Clinic - Week #2

This week in clinic I saw a six year old, female who was brought in by her mother. The client had failed her kindergarten screening due to negative middle ear pressure. Over the past year she had been to the doctor twice and still had negative ear pressure for some unknown reason. The mother reported some family history of hearing loss in the grandmother and grandmothers' sister. Both had hearing loss in their 50's. The mother reported that the client did well in one-on-one situations but was now worried as she was starting school. The mother was told before the client has a slight hearing loss, but wanted a second opinion and full test battery before she made any decision on amplification.

Immittance revealed negative middle ear pressure bilaterally. Puretone testing results showed a mild,"cookie bite" hearing loss with a slight conductive component. SRT scores were 100% in the right ear and 88% in the left ear when presented at 70 dB. The mother was told to return to her doctor for medical clearance and to rule out any middle ear pathologies. She was given brochures and handouts on amplification and told that amplification could help. We also told the mother if she would like to return we would be happy to talk with her about the fitting and amplification choices for her daughter. I enjoy working with this age group and I hope that we see this family back in our clinic!

This article I found is a tool for assessing parents perception of their child's hearing loss. It was given to parents of varying degrees of hearing loss. It was also used to assess speech in cochlear implant children. I thought this was an interesting article that pertained to children. Hope you like it :)

http://aja.asha.org/cgi/reprint/11/2/72?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=children+&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

Purdy, S., Farrington, D., Moran, C., Chard, L., & Hodgson, S. (2002) A parental questionnaire to evaluate children's auditory behavior in everyday life (ABEL), American Journal of Audiology, 11, 72 - 82.