The aim of the newborn hearing screening programme is early detection of hearing loss. Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) and automised auditory brainstem response (A-ABR) are effective, objective and valuable test batteries for newborn hearing screening, and they should be used together. The purpose of this study is to determine which test battery is more accurate and can be used as the gold standard. A total of 933 newborn children were included in this study, of which 602 were girls and 331 boys. 622 of them were screened with TEOAE, while 311 with A-ABR. 31 of the newborn screened with A-ABR and 27 of those screened with TEOAE were referred in the hearing screening programme. The results showed that out of 933, 17 subjects had hearing loss. The hearing loss rate was 1.8%; 12 of the newborn screened with A-ABR and 5 of those screened with TEOAE had hearing loss.

The aim of this study was to investigate otoacoustic emissions in young adults who had a history of otitis media (OM) in childhood and to assess whether a history of OM had an irreversible effect on hearing. We studied 116 cases between 15 and 25 years of age, divided into three groups. Each subject underwent a single examination comprising otoscopy, pure-tone audiometry (PTA), tympanometry, and transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) testing. Subjects in the first and second groups had normal audiometric hearing thresholds and type A tympanograms. The only difference between the first and second group was the presence or absence of a history of OM. The third group consisted of patients diagnosed as having active OM; these patients had poorer hearing thresholds and type B or C tympanograms. After statistical analysis of TEOAE and DPOAE results (one-way analysis of variance test), significant differences were noted between groups. Otoacoustic emission levels were, unsurprisingly, lowest in the third group, as expected. However, the most striking result in the study was that significantly fewer otoacoustic emissions were detected in subjects with a history of OM than in subjects without a history of OM. These findings suggest that OM in childhood may cause minor but irreversible damage to the middle ear or cochlea. Otoacoustic emissions testing can be used to detect this sub-clinical damage.

No abstract

Background Perception of acoustic details in the speech signal is important for speech sound development. The medial olivocochlear pathway, a part of the auditory efferent system, plays a role in stimulus-related control of the cochlea. One clinical tool to evaluate the medial olivocochlear activity, which is thought to improve speech perception in noise, is the suppression of otoacoustic emissions. Aims This study investigated the suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions in children with phonological disorder in comparison with that in typically developing controls. Study Design Case-control study. Methods A total of 23 children with phonological disorder (aged 5–10 years) and 21 age- and sex-matched controls ( P > 0.05) participated in the study. Participants had pure-tone thresholds ≤ 15 dB hearing loss and normal middle ear functions. Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions with and without contralateral acoustic stimulation were measured. Results Although the mean transient evoked otoacoustic emissions suppressions were lower in the group with phonological disorder than in the controls, these differences were not statistically significant ( P > 0.05). No left/right ear asymmetry of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions suppression was detected in either of the groups ( P > 0.05). Conclusion Children with phonological disorder did not show alterations in medial olivocochlear functioning in the medial olivocochlear activity as measured by the contralateral suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions.

The aim of this study was to investigate visual motor integration skills in children with speech sound disorders compared with age-matched controls. Sixty-five children aged from 5 to 6½ years old (68% males, 32% females; M age = 5.4, SD = 0.5) participated in the study. Thirty-one of them had speech sound problems, and 34 were children without any problem in their speech. The Ankara Articulation Test for evaluating speech sound skills and the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration with its supplemental tests of Visual Perception and Motor Coordination were used in the study. Visual Motor Integration, Visual Perception, and Motor Coordination scores of children with speech sound disorders were significantly lower than those of controls.