Booth Hearing Tests
Monday January 8, 2007
I just had a hearing test on Friday so this article is based on a mix of personal experience and research. It is really meant for hearing people, particularly parents, who do not know what to expect when they take their child for a hearing test.
I am also interested in publishing others' hearing test experiences as part of this article. Especially funny ones. What is the funniest thing that happened to you in a hearing test?
Comments
I hate these things.
But the funniest thing? I had to take some sort of physical prior to starting this one job. Included was a hearing test, which I dutifully took; at the end of it, the person administering it (I don’t think she was even an actual audiologist came up to me with this really shocked look on her face and said, “Well, do you know, uhm, you know, you have a hearing loss.” And I gave her this you-have-got-to-be-kidding-look and said, “Did you even look at my health records?”
I’m trying to convince myself that this was funny- an audiologist told me I was really fat. I’m not sure why, but this particular clinic wanted to take your weight before the hearing test. I stepped on the scale, and she stopped me, saying that she usually writes 10-20 lbs less than the scale says, so I didn’t have to worry. I stepped on the scale, got my weight (294.) She gasped, stared at me, and then stammered that she would just write whatever I told her to down. I asked her to please write 294.
You’d think she’d never met a fat HOH person before!
The last time I had my hearing tested, my mother was with me. The booth I was in had a glass window and I could see the audiologist. She started reading off the words and I repeated them back to her without her realizing I was lipreading her. My mother had to tap her on the shoulder and tell her to cover her mouth, because I was lipreading her. LOL!
I was sure I have hearing loss since I cannot hear the TV at the same level as my children, and frequently ask people to repeat. According to my test, I can hear all sounds withing the normal voice range. Like another person reported, I wasn’t sure if I was hearing those high pitched tones or not!
I was 8 years old in the 4th grade and had “failed” a hearing test. I was accustomed to 100’s and straight A’s on every test so this test’s result infuriated me and after throwing a major tantrum demanded that I re-take this “test”, I “failed” it 3 more times. The nuns just refused to let the audiologist give me another test and I pouted the entire day, fuming. I saw the nun say “Maybe she’s not just ignoring us”, so I ignored them for the rest of the day.
I am unilaterally deaf and when I was tested in a hearing both they turned the volume up so loud it traveled across the bone in my head to he other side,I came out of the booth so dizzy I had to hang on to the wall. It is very frustrating when you give your trust and are not sure of the service you recieve.
I don’t really have any funny stories about the hearing booths. I’ve gotten used to them. The only story I have is kind of sad: When I was 4 years old, I failed the hearing test at my school. The night after I got home from the hearing booth test at the audiologist (still my audiologist 13 years later), my mother and I were sitting on the floor of our kitchen and I said to her, in a little, forlorn voice, “I couldn’t hear the beeps.” She says that was one of the hardest moments for her as a mother, because she felt like she’d failed me in some way.
I had a hearing test, when I was younger. Because, my mom thought that I was HOH. I really get into the books that I read, and if I’m reading something, I zone out. It turns out that I’m HOH, because of an accident. But, that didn’t happen until later in life.
Anyone ever tried to fake out the audiologist during their test? I know I did. I’m in my 40s and had to have a hearing test for interpreter services at a local college. The audiologist thought it was pretty funny when I told her and shook her finger at me. Fortunately, I’ve not tried to fake them out since the 80s.
I had my hearing tested by an audiologist and a hearing aid dealer. Unquestionably the local hearing aid dealer did a much more thorough job. The audiologist took about 15 minutes and treated me like a number. The Hearing Aid Specialist took over two hours and did much more testing. Although I was in the booth only for some of the tests, I am confident my results were much more accurate there.
Two hours for audiometric testing is ridiculous. I am a doctor of audiology (Au.D.) and a thorough sound-booth test should take no more than 20 minutes unless the patient has special needs. In less than two hours a full vestibular test and audiogram can be done. Two hours means someone didn’t know what they were doing. I know plenty of great hearing aid dispensers that don’t take half that time. Counseling time is another story. There are a lot of variables that can lengthen this time added to the testing time but still less than one hour. And I am not knocking dispensers because I personally know many great ones and I know some audiologists that are not that great and vice versa. Just my 2 cents!