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5. Instruct the patient that he/she will hear a loud tone (or beep) and
then some fainter tones (or beeps). The patient is to respond
every time a tone is heard. Responses can be verbal (“yes” or
“beep”), gross motor (raising a hand, dropping a block in a
bucket, waving a paper towel), or fine motor (raising a finger).
Very young children may respond better via a verbal response,
whereas seniors seem to perform better via a gross motor
response.
Children as young as four years of age may be tested with this
instrument.
1
Limitations in screening younger children are behav-
ioral, not physiological, and are due to the interactive nature of
the test. It is particularly important to reduce all sources of dis-
tracting auditory and visual stimuli. It is recommended that chil-
dren be seated in such a position that they face a blank wall.
Very young or uncooperative children should be referred to an
audiologist since special procedures are required with these
patients.
Examination of data by age groups indicates that the AudioScope
screening procedure shows good validity in predicting categories
of hearing acuity for subjects age 5 and older. For 3-year-old
subjects the error rates were significantly higher. While error rates
in the 4-year-old population were somewhat higher than the older
subjects, the error rates were not so high as to make AudioScope
screening unfeasible. Of those subjects in the 3-to-4-year-old age
group who showed errors on the screening pro-cedure, all but two
showed poor cooperation with both pure tone threshold
audiometry and the screening technique. In view
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1. Bienvenue, G., Michael, P., Chaffinch, J., Zeigler, J. — “The AudioScope™, A Clinical Tool for
Otoscopic and Audiometric Examination,”
Ear and Hearing,
Sept./Oct., 1985.
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