Audiometric Testing of School Children

54 by the staff of the Reading School District.In 1952, results of these tests were used in a study of 1,726 children in the fifth and sixth grades con- ducted under the auspices of the School Health Committee of the Pennsylvania Public Health Association.These children were selected be- cause they had been tested biennially for a 6-year period.The 6-year study included prog- nostic implications and the relationship of hearing to academic retardation.In a report of the 1952 findings, the effectiveness of a bien- nial audiometric testing routine was evaluated, procedures for sweep check and threshold audiometric tests were described, and some of the definitions used in the study were given (1).The present report covers the 8-year period 1946-54.The study continues to explore the question of the optimum periodicity of routine audiometric testing, measures the apparent impact of hearing impairment on academic progress, identifies certain prognostic signs, makes observations on the audiometric pat- terns of children between 5 and 14 years of age.Audiograms have been analyzed and the data are presented according to the ear involved and the age of the children rather than their Dr.Wishik is professor of maternal and child health and Miss Kramm is research associate in maternal and child health, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh.Miss Koch is a school nurse with the Reading School District, Reading, Pa.