Screening Test for Detection of Hearing Impairment in 3-year-old Children

Abstract

Since October 1990, screening tests for detecting hearing impairment in 3-year-old children has begun. A comparative study on the hearing impairment of 3-year-old children was undertaken in oder to investigate similarities and differences obtained by test results with play audiometry, whispered voice test, etc. The results were as follows:
(1) Three-year-old children could be screened for hearing loss equally as well with the whispered voice test as with pure tone play audiometry.
(2) The behavior observation audiometry screening test could not be used to find hearing impairment of 3-year-old children. The whispered voice test was useful for detecting moderate hearing impairment in both ears.
(3) The words of the whispered voice test by Nakayama were effective for finding low frequency hearing loss.
(4) It was difficult to discover unilateral hearing loss using the whispered voice test.