Auditory Responsiveness of Premature Infants Utilizing Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA)

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to study the relationship between visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) performance and age (i.e., corrected and mental) with 60 premature infants. VRA performance was classified as unacceptable, marginal, or acceptable based on conditionability and number of responses obtained before habituation to the task. The results indicated that mental age and corrected age were significantly related to VRA performance. It was found that a corrected age of 8 mo and/ or a mental age of 6 mo is typically required for acceptable performance using VRA. A lack of responsiveness to the VRA procedure at these ages would most likely be due to hearing loss as opposed to a general developmental delay. The data from this study would not support a large scale behavioral hearing screening program for premature infants below 8 mo corrected age or 6 mo mental age. (Ear Hear 13 3:187-194)

Adding Objectivity to Infant Behavioral Audiometry

“…iner agreement in stimulus trials and 96 to 99% agreement in control trials, regardless of the focus of the study or variations in signal type or level, age, or condition of the child (Moore, Thompson & Folsom, 1992;Moore, Thompson & Thompson, 1975;Moore, Wilson & Thompson, 1977;Primus, 1987Primus, , 1992; Primus & Thompson & Folsom, 1985).…”

Cochlear Implantation in the Very Young Child: Issues Unique to the Under-1 Population

“…Using VRA, behavioral thresholds for pure-tone stimuli can approximate the reliability obtained in adults and can provide frequency specific information (Olsho, Koch, Carter, Halpin, & Spetner, 1988;Widen et al, 2000). Although VRA can be reliably applied to children who have reached 6 months developmental age, this age may not equal their chronological age in cases of prematurity or neurocognitive delay (Moore, Thompson, & Folsom, 1992). As hearing impairment is not uncommon in premature infants and may accompany other areas of global disability, objective measures of audiometric assessment are required.…”

Diagnostic testing for hearing loss in infants and young children

“…turely who have spent time in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) tend to perform better if testing is delayed until six to eight months corrected age [Widen, 1990;Moore et al, 1992]. Several studies have documented that the developmental age is the primary determinant of a child's ability to do VRA [Wilson et al, 1983].…”