Customer story: How aided cortical testing transformed my approach to infant hearing care

As a pediatric audiologist, Aoife O’Meara believes delivering best-practice patient care is central to her pediatric audiology service. A critical part of this care is validating hearing aid fittings as early as possible to support speech and language development.

Traditional methods for infants are primarily focused on questionnaires and parental observations, offering only qualitative insights. With technological advances in aided cortical testing, she sought a more objective and reliable method to validate hearing aid benefit during the crucial months following newborn hearing screening.

In this article, Aoife shares her experience.

Bridging the gap between ABR and behavioral testing

As a pediatric audiologist, one of the biggest challenges in fitting hearing instruments for young infants is having robust methods to validate hearing device fittings. After the initial ABR, we had no quantitative way to confirm hearing aid effectiveness until behavioral testing became possible at around eight months.

For newborns fitted with hearing aids, this gap was simply too long. We needed a way to validate the hearing aid settings much earlier. Not having access to an objective method of validating hearing aids also affected other patient groups under our care.

Infants with middle ear effusions, suspected ANSD, and children with complex needs were all groups where objective estimations of hearing performance beyond the ABR are required.

Transforming the approach to hearing aid validation

Implementing aided cortical testing into our clinical protocol has transformed our approach to hearing aid fitting. We began introducing aided cortical assessments to our children at around four to five months of age, effectively bridging the gap between ABR and behavioral testing. This allowed us to check whether the hearing aids truly provided access to key speech sounds during these crucial early months of development.

For children with temporary conductive loss or suspected ANSD, aided cortical testing helps us make informed decisions about whether amplification is needed at a much earlier age as we are not dependent on waiting for the child to become VRA ready. For infants with additional or complex needs, aided cortical testing often provides the only objective measurement available to evaluate access to speech sounds.

Aided cortical testing strengthens clinical confidence

Aided cortical testing is now an essential component of our service. It gives us the earliest possible confirmation that a child’s hearing aids are delivering appropriate audibility, allowing us to make timely adjustments and provide clearer guidance for families.

This objective approach has strengthened our clinical confidence and improved our ability to support children with both permanent and temporary hearing loss. I would absolutely recommend aided cortical testing to other clinicians. It offers meaningful, actionable information that enhances patient care and supports families during an important and often stressful time.

Ready to elevate your pediatric hearing care with aided cortical testing?

If you’re looking to strengthen clinical confidence and deliver clearer, earlier insights for families, aided cortical testing could be the missing link in your workflow. Explore how the Eclipse Aided Cortical module can help you implement objective, reliable validation methods from the very start of a child’s hearing journey.