Visual Reinforcement Audiometry

THE early identification and management of the auditorily handicapped child have been shown to be of paramount importance for the general development of the child as well as for the development of his speech and language. Exact knowledge of the auditory function is thus a supposition for planning a training program for children with communicative disorders. The neonatal auditory test procedures described by Ewing and Ewing,1Wedenberg,2Hardy et al,3and Downs and Sterritt4have proven very helpful in the early identification of deafness. From the audiological and educational point of view, however, these methods are too crude and do not provide us with sufficient information concerning the child's threshold sensitivity. Until recently, in fact, the period from birth to 2½ or 3 years of age, when play audiometry (Barr5) can be used, has remained baffling with regard to threshold audiometry. Suzuki and Ogiba6,7