Audiological Assessment

The ASU Hearing Clinic is a center of excellence specializing in comprehensive diagnostic evaluations for adults and the assessment of children, including infants. A thorough diagnostic audiological evaluation is the first step if you suspect a hearing problem and essential before commencing habilitation. A comprehensive audiological evaluation at the ASU Hearing Clinic routinely includes otoscopy, air and bone conduction pure tone audiometry, full immittance testing to determine middle ear status, otoacoustic emissions (OAE), and thorough speech recognition measures, including speech-in-noise testing and/or screening for central involvement, to evaluate the presence, extent and nature of hearing loss.

Evaluation of hearing can take place at any age. Special testing techniques and tests are used to assess the hearing ability in a very young child. When you come for a hearing test at the ASU Hearing clinic, you may expect your appointment to last about one to two hours. Following the testing, your audiologist will present the results of the testing and answer any questions you may have. The audiologist will also give you recommendations based on the evaluation. If the audiologist recommends hearing aids or other assistive device, he/she will recommend that you return for a hearing aid evaluation appointment.

Immittance Audiometry

Acoustic immittance measures provide diagnostic information regarding middle ear functioning and the integrity of the acoustic reflex pathway. Advanced measures such as Multifrequency tympanometry and absorbance/reflectance measures are performed as necessary to increase the diagnostic information regarding the status of the middle ear.

Otoacoustic Emmissions

Measurements of otoacoustic emissions assess the function of the outer hair cells in the cochlea and are a key test in differentiating between cochlear and purely retrocochlear disorder. This objective test can help to determine if normal cochlear function exists even in difficult-to-test populations.

Pediatric Evaluations

Proper evaluation by a qualified pediatric audiologist specializing in pediatric assessment is essential for a young child. No child is too young to have a hearing test and early detection of hearing loss is very important to the child's speech and language development. At the ASU Hearing Clinic, specialized objective and behavioral test protocols are available for infants and young children and our pediatric test suite is fully equipped to meet the needs of children of all ages. Two audiologists (an ASU clinical professor and doctoral student clinician) are used to increase test reliability and objectivity. Behavioral test methods include visual reinforcement audiometry, conditioned play audiometry, computer conditioned play audiometry and conventional audiometry techniques. Objective test methods include otoacoustic emissions, auditory steady state response, auditory brainstem response audiometry and immittance audiometry.

Scheduling

The speech and hearing clinics are located on ASU's Tempe campus. To schedule an appointment, please contact the ASU Speech and Hearing Clinic.

More Information

Here are some links to information from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Hearing