Interactive Tools
Hands-on aids for the battery: choose a developmental age and see the recommended tests, and read a worked audiogram.
Test battery by age
Drag the slider to a child’s developmental age. The tool shows the behavioural test of choice, the right middle-ear probe tone, and the objective tests that lead or back up at that age — a quick rehearsal of the decision you make at the start of every paediatric appointment.
Birth6 m2.5 y5 y6 y
Visual reinforcement audiometry (6 months–2.5 years)
- Behavioural test
- Visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA)
- Middle ear
- 226 Hz tympanometry
- Objective tests
- ABR / ASSR if VRA is incomplete or discrepant
Use insert earphones for ear-specific thresholds; sound field reflects only the better ear.
The battery at a glance
| Stage | Behavioural | Middle ear |
|---|---|---|
| Young infant (0–6 months) | Behavioural observation only (gross, non-ear-specific) | 1000 Hz tympanometry (226 Hz unreliable in this age group) |
| Visual reinforcement audiometry (6 months–2.5 years) | Visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) | 226 Hz tympanometry |
| Conditioned-play audiometry (2.5–5 years) | Conditioned-play audiometry (CPA) | 226 Hz tympanometry |
| Conventional audiometry (5 years and older) | Conventional pure-tone audiometry (button press) | 226 Hz tympanometry |
A worked audiogram
A typical bilateral sloping sensorineural configuration — better in the low frequencies, worse in the high — the pattern that most affects access to the high-frequency consonants that carry speech intelligibility.
O Right earX Left ear