![\"A](\"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/zdenek-machacek-FvTn9Dlv39A-unsplash-768x536.jpg\" "\\"Does")
<\/h2>\nIdentifying your child\u2019s hearing loss as soon as possible is the key to the development of their speech and language skills. But without their ability to participate in the hearing testing process, audiologists are working with limited information. One researcher thinks he identified the answer from an unlikely source \u2014 owl research.<\/p>\n
<\/h2>\nDr. Vinash Bala is a neuroscientist at the University of Oregon<\/a>. About 20 years ago he was working on a research project to see if he could condition barn owls to respond when they heard different sounds. While setting up his experiment, Bala noticed that every time there was an unexpected sound, like a door closing down the hall, the owls\u2019 eyes would dilate.<\/p>\n While Bala\u2019s study on owl conditioning may not have been working, he realized the potential of involuntary pupil response as a way to measure hearing. After figuring out that humans have the same involuntary pupil response to new sounds as his barn owls, Bala knew they were onto something. He explained, \u201cWhat I realized was that we could also use this in people who are unable to respond for one reason or another. And the biggest such group of people is infants, because babies can\u2019t tell us what they\u2019re thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n Pediatric audiologist and partner on Bala\u2019s new project, Dr. Kristy Knight explains, \u201cOne of the things that we really struggle [with] young children is knowing, can they recognize the difference between sounds like \u2018else\u2019 versus \u2018elf\u2019, for example? Our regular hearing tests don\u2019t tell us that. We have to wait till the child has some amount of language development to really measure that clinically.\u201d<\/p>\n Audiologic screenings for young children<\/a> currently include:<\/p>\n A pupil response-focused hearing test<\/a> would provide audiologists with another tool.<\/p>\n According to Bala, \u201cWhat it involves essentially is putting a baby in his mother\u2019s lap or in a high chair playing sounds\u2026 and at the end of 15 minutes, the computer just comes that gives you up yes or no answer.\u201d<\/p>\n Bala recently received a small grant from the National Institute of Health to develop this new test. He expects to produce a prototype this fall.<\/p>\n To learn more about the importance of identifying hearing loss quickly in young children or to schedule an appointment with a hearing professional<\/a>, contact San Francisco Audiology today.<\/p>\n Identifying your child\u2019s hearing loss as soon as possible is the key to the development of their speech and language skills. But without their ability to participate in the hearing testing process, audiologists are working with limited information. One researcher thinks he identified the answer from an unlikely source \u2014 owl research. New Use of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"(415) 362-2901 | But without their ability to participate in the hearing testing process, audiologists are working with limited information.","_seopress_robots_index":"","schema":"","fname":"","lname":"","position":"","credentials":"","placeID":"","no_match":false,"name":"","company":"","review":"","address":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","lat":"","lng":"","phone1":"","phone2":"","fax":"","mon1":"","mon2":"","tue1":"","tue2":"","wed1":"","wed2":"","thu1":"","thu2":"","fri1":"","fri2":"","sat1":"","sat2":"","sun1":"","sun2":"","hours-note":"","locid":"","rating":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5123,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119\/revisions\/5123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Current Pediatric Hearing Testing<\/h2>\n
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Learn More About Hearing Loss<\/h3>\n
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