Ear Center of Greensboro: Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen
Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen (SBHHS)
By William House, DDS, M.D.1
The Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen allows a parent to determine if a newborn at least 2 weeks old may have hearing problems and allows the parent to seek early intervention so the baby has the greatest chances possible of normal hearing, language and speech development. The hope is that early detection of hearing loss and early intervention with hearing aids and cochlear implants will lead to improved hearing, speech and language function, and cognitive development for all of our children.
Noninvasive behavioral test
The Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen is noninvasive. Nothing touches your sleeping baby, except your voice. Click here to read instructions for parents to administer the Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen.
How to Administer the Sleeping Baby Hearing Screen
Please note that all hearing screening procedures, as well as all objective audiometric tests, are subject to false positive and false negative results. The sleeping baby hearing screen is a behavioral screen. The screen is not quantitative and is not presented as a substitute for more formal, objective audiometric tests such as auditory brainstem response testing (ABR), otoacoustic emission testing (OAE), and stapedial reflexes.
The overall goal is early identification of children with hearing loss and referral of those children to hearing specialists (otologists) and centers that specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of children with hearing loss. The hope is that early intervention will help to maximum growth and development.
To learn more about the Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen, please contact our office at 336-273-9932 and ask to speak to one of our Audiologists.
Acknowledgement: We are extremely grateful to Dr. William House, the father of modern cochlear implantation, for developing the Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen. It is an elegant, non-invasive screening method designed to help with the early detection and intervention of hearing loss in infants.
To order a Sleep Baby Home Hearing Screen Kit from Dr. House, please contact him at:
- William F. House, D.D.S., M.D.
- PO Box 510
- Aurora, OR 97002
Last revised February 3, 2010
Edited for the web by Dr. Kraus and presented with Dr. House's permission.