Australian Hearing audiologist appointment

Raphael had an appointment today at Australian Hearing with their paediatric audiologist. This is an Australian federal government organization responsible for assessing hearing and supplying hearing aids for children (and other specific groups).

They performed a formal behavioural hearing test on him and found that:

• he responds to sounds above 50-60db
• he is more responsive to high pitched sounds
• he is unresponsive to low pitched sounds (even at 80db)

They commented that this is consistent for babies with middle ear fluid (otitis media). An air pressure test also had results that were consistent with middle ear fluid but she could not make out much about his ear drums because of his small canals.

They said that this test shows that it is unlikely that he has a severe hearing loss and if we sit close to him and talk clearly with no background noise then "he will be getting a lot of what we are saying".

From here they would like us to continue with what we were already doing with regards to trying to improve his hearing (eg more tests at the hospital and possibly fitting grommets). After all of this is done then he needs to have his hearing assessed again to see whether it has improved. If his hearing cannot be improved to hear 30db then hearing aids would be appropriate to improve his hearing at this important early developmental stage.