A Communicative Disorders Assistant student completes a visual inspection on a patient during a routine hearing screening. Visual inspections include using a bright light to check the ear canal for structural defects, drainage, ear canal abnormalities, foreign objects or tubes and blockage of the ear canal (such as wax).
Can you hear me now?
It looks like that question, made popular by Verizon Wireless' cell phone advertisements, also applies to students in the Communicative Disorders Assistant program at Durham College as they spent the month of May conducting hearing screenings for children and adults.
Offering complimentary hearing screenings to staff and faculty in celebration of Better Speech and Hearing Month, the students screened more than 30 adults and close to 15 children. They all received positive comments about their work from students, parents and daycare staff, according to Gayle Faiers, an audiology professor with the college.
As part of the Communicative Disorders Assistant program, students typically begin to screen children for five weeks in the fall, and both children and adults for 10 weeks in the spring. Each session lasts one hour with students seeing between four and eight people during that time.
"My students have always reported the hearing screenings as a great experience since it gives them hands-on audiological experience with the pediatric population before they go out on their placements and after they return for their final term," said Faiers.
The screenings consist of a visual inspection, tympanometry and pure tone screening. The visual inspection involves looking into the ear canal with a bright light for structural defects, drainage, ear canal abnormalities, foreign objects or tubes and blockage of the ear canal (such as wax).
Tympanometry is the act of using a small amount of air pressure to painlessly move the eardrum and the bones behind the eardrum to test the function of the middle ear. This reveals problems like fluid behind the eardrum, a hole in the eardrum, wax blockage or a Eustachian tube problem.
Pure tone screening is performed in a sound booth while patients wear headphones. Sounds are presented at a soft level at three different pitches, which are considered important for understanding speech.