Our Services

Audiometric Evaluations for Adults typically include the following test battery: PureTone Threshold Testing,Speech Recognition Testing,Immitance Testing(Tympanometry and Acoustic reflexes),and Sound Field Speech Recognition Testing.

A Detailed Case History is performed prior to testing. Patents in need of amplification are counseled on the functional benefits as it relates to their individual needs and lifestyle.

Welcome to Port Jefferson Speech & Hearing

The audiological evaluation is performed in a sound-treated room with two speakers: one situated to the extreme right and one on the extreme left with a bear on each speaker. In addition, there is a small handpainted table of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and a small chair for a child 2 ? or older. Our office is ?kid friendly? , therefore, it is better to explain to the child that you are going to a school instead of a doctor?s office and this will reduce some of your child?s anxiety associated with the physician?s office.


I. BEHAVIOR OBSERVATION AUDIOMETRY: (Ages 2 months-12 months)

1. Your child will be sitting on your lap and the audiologist will be sitting outside the room.

2. Your chair will be situated between the two speakers in the sound-treated room and
speech and various sounds will be presented from either the right or left speakers. The audiologist will observe any changes in your child?s behavior when different sounds are presented at various intensity levels and different frequencies (tones).

3. Sometimes a VISUAL REINFORCEMENT AUDIOMETRY PROCEDURE may be used with a child ten months or older.


II. VISUAL REINFORCEMENT AUDIOMETRY: (Age 12 months-2 ?)

1. The child will be seated on the parent or guardian?s lap between the two speakers on the wall.

2. The audiologist will present speech and/or various frequencies changing in intensity to condition your child to respond by localizing either to the right speaker or the left speaker when he or she hears the sound.

3. When your child turns toward the speaker that was presented either with speech or sound, the audiologist will then light up the bear to reinforce the child to look when he or she hears a sound from the right or left speaker at different intensity levels.

4. Your job will be to reinforce the child?s conditioning when he or she turns toward
the sound source.


III. PLAY AUDIOMETRY: (2 ? - 6)

1. The child will be sitting on his or her own chair and the procedure will begin with your child either pointing to objects or pictures upon the request from the audiologist. This is not a language evaluation rather it is a training procedure to initiate testing to determine if your child can hear speech at various intensity levels.

2. After the pictures are presented to your child and he or she is acquainted with all the pictures the audiologist will leave the room and either speak to your child from the speakers in the sound-treated room or with a headset over your child?s ears.

3. Your child will be conditioned for a play audiometry procedure either using soft blocks or wooden rings on a peg. The audiologist will condition your child to put the soft block into a bucket every time he or she hears a sound. Following the conditioning procedure in the sound-treated room, the audiologist will then leave the room and test your child with headphones to evaluate your child's hearing ability across various frequencies and intensity levels.

4. Auditory discrimination with a picture identification test: The audiologist will present a booklet containing four pictures on the page and the child will point to one of the four pictures to assess your child?s auditory discrimination with words that may sound similar. (Don?t be worried if the child does not know all of the pictures in this test) This evaluation is not measuring language, rather it is a measurement of auditory discrimination and any vocabulary that your child is not familiar with will be excluded from the test.

IV. TYMPANOMETRY

Tympanometry is the measurement of any resistence behind the tympanic membrane (ear drum) which is often associated with middle ear fluid and/or middle ear fluid with infection.

1. A small probe will be placed on the outside of your child?s ear canal and the machine quickly evaluate your child?s middle ear status. This test will be performed either before the audiological evaluation or after depending upon the audiologist?s decision regarding the level of your child?s anxiety as he or she enters the audiological suite.

V. OTOACOUSTIC EMISSIONS (OAE?s)

In order to obtain ear specific information and/or quanitify the test results, testing with Distortion Product otoacoustic emissions (DPOE?s) is performed as needed. This test is an assessment of the cochlea which is the nerve of the ear.

A small soft probe is placed inside your child?s ear canal with no discomfort. During the testing your child must remain as quiet as possible in order to obtain these emissions that are stimulated within the cochlea and the echoes of these emissions return back to the probe in the ear through the three bones in the middle ear and through the tympanic membrane and to a microphone in the soft probe placed into the ear canal. This test usually takes approximately seven to ten seconds per ear.

Hearing aids are prescriptive and we dispense all different models and brands. Some patients can wear the smallest "CIC" completely in-the-ear hearing aids and some patients need or prefer "BTE" behind-the-hearing aids.

We primarily dispense digita

INSURANCE ACCEPTED:

1. AETNA
2. AMERICAN MEDICAL & LIFE
3. CIGNA
4. EMPIRE BLUE CHOICE
5. GHI
6. HIP
7. INDEPENDENT HEALTH
8. ISLAND GROUP
9. J.J. NEWMAN
10. LOCAL 115
11. MAGNA CARE
12. MEDICARE
13. MULTI PL