It also is best performed while the baby is sleeping. A soft tip is placed in the child's ear canal to deliver sounds and three small recording stickers, or electrodes, are placed on the surface of your child's head to record activity of that pathway in response to the sounds. It is estimated that three infants per 1,000 are born with moderate hearing loss. This might not be detected by parents. This testing will detect moderate hearing loss, or should detect moderate hearing loss.
Many parents see that their child does startle to loud sounds, and assume normal hearing.
Hearing loss can affect some frequencies and not others, and can be of varying degrees. So a child still may have a degree of hearing loss, and be able to startle to loud sounds. Some children begin adaptating to their hearing loss and use other clues to know you're coming, or to attune to your vocalizations. Testing for babies now is available in some facilities. But not all.