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Audiology

Audiology is the diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss and balance problems. The first two years of life are the most critical for learning speech and language, and hearing loss that is not noticed can hurt your child's ability to learn these important skills. Helping children with hearing loss early in life can help them communicate for the rest of their lives.

We are experts in identifying hearing and speech problems in babies and young children, as well as teens and young adults. Our Audiology program provides a full range of hearing tests, and we offer complete rehabilitation services.

Our Family Conversations program is unique to Seattle Children's. The program focuses on the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing children from birth through age 3. Our specialists are trained in working with families of children who are young. They meet with your family each week in your home.

Children's advocacy program promotes health and safety for all children. We work with the Washington State Department of Health to support the Early Hearing Loss Detection, Diagnosis and Intervention (EHDDI) program.

Meet the Audiology care team.

Services we offer

• Behavior Hearing Assessments

  Behavior hearing assessments measure how your child behaves in response to speech and other sounds. We offer behavioral hearing assessments for young people from 6 months to 21 years old. The assessments are tailored to your child's age. During these tests, we use speakers to play speech and sounds to your child at varying levels. With younger children, we train your child to look toward the source of sound, and we observe their responses as we play the sounds. With older children and young adults, we ask patients to repeat the word or make a signal if they hear the speech or sounds.

• Physiologic Hearing Assessments

  Physiologic hearing assessments measure your child's physical response to quiet sounds. Newborn hearing screening tests are physiologic hearing assessments. We perform hearing screening tests for babies age 6 months and younger. We also use physiologic hearing assessments as a way to diagnose hearing disorders in children at any age.

• Hearing aid evaluation and fitting

  Because our clinic only serves children, teens and young adults, we understand growing bodies. Our team is experienced in helping you and your child find the hearing aid that works best. We make the fitting of your child's hearing aids as comfortable and precise as possible.

• FM system evaluation and fitting

  FM systems send sounds to the ears to help your child hear better, especially in noisy situations. They work by having a person, such as a parent or teacher, speak into a microphone. A transmitter sends the sounds from the microphone to a receiver, which may be built into your child's hearing aid or worn around the neck. Your child can use the system at school, at home or in public places. We can help you decide if an FM system is right for your child. We also assist in finding and fitting systems to best meet your child's needs.

• Cochlear implants

  Cochlear implants are small, electronic devices that can help provide deaf or hard-of-hearing children with a sense of sound. The implants have two parts: an external piece that sits behind your child's ear and an internal piece that is placed in your child's ear during surgery. Cochlear implants work by skipping damaged parts of your child's ear and using electronic signals made by the implant to stimulate the hearing nerve (auditory nerve).

• Aural rehabilitation (PDF)

  Aural rehabilitation helps children with hearing problems improve their ability to hear and express themselves. At Children's, we offer many kinds of aural rehabilitation services.

• School visits and in-service training

  If your child has a cochlear implant or is working with an FM system at school, we can visit the school and provide training onsite for school staff.

• Family Conversations

  Family Conversations is an early intervention program based at Children's that addresses the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing children from birth through age 3. Our specialists are trained in working with families of children who are young. They meet with your family each week in your home. We also organize regional playgroups for children, and provide group meetings for parents to help you learn about issues in raising a child who is deaf or hard-of-hearing.

• Newborn hearing screening at Evergreen Hospital

  Our team provides hearing screening tests for babies born at Evergreen Hospital.

Seattle Children's provides health care for the special needs of children regardless of race, sex, creed, ethnicity or disability. Financial assistance for medically necessary services is based on family income and hospital resources and is provided to children under age 21 whose primary residence is Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.