Hearing Test Results - Minor/Moderate hearing loss?

[Mumtoprem]

I have a daughter aged 4.5 years who was born at 25 weeks. Daughter failed the new born hearing test several times while in hospital. She then had an ABR test when she about 6 months which said the following:
Left ear: Clicks

Hi,
not sure about your results - if you haven't already I would suggest looking at the NDCS website - there is a free helpline you can phone I think and parents forum for messages. My daughter has moderate hearing loss due to glue ear and that is between about 40 and 50 decibels which I think means something has to be 40 decibels for her to hear it. She wears cute little pink hearing aids and has chosen blue sparkly ear moulds.

In a previous life pre-dc I worked as an audiology technician and those scores tell you how much louder your dd needs a sound to be for her to hear it in the same way as someone with perfect hearing. Normal hearing is anything between 0-20.

With your dd's results the specialists will try and find a cause, whether it is a conductive loss or a sensori neural one. Along with the headphone test, she may well have some other tests such as a tympanogram, and bone conduction and possibly a check for auditory reflexes.

Was your daughter on antibiotics when she was first born? Sometimes gentimicin can affect hearing but drs know of the link and are very careful about dosages

Please try not to worry - what happens next depends entirely on the cause of the hearing loss.

I wear a hearing aid in my left ear - my audiogram that side is
250hz 40

500hz 30
1Khz 30
2Khz 20
4Khz10
8Khz 10

I have a hearing aid simply because I miss the start of some words and think someone is saying something else

This might help you work out what sounds your dd hears without any difficulty and which cause her most problems. When talking to her, choosing words with the sounds she hears more easily will make life much easier at least until she has some more investigations

Thanks for the replies. The latest hearing report has arrived which states:

500Hz

Sorry to hear you are worried OP. My ds had similar results but it was glue ear so I can't help much.

Please do look at the NDCS website - they have a fantastic pdf on Understanding Your Child's Hearing Test Results which is incredibly helpful.

Why all the waiting for more tests? Has anyone explained this?

It helps enormously with ds to get his attention and face him when speaking. Also minimise background noise as much as possible (again loads of good advice on NDCS website) When reading stories I was advised to sit opposite him and lay the book sideways between us.

Good luck with it all.

Thanks for the reply. I don't think it is glue ear - I have just left a message at audiology to speak to them further about the test. DD has had tests at 2 different clinics so checking whether we should go back to the other clinic with more specialised tests don't want to wait another few months to be told that.

I assume the waiting is because they have no available appointments - however think this should be prioritised as having an effect on DD's education.

Have been in touch with NDCS.

Sorry I wasn't suggesting it is glue ear - if the tympanometry is showing normal movement of the ear drum then it's almost certainly not.

The points about getting them to look at you should still be helpful though.

Ds sees SALT, audiology, a Teacher for the Deaf and ENT. One thing I've noticed is that NHS comms can take ages to get around so a good tip is to always ask anyone who does a hearing test to print off the results so you have your own copy and can wave it at the next health professional you see

It might also be worth asking about getting hearing aids now while they decide on a longer term plan.

You need the following

1. Proper audiology advice and soon. If you don't get this on the nhs then I would suggest talking to chear in London / Cambridge. They are specialists in paediatric audiology.
2. As you have a diagnosed hearing loss, you need a teacher of the deaf. You can self refer to you local council sensory support
3. You need to get on top of what you want. I can't believe you've got a statement without the hearing being sorted. At those abr levels, it is a mild loss, that everything else being equal can be managed with aids. But you need to start understanding what the cause is.
4. At school, microphones, speakers and personal radio aids will all work together with hearing aids to get you access to the classroom, but background noise needs to be properly managed.

Unfortunately, it's up to you to push through audiology, ask questions and get the replies you understand. There is support out there but you need to push for it. I would also advise the bigger hospitals for decent, consistent audiology.

Where are you in the UK ?

Just read your second post. The 60db levels puts more into moderate levels and her hearing seems to be declining. At 60db most speech at normal levels will not be detectable.

Obviously it may be different in your case but my son (20) has bilateral 40-50% loss in both ears and has never had any problems with speech , other than being a bit slow to start (2.4) . He also passed the distraction test when he was a baby and his hearing loss was picked up by a routine school nurse check at 6 years old. We were completely unaware ,but apparently he had learnt to lip read . He had aids ( in the ear ones) but stopped wearing them in his early teens. Educationally he is a bit of a ' high achiever ' so partial deafness has not impacted on him at all . Good luck with getting to the bottom of it . We never found out what caused our sons despite having numerous tests including an MRI and seeing a geneticist .

