Conducting a proper hearing test and client evaluation

The purpose of an introductory hearing health interview is to determine how the client is experiencing their hearing loss, and to help reveal its cause. This step typically includes talking about the client’s medical history and what specific hearing problems the client has in which situations.

Questions to assess the hearing loss and the implications this has on the patient's daily life:

• Does anyone in your family have a confirmed hearing loss?
• Have you had any illnesses or injuries that might have affected your hearing?
• Have you taken any medications that might have affected your hearing?
• Have you been exposed to loud noises in your job or leisure activities?
• In what types of situations do you find you are experiencing the greatest difficulty with your hearing
• What do you do when you cannot hear? - how does that make you feel?

The purpose of the examination step is to determine whether the hearing difficulty is caused by obstruction or damage to the ear canal or eardrum. The audiologist will look into the ear using a magnifying instrument called an otoscope to painlessly inspect the outer ear. If an obstruction or damage is found, the audiologist can begin planning an appropriate remedy. It is important to keep the client well informed about the examination at all times. Mind that in many cases this is the first time they have their hearing tested.

The purpose of the testing step is to determine the specifics of the hearing loss. For instance, that might include testing how well specific tones are heard at different pitches and intensity level, or how well the client can interpret speech with different levels of background noise.

A typical hearing test might also include:

• Immittance middle-ear evaluation to measure how the eardrum and hearing react to varying degrees of air pressure.
• Audiometric pure tone evaluation to measure hearing at different frequencies.
• Speech evaluation to measure how well the client hears and understand ordinary conversation at different volumes.