Neonatal Hearing Screening Using Wideband Absorbance and Otoacoustic Emissions Measured Under Ambient and Pressurized Conditions.

Background: The objective was to analyze wideband acoustic absorbance and transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) from newborns without risk indicators of hearing loss and test the effectiveness of measuring TEOAEs under pressurized ear canal conditions.

Methods: Evaluation of 102 newborns from a maternity hospital, who stayed in the well-baby nursery and did not have risk indicators for hearing loss. The procedures involved wideband tympanometry and TEOAEs performed at ambient pressure (AP) and at a pressure corresponding to maximum compliance (PP).

Evaluation of speech in noise abilities in school children.

This study aimed to analyze the perception of speech in noise in children with poor school performance and to compare them with children with good school performance, considering gender, age and ear side as variables. The intelligibility of speech was evaluated in school children utilizing the Brazilian Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) in the situations of quiet (Q), Left ear competitive noise (NL), Right Ear Competitive Noise (NR), as well as the global average of other hearing situations, denominated Noise Composite (NC). Ninety seven school children between the ages of 8 and 10 were recruited in five schools of São Paulo-Brazil; the control group (CG) consisted of 54 students (23 male/ 31 female) without language and/or speech difficulties and good school performance, and the study group (SG) consisted of 43 students (28 male/ 15 female) identified by their teachers as having poor school performance.