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Best Practices for Taking a Hearing Test Online:

Have you wondered whether your (or your partner’s) hearing is starting to take a nosedive? Do you have elderly parents whose hearing is compromised, but who have a hard time getting out of the house to medical appointments? Or are you just a parent wondering if your child’s hearing might be subpar, but struggling to squeeze one more appointment onto the family’s schedule?

If you fall into any of these categories, you’re in luck: Online hearing tests could be the answer to your logistical challenges. Just like buying glasses online, taking an online hearing test is a great time-saving hack for busy families. It’s a convenient first step for determining whether you or a family member may have a hearing issue.

Consider these real-life scenarios:

Essie’s best friends from our neighborhood are twins born a few months after she was (and several months premature). While Lia’s health has been relatively stable after her 6 months in NICU, Mikki spent her first five years of life battling pediatric cancer. The last thing her parents needed was extra trips out in public with their fragile daughter, who’s struggled with hearing since birth and still wears hearing aids to this day.
Dear Husband’s parents are less mobile than they used to be, and just getting out of the house is a struggle. It’s all they can do to make it out for a doctor’s appointment these days; the last thing they want to do is add more trips out for appointments they could do from home.

For all these reasons and more, taking a hearing test online offers a quick and easy way to tell if someone might need additional testing with an audiologist for potential hearing issues. However, in order to make this an accurate time-saving step, it’s important to prepare your environment and know what to expect. These best practices for taking an online hearing test will help you and family members make the most of this innovative tool.

This is a collaboration post. However, please know I stand behind everything written here, and only include links to products/services/resources I’m willing to recommend personally.

Benefits of Online Hearing Tests

Especially in situations like those I outlined above, online hearing tests can be a huge timesaver for busy grownups trying to coordinate their children’s healthcare needs around their own work schedules, the needs of elderly relatives, and other competing family priorities. This is why arranging an online hearing test can be a great starting point for busy families:

Convenience: Online hearing tests are accessible anytime and anywhere you have access to the internet.
Cost-Effective: Free online hearing tests are widely available, as are low-cost online hearing test options. This makes them an affordable screening option.
Educational: Online hearing tests can provide valuable insights into hearing health, as well as alert you and your loved ones to potential issues that might require follow-up care.
Motivational: Hearing tests online can encourage reluctant older relatives to prioritize hearing care and seek professional assistance if needed.

Understand the Purpose of Online Hearing Tests

First off, you need to keep in mind that online hearing tests are designed to give you a general idea of your hearing ability. They are not intended to entirely replace professional evaluations; rather, these tests are meant to be a preliminary screening tool. These tests can identify potential hearing loss, and indicate when additional testing or treatment could be warranted. In other words, they won’t eliminate all trips to an audiologist’s office – but they could help you get to an appropriate solution or advanced testing faster.

There are several different types of online hearing tests:

Tone-based Tests measure your ability to hear various frequencies.
Speech Recognition Tests evaluate how well you understand spoken words or sentences in different noise levels.
Questionnaire-based Assessments gauge hearing issues based on your responses to lifestyle and auditory challenges.

Understanding these formats can help you choose the right test for your family member, and interpret the results accurately.

Choose a Reliable Test Provider

The effectiveness of an online hearing test largely depends on the credibility of the provider. This means it’s important to choose carefully when seeking an online hearing test.

One advantage of taking a hearing test online is that you’re not necessarily bound by geography, as is the case when trying to schedule in-person doctor’s office visits. For those who live in rural parts of the United States, this can be a huge help, and make starting with an online exam an ideal first step for determining if potential hearing problems exist. But you still have to do your research when figuring out which online test to take.

One option is reaching out to your health insurance’s customer support network to see what your insurer recommends. Especially since the pandemic, many insurers in the U.S. have greatly expanded their options for telehealth; your insurer may already have a free online hearing test platform set up through its own network.

If this doesn’t work, you’ll want to look for an online testing option backed by reputable hearing aid centers or audiology experts. For example, SoundLife, a leading hearing aid center in Malaysia, offers professionally designed online tests that adhere to high standards of accuracy and reliability. Utilizing services from trusted providers ensures you’re receiving a quality assessment.

Prepare Your Environment for the Test

Once you’ve chosen an online test provider, you need to make sure your surroundings at home won’t interfere with the testing process. Ensuring a quiet and controlled testing environment is crucial for getting accurate results. Here’s how you can optimize surroundings prior to the online test:

Eliminate Background Noise: Choose a location away from household sounds, traffic, or other distractions. Even small amounts of background noise, whether from a heating/cooling system, the refrigerator, or other appliances cycling on and off, can interfere with test results.
Use High-Quality Equipment: Use a proper set of headphones or earbuds for the hearing test, NOT the built-in speakers on a computer or phone. Headphones that cover the ears completely are especially good for blocking outside noises.
Adjust Volume Settings: Check the volume settings with your family member before they begin the online test. You want to set your device’s volume to a comfortable level before the test begins, because adjusting the volume in the middle of the test could mess with the results.

