Extended high frequency audiometry in pre-school children.

Abstract

Since adequate and reliable earphones are now available and standards have been established, clinical audiometry can be performed at extended high frequencies (EHFs). In the present study, 47 preschool children (aged 4-7 years) were examined with EHFs (8-16 kHz) using the new Sennheiser HDA 200 earphone. The hearing thresholds correspond to those of other studies; the median thresholds and range increase with increasing frequency. The medians and quartiles were: 10 kHz: 25 (5-35) dB(SPL), 11.2 kHz: 35 (20-40) dB(SPL), 14 kHz 40 (30-50) dB(SPL) and 16 kHz: 50 (40-60) dB(SPL). The hearing thresholds could be more reliably determined in the older children (> 5 years) and were 5 dB better than in the younger ones (< 5 years). Thresholds in the 10-12.5 kHz range correspond to those of adults but are more sensitive by 5-12 dB in the 14-16 kHz range.