Good hearing is the key to harmonious speech and psycho-emotional development of a child. But the auditory function of a person is one of the most difficult, and therefore at any age, it can decrease. That is why hearing tests in children are a mandatory part of any physical examination. You can check how well your child hears on your own.
When do you need a check?
Medical tests of auditory function are carried out from 2-3 days after the birth of the baby and from time to time are repeated throughout the person's life. The child is tested at 3 months, in six months, a year, when applying to a kindergarten and school, at school medical examinations and as part of a medical examination, when entering a university and a military registration and enlistment office.
The thing is that insignificant hearing loss from birth is very difficult to diagnose at an early age, and a healthy baby born may well lose good hearing after severe acute respiratory viral infections, flu, after an acoustic injury or a blow to the head. Hearing is more unstable than vision and should be checked more often.
Parents should think about an unscheduled check if there are doubts that the baby hears and perceives the world around him well.
There are many signs of hearing impairment. They are different at every age. It is worth checking your hearing in a medical facility if:
- a child aged 1-2 months does not pay attention to loud sudden sounds (the alarm rang, the doorbell rang, the door slammed loudly, a heavy object fell). At the same time, the child does not flinch, does not look for the source of the sound with his eyes, does not get scared, does not throw up his arms, legs;
- at the age of 3 months and older, the baby does not respond to the voice of his mother, does not recognize him, does not try to look for his mother with his eyes, if she speaks away from his crib;
- at 4 months does not respond to the voices of other people, to the sounds of toys;
- up to 6 months there are no signs of humming;
- in a year, the child only hums, does not pronounce sounds and syllables;
- at two years old there is no minimum vocabulary, the child does not fulfill the requests of an adult;
- if the child communicates little, is not interested in this, often shows aggression;
- the child often asks again;
- during dialogue, the child intensely closely monitors the articulation, lips and facial expression of the interlocutor;
- watching a movie or cartoon, trying to make it louder;
- difficult to perceive telephone words, all the time transfers the receiver from one ear to another.
In addition to the general hearing loss, the signs of which we have described, there is loss of perception of certain ranges. So, some children normally perceive spoken language, but do not perceive the birds singing on the street, do not hear the rustling of the leaves under their feet. And some do not hear the water dripping from the tap, but they can watch TV at normal volume.
Hearing loss varies in degree and form and manifests itself in different ways.
If it seems to you that the baby does not hear something or does not hear something, does not understand, the distinct perception of sounds suffers, it is imperative to show him to the ENT doctor and the pediatric audiologist at the audiological center.
Hardware methods
There are many medical ways to check how your child hears. For little ones it is often used play audiometry. This method is optimal for children aged two to four years. The kid is given headphones and the rules of the game are announced: you need to throw the ball into a bucket or basket when a sound signal comes in. Sounds of different frequencies are fed into the headphones. According to the baby's reaction, the audiologist determines which frequencies are available for his perception and which are not.
Another option for play audiometric testing is for the child to press a key while sitting in front of a computer monitor. In headphones, the child is given the sounds of nature, animals, human speech, his task is to press the button when he hears sounds and can identify them.
A universal method of hearing testing, widespread in audiological centers, in polyclinics - method of tone audiometry. Testing is carried out in a special soundproof room. The child is asked to put on headphones and reproduce sounds of different ranges and frequencies. If he hears a sound, he presses a button or raises his hand, if not, the doctor plays the next sound, and so on until the threshold when the child will hear. Thus, the hearing threshold of a particular child in different ranges is determined.
Otoacoustic emission method is used for the smallest - it is by this method that hearing screenings are carried out in the maternity hospital 2-3 days after the birth of the child, in the clinic at the age of one month, three months, six months. It is better if the baby is asleep at the time of the examination or is at rest, for example, breastfeeding.
A flexible probe connected to a portable device is inserted into the baby's ear. The device sends sounds of different frequencies to the ear and after a while registers the returned response from the vibrations of the hair cells of the inner ear. If there is an answer, the child hears; if there is no answer, there is no sound perception.
