Screening Audiometry for Young Children

Screening audiometry for school-age children was administered to the young children under school-age, and the following four points were discussed: adequacy of the screening level of 20dB (JIS-1956), possibility of performance of screening test for the young children, the time of screening for each, and the number of normal hearing children who did not pass the screening test. Mean threshold hearing at 1, 000 and 4, 000Hz of 71 normal hearing children of three, four and five years of age was under 20dB which was similar to those of school-age children and adults. Screening test performed with the hearing level of 20dB at 1, 000 and 4, 000Hz was administered to 176 children from three to five years of age. Ninety-three percent in three-year-old, 97% in four-year-old and 99% in five-year-old children could tolerate the test. Percentage of normal hearing children who did not pass the screening test was 30% in three-year-old and 19% in five-year-old children, and these showed significant difference from those in the school-age children. Almost all of three and four-year-old children could finish the test for less than two minutes. We inferred from these results that the screening audiometry for school-age children could be administered to the young children from three to five years of age.