Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen Instructions for Physicians

Physician Instructions for the Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen (SBHHS)

Click here for a copy of the "Sleeping Baby Home Hearing Screen Score Sheet"

Instructions for Physicians (Pediatricians and Otologists)

At the appointment, when the office nurse explains the SBHHS to the parents, open the kit and start by showing the 2 minute Can My Baby Hear DVD which shows that mother's voice at conversational level will briefly arouse the baby from a light sleep. A portable DVD player or a computer that can play the DVD will be needed.

Be sure to read the step-by-step instructions for parents

Click here to view the Can My Baby Hear video (coming soon)

Explain that the basis of the SBHHS is that during the last 4 months of pregnancy normal hearing infants sleeping in the womb, when awakened by mother's voice, will move or kick. For a year after birth, when a lightly sleeping baby hears mother's voice, this reflex strongly persists as shown by the DVD.

The image to the right is the Radio Shack Digital Sound Level Meter, Model 33-2055 | Catalog # 33-2055. The meter is turned on and indicating 54 dB SPL with the range dial set at 60 dB.

  1. Take out the Radio Shack Digital Sound Level Meter from the kit and ask the mother to hold the meter in her right hand. Point out the word "RANGE" with a pointer to the word OFF on a round disk that is called the "RANGE DIAL".
  2. Ask the mother to use her thumb to turn the Range Dial clockwise and note a series of 7 numbers from 120 down to 60 that will appear. These are sound pressure level numbers in decibels (abbreviated "dB SPL"), that are the intensity (loudness) units of Sound Pressure.
  3. Below the edge of the window, at the bottom of the meter, on the left side is the number -10, at the center 0, and on the right +10. With the range dial set to 60, ask the mother to count in a conversational level voice. Watch the dots go from -10 past 0 and toward +10. This is the 20 dB sound intensity range of speech at 60 dB (50 is -10 db, O is 60 dB, and +10 dB is 70 dB) that equals the 20 dB range of conversational speech.
  4. On this screen, "Response" is labeled "Slow" and "Weighting" dB labeled "C" for speech. (Weighting level "A" is for music.) Leave these at these settings.You now know how to use the digital Sound Level Meter to measure the intensity of conversational voice sounds.
  5. Turn the Sound Level Meter dial to "off" and replace it in the SBHHS kit. Check out the kit to the parents to take home for 2 weeks.

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.