Audiologists in Wheaton can provide diagnostic hearing testing for newborn babies after their first hearing screening. Sometimes the initial screening is inconclusive, and the doctors cannot confirm that the baby’s hearing is satisfactory. Sometimes, doctors suspect the newborn’s hearing is inadequate but cannot verify this because doing so is difficult with such young babies. Doctors cannot rely on their responsiveness to soft noises, as they do with children and older patients during hearing testing. Instead, they use specialized equipment to measure hearing. Even this is not always effective because the baby may become fussy and irritable.
The little one may need more than one screening before the medical staff is sure whether the child’s hearing has developed properly. The first screening should be conducted before the child reaches one month of age. Additional screenings generally are completed before three months of age. Physicians know that the sooner problems with hearing are detected, the better the problem can be managed or, sometimes, resolved.
By the time a baby nears the age of three months, parents tend to have some idea of whether the child can hear well or not. A lack of responsiveness to certain sounds, perhaps to relatively quiet sounds, becomes evident. Even if the newborn passed the initial screening, hearing problems could develop later for various reasons. An ear infection or a serious illness can sometimes lead to hearing loss.
Audiologists in Wheaton ask parents to watch for signs of sufficient hearing levels. One of those signs is the baby becoming quiet when someone speaks, or familiar sounds occur as if to listen. Another is indicating a startled reaction to unexpected noises. By the time a little one reaches the age of six months, the child should be turning to look when hearing sounds, showing specific reactions to certain familiar noises, and making language-like sounds of their own. To schedule a hearing screening for a very young child, parents may contact a Hearing Specialist of DuPage and explain why they want the testing done at this time.
