Hearing Screening

Hearing Screening Requirements and Guidelines

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) revised the guidelines for screening hearing in 2015 and published "Hearing Screening Requirements and Guidelines" in 2015. This document contains information that should help answer any questions you may have about hearing screening in the schools.

ASHA provides information on Childhood Hearing Screening in the Practice Portal under Professional Issues. ASHA's School-Age Hearing Screening link

ASHA's Pure Tone Screening Procedure • Condition the child to respond appropriately using suprathreshold (e.g., 40 dB HL) stimuli prior to initiation of screening. Administer a minimum of two conditioning trials to ensure that the child understands the task.

  • Play audiometry may be more appropriate for children ages 2–4 years (Harlor & Bower, 2009). This type of pure tone screening requires screeners who are specially trained in conditioned play audiometry techniques.

  • Present pure tones (typically presented at 1000, 2000, 4000 Hz in each ear at 20 dB HL) for each ear

  • Tympanometry for each ear - screening norms

  • Note: Some screening programs may choose to add 500 Hz at 25 dB HL, tympanometry is recommended rather than testing at 500 Hz.

  • Note: Some screening programs for older students may choose to add 6000 Hz at 20 dB HL in order to identify possible high-frequency hearing loss consistent with damage from noise exposure

  • Limit testing to no more than four presentations per frequency to reduce false positive responses (American Academy of Audiology [AAA], 2011)

  • If the child does not respond at one or more frequencies, re-instruct, reposition earphones, and rescreen within the same screening period.

  • Note: For children who fail initial pure tone screening, otoscopic or visual inspection may be completed by trained personnel to inform decisions related to follow-up recommendations. The goal of inspection is to determine the presence or absence of impacted cerumen, drainage, foreign bodies, infection, or structural abnormalities of the pinna, canal, or tympanic membrane. Follow-up may include referral to a health care provider for evaluation of ear canal obstruction and/or middle ear dysfunction.

ASHA's Pure Tone Screening Results Pass—response appropriate to all presentation stimuli at screening levels in both ears Fail—lack of response to any test frequency at screening levels in either ear Could Not Screen—lack of cooperation, inability to be conditioned to the response task, etc

FORMS

Hearing Screening Survey (Excel file for entering screening results)