Audiologic evaluation in infancy and childhood.

The identification and measurement of hearing loss in infants and young children is necessary to implement appropriate medical treatment, to diagnose other conditions that may have hearing loss as an associated sign, and to implement habilitative measures that should prevent the delay of speech and language acquisition, psychosocial developmental problems and educational handicaps. Testing hearing in the 0 to 5-year-old age group is difficult but not impossible. Technological advances of the past 15 years have made reliable hearing test results rather common even with very young infants. The pediatrician is the first line of defense against the potentially serious effects of hearing loss. While the actual testing that can be done in the pediatrician's office is quite limited with the very young age group, suspicion of hearing loss is most frequently created through history and observational data. When suspicion exists, diagnostic facilities are available that can provide the instrumentation and techniques to determine the patient's auditory status.