I have a 60dcB loss and I can hear normal speech! I lipread to supplement my hearing, but don't wear hearing aids. Apparently I hear what most normal hearing people hear underwater, but for the most part, people don't notice I am hearing impaired. My speech properly caught up by the time I was 8 or so, it was previously impaired by my lack of hearing, but gradually became more 'normal'. I didn't have therapy.

I'm not sure on how the system works now, but I would be pushing for a referral to the hearing aid clinic. I found my teacher for the deaf about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I learned to lipread instinctively - do try to look at your daughter, and encourage her to look at you when speaking to her.

This must be very worrying, but I can honestly say my hearing impairment has not had any negative effects on me, and hearing aids are so much better these days, I'm sure your daughter will come on in leaps and bounds once she is hearing more.

Thanks everyone. Audiology have now called me back and admitted she should never have been discharged from the hearing clinic as the ABR results are reliable which showed she had a minor hearing loss back in 2008. She has been seen by 2 NHS authorities and each seem to be blaming the other for the mistake. She is now getting a referral to a specialist hearing clinic for more tests and should be seen within 6 weeks.

hatchypom - thanks for the advice. Everyone assumed that because she had passed the hearing test (distraction test) at 1 year old that her speech and language issues were not down to hearing. It is only as she has got older that the issues have become more obvious. We applied for a statement and got it first time for speech and lang issues and delay in fine motor skills. We are based in West London.

I am so sorry to hear of your struggle. I am a clinical scientist in audiology working in the NHS and I have my own private audiology services. Based on your initial results you shouldn't have been discharged. None of the test results If < are conclusive that only means equal or less than the level. No one should be discharging on distraction testing anymore. No one should really be assessing using distraction testing.

The main thing now is to ensure that you have comprehensive test results using Visual Reinforcement audiometry if aged 6 month-2.5 yrs or performance testing if older. You should get ear specific information at least for low, mid and high pitch sounds to ensure accurate hearing aid setup if warranted and also bone conduction testing to be clear of the underlying hearing to determine that it is a sensorineural ( permanent ) hearing difficulty or due to congestion. From what I gather if the tympanometry showed normal traces then there was no evidence of congestion thus adding weight to the possibility of a more permanent difficulty.

I hope this gets resolved for you.

Acousis - thanks for the reply. All the results are shown as eg

Pure tone testing is reliable providing you have a competent clinician performing the assessment, sorry that sounds lame but it is dependent on the clinician ensuring they condition or instruct the child appropriately and perform the test well.

With the original test results a level is recorded as less than or equal to if the levels tested below are either inconclusive or complete testing was not finished, it can sometimes be difficult to get gold standard testing in the initial electrophysiology and so it may well be that the hearing was deemed to be no worse than those recorded levels.

I'm sorry you have had a difficult experience and I hope things improve for you. Don't be afraid to question or ask anything at your appointments as all clinicians should work with you as a family on any decision making processes or management plans for your child. You are the ones who are involved in the day to day care and management and so you need to feel empowered and in control of your child's management so do ask questions and make sure you understand everything.

Best wishes

The audiologist today was really good but the news was less so! My daughter has a minor hearing loss in the lower frequencies and a moderate hearing loss in the higher frequencies in both ears. Did OAE test (no clear response), pure tone test, speech discrimination test, bone conduction test and headphone test. Had impressions for moulds and hearing aids will be fitted within 2 weeks. Referred to Teacher of the Deaf and for a medical to look at why she has hearing loss.

Glad you're getting somewhere! If you have to have a hearing loss, that's the way round to have it as it's much more common and thus hearing aids are designed to assist and audiologists know what to do.

Look up the "speech banana" to see which sounds she will have most trouble with. I hope your TotD is good as they seem to vary from wonderful to chocolate teapot. They may recommend a radio aid for school which will amplify the teacher but not all the background noise - if they don't mention it, ask. Though apart from aids the best help will be gaining assertiveness to ask people to repeat, not stand with light behind them, not cover their mouths or mumble, etc. Hard when you're only 4 to stand up for yourself!
(I was a 27wk prem baby, moderate to severe hearing loss. If I'd got my current NHS aids as a young child I'd probably have very few problems)

Really glad all went well. Sounds like you have the right support now. I know it's not what you want to hear but mild to moderate loss is very aidable and with the support from ToD, SALT etc age will do well. Def ask about FM system for her at school as that will help improve the signal to noise in class setting. The most important thing is that you feel you understand everything and are motivated to move forward because you are the ones as her family who will need to be there everyday supporting her and it sounds like you are going to do a great job:).

Keep positive as she will do very well best wishes.