

months/year) thereafter. We have had to readjust his hearing aids

after almost every visit, and has not as of yet shown a progressive

loss.

> Since he got the aids the audiologist has been trying to

> get some aided results in the booth while sits on my lap.

Unaided results are more important than aided results.

> We have not done an unaided test yet.

I would consider seeking a different audiologist, if only for a

second opinion.

> Our audiologist said that she could try to do an unaided test

> if would tolerate the headphones.

If she only has headphones, and not insert earphones, it makes me

ask...is she a pediatric audiologist? Does she have sufficient

experience with children? My son is the world's biggest wigglefritz,

and we were able (with a patient audiologist and at least an hour of

testing) to get results with good confidence on him in the booth

since about 6 months.

> If you have any

> suggestions, please let me know. Are there certain things I should

ask

> about?

The most important thing to ask about is if she has experience AND

SUCCESS working with hearing impaired infants and toddlers. How many

other children under the age of 2 has she worked with? How many of

them are on target with spoken language (if that's what you're going

for)?

> My audiologist said something like, " sometimes it's not until they

> are 3 or 4 that we can get some clear unaided results with the

headphones. "

Hogwash. There are methods (ABR, visual reinforcement audiometry,

play audiometry, etc.) for kids of all ages, from birth on up. But it

is true that most audiologists deal with elderly people, and have

little experience with testing children, especially infants and

toddlers.

There's nothing wrong with seeking a second opinion. I don't remember

where you live, but if you remind us, someone around here might have

a pediatric audiologist recommendation. Good luck!

[Guest guest]

,

we had Dominic tested by visually reinforced audiometry since he was 8

months old. The audiologist used some little plugs & wires that went

straight into his ears so that the sound could get straight into his

ears (and not make us jump and so alert him to the sound) and then gave

him a few very strong sounds to condition him and set some toys flashing

at the same time. After a while, he got the message. Mind you, the first

audiologist still got it all wrong and assumed he'd turned to sounds

when in fact he hadn't, he was just checking the environment. That's why

his first unaided responses put him in the 60-70 dB loss range. She was

also testing him by ringing bells, drums etc behind his ears, also to

get unaided thresholds.

We then changed audiologists and they were much more thorough at the

second hospital and more 'heartless'; the new audiologist would try and

get 3 identical results before deciding that he'd heard at that

intensity and that frequency. So if he turned 2 out of 3 times she'd

consider it inconclusive at that level and go for the next one up.

That's how we found out Dominic was profoundly deaf (and the fact that

he'd failed 2 ABRs at 90 dB). I think the protocol for testing may vary

from place to place and person to person, but the main thing is that you

can get unaided thresholds even in very yound children. After the

audiologist programmed the hearing aids she also did aided thresholds in

a similar way, this time with Dominic wearing the hearing aids (rather

than the 'plugs') and us being able to hear the intensity of the sound.

We were also told that headphones can't be used well until a child is

about 3. Now that he's turned 2, Dominic is being tested by having to

throw some balls/blocks etc when he hears a sound or putting pegs on a

board etc. He likes being tested and going to the hospital (a future

hypocondriac?!).

Cristina

[Guest guest]

I agree with everything you said. Here's an observation...the first

pediatric audiologist we used was not able to get a reliable unaided

audiogram on my son (he was about 5 months old at that point). She had us

come back every 3 weeks so that she could test anther frequency. I was

naive, and thought that was how it was done. After getting totally fed up

with this, I switched to another pediatric audiologist when he was about 12

months old. That wonderful woman got an aided and unaided audiogram on him

in 30 minutes, without any headphones. My son was not very cooperative in

the sound booth, but she was able to read his subtle responses and head

turnings while he sat on my lap.

You will want to get as accurate an unaided audiogram as possible just to

have a baseline in case his loss changes. We think my son's changed, but

did not have a early baseline to compare later audiograms against. And you

need a reliable aided audiogram to ensure he is in the speech banana, or to

decide if he needs different hearing aids. It isn't always easy to find a

second audiologist, but the results can be well worth the effort.

, mom to (9,HAs), (no loss), (4, CI 7/99)

Re: testing babies

> Several of you seem to think we should have an audiogram on our 15

month old

> son, , by now. The only " conclusive " findings we have

regarding his

> hearing are the two ABRs he had almost a year ago.

If he has a progressive hearing loss, if his ear canals have gotten

bigger, if anything has changed, he could be under-amplified (or OVER-

amplified!). When my son was born, the audiologist recommended a

hearing test (unaided, and then aided if we had time) every three

months for the first year, and then as needed (but closer to every 6

months/year) thereafter. We have had to readjust his hearing aids

after almost every visit, and has not as of yet shown a progressive

loss.

