Sound booth testing

Livi had her first test in the sound booth today. We were told not to be disappointed if we didn't get an audiogram on the first attempt because usually on the first couple of times the child is just learning how to be conditioned. Remember back to Pavlov's dogs in psychology... Well that's classical conditioning, the same type of learned response they use to get babies to respond on hearing tests.

Most people want to know how they test a 7 month old. Well, during testing Olivia sat in a high chair; when sounds were presented from the loud speaker she turned and was rewarded with toys lighting up and dancing. After using the loud speaker, her audiologist then presented the sounds via her ear mold.

Her middle ear was checked prior to testing to make sure she didn't have fluid in the middle ear space. When I do hearing screenings at school, if a child fails a screen the most of the time it's due to a flat tempanogram, being that there is fluid behind the ear drum.  Flat tempanograms can be pretty common during the winter season when colds, allergies and ear infections are prevalent.  Sure enough, Olivia's left ear showed a flat line.. indicating fluid behind her ear drum. This is most likely from the pesky cold that has lingered. Since she hasn't had fever, signs of infection or a bulgy ear drum it will most likely resolve without antibiotics.

We checked on the genetics testing that was sent off from her newborn Guthrie card and found that Olivia tested negative for CMV. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a virus that looks like the common cold...however if contracted during pregnancy it can cause a wide range of developmental problems including hearing loss. Josh and I both thought that it was highly unlikely CMV was the cause, because our sweet girl seems to be meeting all her milestones appropriately. However, we were thankful to mark that one off the list. We both want an answer and want  to know a reason for her hearing loss but we know that we may never know. We are still waiting to find out if she has Connexin 26, which is a recessive gene that causes only hearing loss.

So back to her testing... She did great! That little bug turned her head and was such a good listener. We were able to get a good audiogram. Her new audiogram showed a moderate loss in both ears. Of course I was hoping we would get in there and her hearing would have improved to a mild loss, but I'm thankful it's not severe or profound. Her audiologist explained the discrepancy between her last ABR and today's sound booth test is related to the fact that the ABR speculates the loss and that behavioral testing is much more accurate.

Today we took new ear mold impressions (new pink sparkles of course) and her hearing aids were re-programmed. Josh and I both noticed a big difference in the sound volume- they are so much louder!

Mommy and Olivia in the sound booth

Leaving the hospital