Follow Test Instructions Carefully

Each online hearing test comes with specific instructions. It’s important that whoever is taking the test follows them very carefully, in order to ensure accurate results. Depending on the age and mental capacities of your child or aging parent, they may need your assistance in understanding the directions for each part of the test, so it’s important that you go over the instructions with them.

Here are some common steps and instructions for online hearing tests that you can go over with your loved one before the test begins:

Calibration: Some tests include an initial calibration step to standardize audio levels. It’s super-important to do this step correctly.
Answer Truthfully: For speech recognition or questionnaire-based tests, the person taking the test needs to provide honest answers if the test results are going to be trustworthy.
Take Your Time: You don’t want the person taking the test to rush through it. It’s crucial for them to focus carefully on each sound or question if the results are going to be useful.

For Best Results, Stay Calm and Comfortable

Before your family member takes their online hearing test, you also need to help them understand that one’s physical and mental state can have a major impact on testing results. Therefore, it’s important to help them be at their best before and throughout the online testing process:

Rest Well: Being overtired can negatively affect concentration and auditory responses.
Avoid Ear Obstructions: Make sure your child’s or parent’s ears are clean and free from wax buildup.
Stay Calm: Anxiety or stress may cause the test-taker to second-guess responses, leading to inaccurate results, so remaining calm and relaxed throughout the test is crucial.

Understand Test Limitations

While online hearing tests offer valuable insights, keep in mind that they are just a save-you-time first step in figuring out if a family member may have a hearing problem:

Not a Diagnosis: These tests cannot provide a medical diagnosis or detect underlying conditions such as ear infections or tinnitus; they’re just a starting point.
Limited Scope: Factors like unique hearing profiles, asymmetrical hearing loss, or external interference may not be fully accounted for.
No Substitute for Audiologists: For comprehensive hearing evaluations and treatment plans, you’ll still need to consult a licensed audiologist. These tests can give you a starting direction for your appointment and save some of the preliminary steps, but they aren’t a complete substitute for a doctor’s office visit.

Understanding these limitations will help you and your family members manage expectations, and make a plan to follow-up with an in-person professional visit if warranted.

Interpreting Results After Your Online Hearing Test

Once your family member completes the online hearing test, read the results carefully. Most platforms provide a summary of hearing thresholds or identify potential concerns. Based on the test results, consider the following steps:

Consult an Audiologist: If the test indicates a hearing loss, or if your family member has persistent hearing problems, it’s important to follow up with a licensed audiologist; you can use the online test results as a jumping-off point for a more refined in-office evaluation.
Explore Hearing Solutions: Depending on the results of your online hearing test and any in-office follow-ups, your hearing professional may recommend hearing aids, a cochlear implant, or other hearing assistance for your family member.
Monitor Your Family’s Hearing: Regularly assess your own hearing health as well as those of family members, especially if you or they are exposed to loud environments or aging-related risks, or you otherwise suspect a problem.

When to Consider Professional Testing

Even though they’re a useful and easy first-step tool, you need to remember that online hearing tests are just a starting point for determining whether a family member might have a more serious hearing problem requiring treatment. It’s also worth remembering that in certain situations, you should skip the online hearing test altogether and get your loved one straight to a professional audiologist as soon as possible. These circumstances include

Sudden Hearing Loss: Rapid or unexplained changes in hearing require urgent attention.
Persistent Symptoms: Ongoing issues like tinnitus, ear pain, or dizziness.
Family History: Genetic predispositions to hearing loss .
High-Risk Exposure: Regular exposure to loud noises, whether occupational or recreational.

Building a Comprehensive Hearing Care Plan

Taking an online hearing test is a proactive step towards maintaining the hearing health of your loved ones, as well as your own hearing ability. To build a comprehensive hearing care plan, combine the insights from online tests with professional evaluations, protective practices, and lifestyle adjustments. For example:

Adopt Healthy Habits: Avoid prolonged exposure to high-decibel sounds and maintain a balanced diet to support overall health; teach your children to protect their own hearing, especially when wearing headphones or earbuds.
Schedule Regular Check-Ups: Regular audiologist visits ensure timely detection and management of hearing issues.
Use Hearing Protection: Wear earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones in loud environments.

RELATED POST: Why All Parents Need Earplugs (In Bulk!)

Conclusion

Online hearing tests are a valuable tool for assessing hearing health in a convenient and accessible manner. By choosing a reputable online hearing test provider, ensuring a test-friendly environment, and following the other best practices I’ve outlined here, you’re most likely to get the useful results your family members need. However, always remember that these tests are not a replacement for professional audiological care. Use them as a stepping stone towards better hearing health and a richer quality of life, whether for yourself, your children, or the aging family members in your orbit.

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