Children's Hearing Services

Paediatric Audiology is a service that assesses the hearing of children. The service is jointly staffed by community paediatricians and an audiologist. Who your child will be seen by will be dependant on the details of their referral.

Your child will have been referred to us because a potential problem has been highlighted either with your child's hearing or in their development and this may need to be investigated further. 

If your child has been referred to one of our Paediatric Audiology clinics then you and your child will be met by one of our team, who will explain the different tests they use and why. The team will ask questions to find out more about your child's problem.

We currently provide this specialist service at two clinics  - one held at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and the other Cheltenham General Hospital and a further two in Tewkesbury and Cirencester only for older school-age children. Some children may need a particularly specialist test. If this is the case we may only be able to see them at our hearing services clinic at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

What to expect from our service

As part of the New Born Hearing Screening Program we screen all new born babies hearing using a basic screening test called AOAE and AABR. This is usually done a by the Health Visitor at birth either in the hospital or sometimes at home. 

Older babies who are able to give a 'good heard' turn in response to sounds and children under two and a half, are tested using visual reinforced audiometry VRA. These children are referred to us by your health visitor, doctor, speech and language therapist or other health care professional. In these clinics we support a community paediatrician who will discuss with you further management of your child hearing loss if any. If they feel it necessary they will refer your child to an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Consultant for further assessment.