Specialty programs and tests

Whether your child is staying at Children’s Wisconsin or only needs services on an outpatient basis, we can help. The Masters Family Speech and Hearing Center at Children’s diagnoses and treats a wide range of conditions, including disorders that relate to speech, language, hearing, feeding and swallowing.

Specialty programs

We are involved in several multidisciplinary specialty programs to help diagnose your child’s hearing or speech problems and come up with a treatment plan that will best address those problems. Our specialty programs include:

• Audiology program
• Auditory processing team
• Cleft lip and palate program
• Other multidisciplinary programs
  • Cochlear implant program
  • Comprehensive feeding program
  • NICU developmental flu program
  • Herma Heart developmental flu program
  • Tracheal/ vent program
  • Aerodigestive program
  • Velocardialfacial Syndrome program
  • Neurofibrometosis program
  • Voice program

Tests

Our specialists perform a number of tests to assess speech & hearing disorders. The tests we’ll recommend for your child will depend on a number of factors, including:

• Your child’s age
• Your child’s signs and symptoms
• Any previous test results you have

Hearing tests

If you or your child’s doctor suspect hearing problems, we can perform a number of tests to help evaluate possible hearing loss. Those tests may include:

• Immittance testing
• Visual reinforcement audiometry
• Conditioned play audiometry
• Conventional audiometry
• Bone conduction testing
• Auditory brainstem response (ABR) evaluation
• Otoacoutsic Emissions (OAE)

Learn more about hearing tests in our frequently asked questions section.

Auditory processing disorder tests

If we evaluate your child for auditory processing disorders, he or she may undergo tests with our team. The following specialists and tests are examples of what your child might need.

An audiologist may test:

• For hearing loss
• To learn whether both ears are working together to process sounds
• How your child’s brain interprets sound when the sound is distorted, such as when there is background noise

A speech-language pathologist may determine whether your child can:

• Make speech sounds
• Understand and use vocabulary
• Understand and use sentences and grammar
• Remember what has been said
• Put sentences together to express thoughts and ideas (speaking and writing)

Psychologists may review your child’s:

• Intelligence
• Attention
• Behavior
• Memory

Learn more about auditory processing disorders.

Audiology tests and services

Audiology (hearing) tests may be provided as part of your child’s thorough evaluation. Our audiology program services at Children’s include:

• Age-appropriate hearing evaluations, using games and toys to understand whether a child has hearing loss
• Universal newborn hearing screening
• Natural sleep and sedated auditory brainstem response evaluations to determine hearing levels or for diagnosis
• Monitoring for damage to the ear, often by medications
• Auditory processing evaluations, which determine if a child recognizes and understands sounds
• Hearing aid evaluations, fitting and orientation
• Custom earmolds and ear plugs

Learn more about the audiology program at Children’s.

Saliva control problem tests

If your child has issues with saliva control (drooling), we will meet with you to figure out what is causing the problems. Some of the tests we may perform include:

• A physical exam
• Mouth and tongue movement
• An ear, nose and throat evaluation
• A dental exam
• A speech/language assessment

Learn more about the saliva control program at Children’s.

Speech/language development

If your child has difficulty with speech or language development, we will work with you to find a cause and develop a treatment plan. Tests may include speech, language, feeding and swallowing evaluations.

Feeding/swallowing problem tests

If your child has difficulty with feeding and swallowing, we will work with you to find a cause and develop a treatment plan. Tests may include speech, language, feeding and swallowing evaluations. Several tests include:

• Swallowing studies
• FEES
• Clinical feeding evaluations
• Infant feeding