Comparative Study of the Usefulness of Play-conditioned Audiometry with Wooden Rings and Electronic Video Peep Show Audiometric Testing of Children at the Age of Two Years

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of new technology in play-conditioned audiometry. The aim was to evaluate whether reinforcement equipment consisting of an electronic video peep show is more advantageous than conventional techniques using coloured wooden rings resulting in a lowering of the age for application of audiometry in children. Thirty-one healthy two-year-old children (18 boys and 13 girls) were tested at the standard audiometric frequencies from 125 to 8000 Hz using both techniques. Fifteen were tested using the wooden ring methods as the first test, and 16 were examined starting with the video peep show. A median of three thresholds (range 0-11 thresholds) was measured using the conventional technique compared to zero thresholds (range 0-11) with the video peep show. Twenty-seven of the tested children were able to establish reliable thresholds. The study did not demonstrate any advantage for determining thresholds using video peep show in comparison with the traditional wooden ring method in tested group of children at two years of age.