> Since he got the aids the audiologist has been trying to

> get some aided results in the booth while sits on my lap.

Unaided results are more important than aided results.

> We have not done an unaided test yet.

I would consider seeking a different audiologist, if only for a

second opinion.

> Our audiologist said that she could try to do an unaided test

> if would tolerate the headphones.

If she only has headphones, and not insert earphones, it makes me

ask...is she a pediatric audiologist? Does she have sufficient

experience with children? My son is the world's biggest wigglefritz,

and we were able (with a patient audiologist and at least an hour of

testing) to get results with good confidence on him in the booth

since about 6 months.

> If you have any

> suggestions, please let me know. Are there certain things I should

ask

> about?

The most important thing to ask about is if she has experience AND

SUCCESS working with hearing impaired infants and toddlers. How many

other children under the age of 2 has she worked with? How many of

them are on target with spoken language (if that's what you're going

for)?

> My audiologist said something like, " sometimes it's not until they

> are 3 or 4 that we can get some clear unaided results with the

headphones. "

Hogwash. There are methods (ABR, visual reinforcement audiometry,

play audiometry, etc.) for kids of all ages, from birth on up. But it

is true that most audiologists deal with elderly people, and have

little experience with testing children, especially infants and

toddlers.

There's nothing wrong with seeking a second opinion. I don't remember

where you live, but if you remind us, someone around here might have

a pediatric audiologist recommendation. Good luck!

[Guest guest]

testing babies

> The only " conclusive " findings we have regarding his

> hearing are the two ABRs he had almost a year ago.

Hi ,

le had I believe a total of 5 ABR's due to the conflicting

information, before they started testing her in the booth. She wasn't

tested with headphones until she was about 2 1/2, which she didn't tolerate

at all due to sensory ingeration issues, it took a lot of conditioning and

preparation before she was able to be tested with headphones and dropping

blocks in a bucket, or pegs on a board, (approx. 6 months.), with no help

from our old audie. Due to le being uncooperative during testing her

old audie didn't have the patience needed to test her.

I had it written in her IFSP and when she turned three in her IEP as a goal

and the early intervention team also helped in preparing her for what was

expected of her during testing. Conditioning her has helped tremedously

getting the results we longed for.

> I called the audiologist today because I'm getting anxious. I want to

>make sure is getting the best results he can from the aids. He is

>doing very well from what we can tell, but I'd really love for the aids to

>be programmed to specific frequencies. We can't do that without the

>appropriate information. Our audiologist said that she could try to do an

>unaided test if would tolerate the headphones. We scheduled a >test

for Feb 4. Is this how your little ones were tested to receive the

>information needed to " fine tune " the hearing aids?

Since birth le has been tested every 4 months, if not earlier than

that. For unaided results. With the same kind of testing as

mentioned was done with Domenic.

> is not very patient sitting still, even on my lap.

I don't think any 15 month old child is, not just .

>My audiologist said something like, " sometimes it's not until they

> are 3 or 4 that we can get some clear unaided results with the

>headphones. "

le's old audie state the same thing to us. But that isn't true. If

you have any doubts about your current audie, I would suggest getting

another opinion. With patience and conditioning they can get the

information that is needed. It took us switching audies 3 times before we

were finally at peace and comfortable, unfortunately it wasn't until

le was 3. I can honestly say that when her aids were adjusted

correctly we saw a tremedous difference in everything, behavior, speech,

language, but the biggest was her wanting her aids in ALL the time, from the

minute she woke up until she went to sleep, and even then, she won't let us

take them out, she must fall asleep with them everynight. Which was a major

battle for us until that time.

> Yikes! I don't want to wait until then. She said until then we would

> monitor his progress, his speech development and receptive language, as

>well as comparing his aided responses in the booth. I'm just turning to

all >of you who have been through this before. What are your thoughts?

Another thing that also helped was with her new audie, they use two audie

during the testing, which is something that was never done before switching

audie, but this too, has made a tremendous difference in testing her. One

sits in the booth with us across from us, and the other behind the glass.

Since switching audies, le is totally cooperative because they take

the time to explain to her what is expected, and give her time to understand

what is expected. Something we were never use too. Hang in there. I truly

know how frustrating it can be.

Take Care

Colleen

Mom to 7 year old (hearing,asthma, and allergies,)

Mom to le 3 year old, (moderately-severe hearing loss, etc)