BAER and EOAE Hearing Tests

Your child is scheduled to have a Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) test and an Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (EOAE) test under natural sleep. These tests allow us to find out how your baby hears when they are too young to respond to sounds behaviorally in a sound booth. These two tests are usually done together in our clinic and need to be completed before the age of 6 months.

Because the measurements we are taking are very sensitive to noise and movement, your child needs to be asleep (napping) during the tests.

A parent or legal guardian with medical decision-making rights must come with the child having the test or be immediately available by phone to give verbal consent.

The tests will take about 3 hours. The audiologist will share the results of the tests and any recommendations with you on the day of the test.

After the skin is gently cleaned, 4 sensors are placed behind the ears and on the forehead. A soft earphone is placed in the ear canal, and different levels of click sounds and tones are presented. After your child has fallen asleep, the responses to these special sounds are recorded and stored in a computer. We find out if responses are in the normal hearing range and, if not, we find the quietest level your child’s ears respond to.

Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are sounds created by the inner ear, specifically the outer hair cells of the cochlea. The presence of OAEs indicates that the outer hair cells are healthy, which is consistent with normal to near-normal hearing. To complete the test, a small earphone is placed in the ear canal, a soft sound is presented, and the emissions are recorded (if present).

• If your baby did not pass their newborn hearing screening or has risk factors for hearing loss, they need the diagnostic BAER and EOAE tests.
• The BAER and EOAEs tests can be completed under natural sleep for young infants (less than 6 months old). Older infants and children would likely need the test completed under general anesthesia.
• If your child has a hearing loss, the sooner it is diagnosed and treated, the better outcomes they will have.

If your child is sick on the day of the test, call 206-987-5173.