Comparing two methods of preschool and kindergarten hearing screening.

Preschool and kindergarten hearing screening programs rely primarily on pure tone audiometry though its reliability with this population has been questioned. Some experts have suggested speech reception testing may be a better indicator of hearing in young children. This study compared screening results on 576 students tested with both pure tone and Verbal Auditory Screening for Children (VASC), a speech reception-based audiometer, and findings of 43 students who could not respond to pure tone testing but did complete VASC. Data indicate VASC was more effective in identifying possible hearing deficits in young children being tested in a screening environment.