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Validation of play-conditioned audiometry in a clinical setting
1ENT Department, Head and Neck Surgery, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. RHO3505@RH.DK
Insights
Children as young as 16 months can participate in play-conditioned audiometry. This study shows that by age 3, most children can establish multiple hearing thresholds, aiding clinical assessments.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Audiology
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Hearing Science
Background:
- Accurate hearing assessment in young children is crucial for early intervention.
- Traditional audiometry methods are challenging in pediatric populations.
- Play-conditioned audiometry (PCA) offers a behavioral approach for assessing hearing in children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the minimum age at which children can participate in play-conditioned audiometry (PCA) in a clinical setting.
- To establish age-related benchmarks for successful threshold determination using PCA.
- To compare the efficacy of PCA with other pediatric audiometric techniques.
Main Methods:
- Conducted play-conditioned audiometry (PCA) on 294 children (182 boys, 112 girls) aged 16 months and older.
- Recorded age, gender, audiometric method, and number of successfully determined thresholds.
- Total of 449 examinations were analyzed, with some children tested multiple times.
- Results were compared with studies using visual reinforced audiometry (VRA) and condition-orientation reflex audiometry (COR).
Main Results:
- Over 35% of children aged 16 months and older could achieve at least one threshold via PCA.
- By age 2, approximately 50% of children could establish thresholds at three frequencies.
- By age 3, nearly 75% of children could establish six or more thresholds.
Conclusions:
- Play-conditioned audiometry (PCA) is feasible in clinical settings for children from 16 months of age.
- PCA provides valuable hearing threshold data in young children, complementing objective tests.
- VRA, COR, and PCA should be considered alongside objective measures like auditory brainstem response (ABR) and otoacoustic emissions (OAE) for comprehensive pediatric hearing evaluations.
Abstract:
The aim of the present study was to investigate at what ages children were able to participate in play-conditioned audiometry in a clinical setting. Data concerning age and gender for 294 children (182 boys and 112 girls) were continuously recorded with details regarding audiometric method and number of successfully determined thresholds. Some children were tested more than once, resulting in a total of 449 examinations. The results are compared with those of other studies in which visual reinforced audiometry (VRA), condition-orientation reflex audiometry (COR) and play-conditioned audiometry are used, and show that in a clinical setting it is possible to determine at least one threshold in more than 35% of children tested at ages above 16 months. At 2 years of age, about 50% of the children are able to establish thresholds at least at three frequencies and from 3 years of age nearly 75% of the children could establish 6 thresholds or more. It is concluded that VRA, COR and play-conditioned audiometry should be considered along with objective hearing tests like brainstem audiometry (ABR) or measurement of otoacoustic emissions (OAE) when assessing hearing in infants and small children.