Can anyone tell me about hearing tests for children?

[coppertop]

Ds2 (5) has been referred for a hearing test. He has AS and so I'm hoping to be able to prepare him for it a little and try to work out in advance what difficulties (if any) he might have with the procedure.

I've had hearing tests as an adult but have no idea how they do them with a child of 5 or 6. It's also slightly more complicated as ds2 has difficulties with understanding instructions due to disordered language development.

Can anyone help?

DS had a hearing test at 3.3 to rule that out as a cause for his language delay. The main test involved putting men in a boat when the he heard the noise. Also the ear doc looked at his ears. Fortunately the ear doc had a helper - so eventually DS got the hang of the instructions (explaining things to a child with a receptive language age of 18 months was always going to be somewhat erm challenging). So the ear doc should be able to navigate round a bit of language disorder.

We had the test with the boxes with toys that light up when a sound is made - They get the child used to the fact that a toy will pop up when a noise is played then test reactions to quieter and quieter sounds. The child has to sit in the middle of the two boxes. However this was for a 2.6 year old so maybe tests are different for older children.

Dd is Deaf and has both tests described - doesn't matter about understanding, as they do conditioning tests first, a bit like a Pavlov's dogs practice, to get them used to what they expect. Dd cheats like a fiend most visits, but they are still able to get quite good results.

Is he OK with things being put in his ear? In addition to the hearing tests, they'll probably have a look inside, and also use an instrument to check pressure in the ear canal--it's painless and lasts seconds.

Thanks for all your help, everyone. This has all been very reassuring.

I'm hoping he'll be okay with things being put in his ears. He didn't seem to mind too much when the Paed looked in them (apparently ds2 has a lot of fluid in there).

I've been told that we should be getting a letter within a couple of weeks so hopefully we'll know a little more then.