[Subjective audiometric procedures in children].

BACKGROUND

Before the era of objective audiometric procedures, the primary aim of subjective audiometric procedures was determination of the hearing threshold, e.g. to assess hearing aid indications. Nowadays, the results of objective audiometric procedures play a major role in hearing threshold determination in children. Contrastingly, subjective audiometric procedures are also employed in order to verify, or acquire an objective picture of, social hearing abnormalities evident from the children's anamneses.

METHODS

A selective literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Scopus databases and current textbooks were also considered.

RESULTS

Subjective audiometric procedures for children employ both nonlinguistic and linguistic stimuli. Procedures can differ in many ways and it can be differentiated between, for example, observational or behavioural audiometry and procedures in which the children are explicitly instructed on how to react to signals.

DISCUSSION

Several subjective audiometric procedures have been developed to examine the hearing and listening skills of children. Some of these tests differ significantly in terms of their intended application, test construction and test quality criteria. Only a detailed understanding of the particular subjective audiometric procedure being applied enables formulation of the"correct" questions; which, providing the child is willing to cooperate, can also be specifically answered using the test.