DD 2.5 hearing test tomorrow - what to expect?

[Sammy74]

My DD has delayed speech and has been referred for an audiology test tomorrow. She hates going to the doctors etc so I am concerned that she is going to kick off and we are going to have a nightmare.

Does anyone know what this test with entail? Will it be like the new born test where they just wear a pair of headphones, or will she be expected to 'do' stuff?

Oh dear....I really dont think she will understand instructions like that.

I am dreading it!

when my son was that age (delayed speech), and again when he returned aged 3 they didn't do the headphones. He just sat, on my lap, between two speakers, with an audiologist in front of him and he had to put a brick in a pot when he heard a sound (with his response assessed by an another audiologist sitting behind him, who controls the sound levels). They then looked in his ears with a, err, ear-looker-thingy, and repeated the newborn thing where they put a headphone in and measured the sounds reflecting back.

Thanks for your replies.

I really don't think she is going to get that sort of instruction. Does anyone know what they do for younger kids?

Sorry, but that's my experience too with the headphones. Mind you, they said it wasn't really worth doing it until he was 3. He has grommets and so they weren't that worried as he obviously was hearing it was more of a check up until his grommets came out.
Wonder if you tried playing a game before hand and getting her to put bricks in a bucket when you make a noise maybe she'd then do it at ENT.
Suggest don't call it drs. if she hates going to them. Call it "the ear place" or something.
She may surprise you. Ds was very good at the children's ward on Friday when we went to have 2nd set of grommets in and did everything asked except put on the mask for his GA. Every time the nurse came up to measure his pulse/temperature I expected him to object, but he held his finger out and did exactly as they asked. Wish he was like that at home

DS had a couple when he was a bit younger, maybe 2
sounds came out of speakers at either side of the room and I think they just observed him to check he reacted appropriately

My DD had her hearing tested at nearly 3 and again recently (I'm a bit deaf, so she is being monitored just in case). They did some very simple tests, some to see if she could hear from different places, i.e behind her, but also with headphones which was fine too - they used a little wooden boat with figures and asked her to put a little figure in the boat every time she heard a noise, making it like a game. The doctor was very good.

Ds had a hearing test at that age - he has development delay and can't follow instructions so he was observed for his reaction to different noises. When some sounds were played a toy dog jumped up and down and they look to see if the child was responding. My ds was inconsistent in his responses and we ended up having to have further tests under sedation - his hearing is normal but he has autism.

Thanks for your messages all.

Well, we had the test. DD sat on my lap and a nurse distracted her with toys in front of me. The audiologist played 'sounds' and she was rewarded with an animal in a box that 'lit up' when she turned her head to the side IYSWIM

He then measured the fluid levels in her ears with a probe thing. So it was nothing to worry about in the end.

They did find out that she does have a lot of fluid in her ears causing hearing loss and has been referred to a ENT consultant.

So, it looks as though this is causing her delayed speech (she only has around 60 words at 28 months and never links any together).

If this is the case I will be so pissed off I didn't do this hearing test sooner because this is a problem that can be sorted out relatively easily with grommets. You would never know she has a problem with hearing, she can hear me call to her from the other room for example.

Don't beat yourself up about it. With ds we were refered because of his ear infections. I wouldn't have told with his hearing, assumed it was deliberately selective like dd2.

Only once his grommets came out did we notice things that we could have noticed before. One was this really sweet habit he seemed to have of patting our cheek when he was talking to us so we turned to face him. He stopped that with grommets and we assumed he'd grown out of it. His grommets came out last autumn and low and behold he started doing it again. We realised then that it was his way of getting us to face him otherwise he couldn't hear/lip read us. He had grommets in last Friday and he's stopped doing it immediately.

If it's any help he had grommets first at 20 months and his speech pretty much doubled in the next month, so it made a huge difference. Now, he misses a small amount of pronunciation you wouldn't know by his vocabulary. He caught up with his peers very quickly.

DeWe many thanks for your message. That is so sweet about the face patting!

I am so glad I had the test and am trying to feel positive about having a talking child very shortly

I still feel pretty gutted that I didnt had the test sooner though, as I have been worried about her speech for a good few months. Hey Ho.