For babies, teens, and in-betweens.
Real care for your family.
It is often difficult to know if a child is hearing well or not. In Australia, all babies must go through a newborn hearing screening test shortly after birth. However, this does not indicate that they won’t develop some sort of hearing deficiency later in development. Whether it’s temporary or permanent, hearing loss can significantly impact on a child’s development, speaking proficiency, and their performance at school.
Children from 18 months.
Our audiologists conduct an age appropriate testing procedure called Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA) where it incorporates methods of play, conditioning, and response, so we can obtain a screening result. We engage with the child through play — we present sounds of varying frequencies through a speaker, have the child to respond to a puppet, and other fun exercises. This testing method allows us to test across four sound frequencies. The aim is for the child to meet the baseline screening levels, which indicates adequate hearing ability for speech and language development. This testing does not provide ear specific results and if it is required, the child should return when they are 3.5 years or older to be tested with headphones.
Children from 3.5 years.
From this age, children usually can tolerate headphones and so our audiologists conduct Play-Audiometry. This incorporates play and conditioning under headphones to obtain ear specific hearing results. We use methods of interactive play to allow the child to respond to sounds presented under the headphones.
Tympanometry is carried out for all children to check the status of the middle ear. It is very common for young children to experience fluid build up, ear infections or Eustachian tube dysfunction and so this measurement will ensure that any necessary recommendations can be made to ensure that any abnormalities are investigated.
Should your child present with any middle ear conditions, we usually recommend a tympanometry re-test after any necessary medical intervention.
Our audiologists provide a full written report for all children’s testing to the GP, parents and any other medical specialists upon request.
We require all new clients to complete an Registration Form to ensure we have an adequate and holistic understanding of necessary medical history. Please arrive to your appointment at least 15 minutes earlier to complete this in store. Below you will also find the form and bring it with you to your appointment.
For any hearing health assessment of a child, we require a parent or caregiver to complete a form about your child’s hearing history.
**Our paediatric services are standard and basic, should there be any other developmental considerations with your child, it would be in your best interest to either visit Hearing Australia or the Sydney Children’s Hospital for more specialised testing.
“Our paediatric audiologist was so caring and helpful with our daughter, but also gave us the resources and assurances we needed as parents.”
— Sarah Wilson