Services

Visual reinforcement audiology (VRA) measures hearing sensitivity in infants and young toddlers aged 6 months to 3 years. While the child sits upright on a parent or caregiver's lap in our soundproof room, our paediatric audiologist will play a tone in your childs ear. At first, our audiologist lights up the boxes in conjunction with the sound. This "trains" the child to respond by shifting his or her eyes or turning his or her head toward the sound source. Once a child understands what to do, our audiologist can "reward" the child by briefly delaying the visual stimuli.

During the test, the audiologist reduces the intensity of both the sound and the stimuli until the child's minimum hearing threshold is reached. Testing continues using different frequencies until a complete set of data about your child's hearing in both ears is completed.

Conditioned play audiometry (CPA) is used to test the hearing of very young toddlers and preschoolers. CPA uses behavioural conditioning to get kids to respond to sounds. It is designed for children between 2 and 5 years of age.

CPA makes a game out of the hearing test by replacing the feedback device with activity-related toys such as blocks or pegs.

CPA measures hearing sensitivity to determine both a child's type and degree of hearing loss.

Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are low-intensity sound waves produced in the inner ear. In a healthy ear, outer hair cells on the cochlea will "echo" acoustic stimuli. An otoacoustic emissions test is an effective screening method used to assess hearing in newborns as well as those children who are not able to follow instruction and limited speech and language. The OAE test is quick and painless and provides the Audiologist with immediate results.

Despite normal peripheral hearing sensitivity and intelligence, children and adults with auditory processing disorder (APD) have an inability or decreased ability to attend, discriminate, recognize or comprehend auditory information. Individuals with APD also have difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise, and following spoken instructions.

During the APD evaluation, a battery of tests designed to assess auditory processing abilities is administered to evaluate, diagnose and formulate intervention strategies for persons suspected of having auditory processing disorders. The specific tests selected depend on the age of the child, the referring complaint, test reliability and validity, and the specific auditory process assessed by each test.

School-based hearing tests are an important tool in identifying children with hearing loss who may not have been identified at birth, lost to follow-up, or who developed hearing loss later.

These screenings are typically conducted in schools and aim to detect hearing impairments early on, allowing for timely intervention and support for affected students.

It is important to note that school-based hearing screenings are not meant to replace comprehensive hearing evaluations by audiologists, which provide a more in-depth assessment of a child's hearing abilities.

If a child fails the school-based hearing screening, they may be referred for further evaluation.