Audiology and hearing-test interpretation

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Target exams

Red flags

• A child whose newborn screen referred but is lost to follow-up — a missed permanent childhood hearing loss in the first year silently derails speech, language and social development, and the diagnostic window for the 1-3-6 timeline closes
• An OAE-only screen that reports a 'pass' in a child who actually has auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder — otoacoustic emissions are preserved in auditory neuropathy, so the outer hair cells look normal while the neural pathway is impaired, and only an ABR would have caught it
• Using 25 dB HL as the normal threshold in a child — the paediatric normal is at or under 15 dB HL, so a 20 dB loss that looks 'normal' against an adult cut-off is in fact a slight hearing loss that can affect consonants and early literacy
• Reading a type B tympanogram as permanent sensorineural loss without separating the air-bone gap — the effusion produces a mild conductive loss that can mask an underlying permanent loss, and over-diagnosis leads to unnecessary referral while under-diagnosis misses it
• A child with risk indicators for late-onset loss who passed the newborn screen and is discharged from surveillance — congenital cytomegalovirus and family history produce progressive or late-onset loss that a single passed screen cannot exclude
• Tympanometry with a 226 Hz probe tone in an infant under six months — the stiff infant middle ear needs a 1000 Hz probe tone, and the 226 Hz tone yields a flat trace that falsely suggests effusion in a normal ear

Life stages

Care settings

Clinical exam formats

Board mappings

• Investigations and procedures
• Interpret common audiological investigations in infants and children
• Recognise the patterns of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss
• Current 2026 PREP curriculum — Learning goal 11: Investigations and procedures
• Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 11: Investigations and procedures
• Interpret audiometry, tympanometry, otoacoustic emissions and ABR in infants and children
• Written Examination
• Clinical Applications
• Hearing loss and audiological investigation interpretation
• Short Cases
• Investigation interpretation stations
• Communication and counselling around referred newborn hearing screens
• 11. Investigating and managing paediatric presentations
• Level 2: Requests and interprets appropriate audiological investigations for children
• Patient safety: recognising risk indicators for late-onset hearing loss
• Applied Knowledge in Practice (AKP)
• Foundations of Practice (FOP)
• Audiology: audiogram, tympanometry, OAE and ABR interpretation; newborn hearing screening
• Clinical
• Communication scenarios: counselling a family after a referred newborn hearing screen
• Investigation interpretation
• General Pediatrics Content Outline — Hearing assessment and screening
• General Pediatrics Content Outline — Interpretation of audiometry and tympanometry
• General Pediatrics EPA: Request and interpret audiological investigations
• Patient Care 3: Procedural skills and test interpretation
• Medical Knowledge 1: Clinical knowledge
• Systems-Based Practice: screening programmes and surveillance
• Medical Expert
• Communicator
• Pediatrics: Interpret paediatric audiological investigations and counsel families