Tympanometry is another informative method for assessing auditory function. It is designed to assess the performance of the middle ear and eardrum. A probe is inserted into the ear, which will register the vibrations of the membrane during the conduction of sounds.
If these methods reveal deviations from the norms, the tuning forks method is used to determine the causes of hearing loss. Evaluation of the perception of high and low sounds allows you to judge which department of the auditory analyzers was affected.
We test ourselves
Testing hearing acuity at home in terms of accuracy, of course, cannot be compared with testing on an apparatus, but this is not required of it. Parents need a home checkup in order to confirm their fears and then go to the doctor, or in order to calm down and stop worrying.
A child's self-hearing test at home depends on their age.
Up to a year
In infancy, you can only independently assess the overall picture - is there a hearing or not. Deviations of hearing function, if the child does not have complete deafness, is quite difficult to assess. Usually, the baby's behavioral reactions are checked - in response to the sound from two months, the child revives, throws off the arms and legs, from three months he begins to look for the source of the sound with his eyes.
You can use the so-called cereal test. Three identical jars are half filled with cereals: one with semolina, the other with buckwheat, and the third with peas.
One adult distracts the child with a toy without sound, and the second shakes a can half a meter from the child's ear. First, semolina is used, then buckwheat, because peas.
This is how it is assessed whether the child is able to hear high, medium and low sounds. You need to pause for a couple of minutes between the cans. Ideally, the child will indicate his interest in sound, distracted from contemplation of the toy, starting to look for the source of the sound.
1-3 years old
At this age, you can actively use toys with a wide variety of sounds - from quiet rattles to loud pipes and drums. The main thing is to give sound from the back of the child and evaluate his reaction.... The distance from which the sound is heard increases. Now it is no longer 0.5-1 meter, but about 2 meters.
Over 3 years old
For older children who already know how to speak, their hearing is tested in whispering and colloquial speech. If the child still speaks poorly, then it is better to use the methods described above. From 4-5 years old, the method of assessing hearing by speech is already used for everyone.
It is important to understand that a child with healthy hearing perceives spoken language from a distance of up to 20 meters and further, and whisper speech - from 6 meters. Provide quietness in the room, turn off everything that distracts (fan, TV).
Ask the child to stand against the wall and move six meters away from him. The baby is turned right side to the parent, the left ear should be covered with a cotton swab. If the child is big, he can cover the other ear with his fingers.
Without vocal efforts, while exhaling in a whisper, an adult pronounces numbers from 1 to 100 or pairs of words that audiologists and otolaryngologists usually use to assess auditory function. The task of the child is to repeat the spoken word or number.
If the child does not hear three words in a row, spoken from six meters, you need to approach one meter and repeat them. If again there is no audibility, they approach another meter and everything repeats again.
When the child hears and repeats the words, you need to fix the distance from which he was able to do this with his right and left ear. This will help you understand how great your hearing loss is:
- 6 meters or more in each ear - normal hearing;
- 5-2 meters - minor hearing loss;
- 1 meter - average hearing loss;
- 0.5 meter - does not perceive at all - a strong degree of decrease in hearing function.
For a whisper check, words phonetically balanced in high and low sounds are used. Here are some couples you can apply to your child:
- mom is a boy;
- house - lamp;
- table - hour (hours);
- grandfather - boots;
- desk - fly;
- doctor - tea.
Do not try to pronounce words that the child does not know the meaning of due to age.
After a whisper test, a spoken test can be performed from 20 meters from the back.
Useful programs and applications for self-diagnosis
There are many self-test audio programs and apps on the Internet. But they are not suitable for toddlers because require individual calibration.
From 8-10 years of age, a child may well use them.
It is enough to download and install the application on your device and buy good headphones. There are online checks. They are based on the fact that the human ear perceives the audible range from 15 to 20 thousand Hz. The program will play sounds, and the person will press the button if he hears them.
The result will be data similar to audiometry data, but, alas, less accurate, although more accurate for home checking than whispering or spoken speech.
Some of the programs can be found on sites that distribute music content as test files for tuning multi-channel audio systems. Some are designed specifically for home audiometry, such as Home Audiometer or Mimi Hearing Test.
