COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE USEFULNESS OF PLAY-CONDITIONED AUDIOMETRY WITH WOODEN RINGS AND ELECTRONIC VIDEO PEEP SHOW - AUDIOMETRIC TESTING OF CHILDREN AT THE AGE OF 2 YEARS

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of new technology i n play-conditioned audiometry. The aim was to evaluate whether reinfor cement equipment consisting of an electronic video peep show is more a dvantageous than conventional techniques using coloured wooden rings r esulting in a lowering of the age for application of audiometry in chi ldren. Thirty-one healthy two-year-old children (18 boys and 13 girls) were tested at the standard audiometric frequencies from 125 to 8000 Hz using both techniques. Fifteen were tested using the wooden ring me thod as the first test, and 16 were examined starting with the video p eep show. A median of three thresholds (range 0-11 thresholds) was mea sured using the conventional technique compared to zero thresholds (ra nge 0-11) with the video peep show. Twenty-seven of the tested childre n were able to establish reliable thresholds. The study did not demons trate any advantage for determining thresholds using video peep show i n comparison with the traditional wooden ring method in the tested gro up of children at two years of age.