Bob Wilson tests 4-year-old Levi Zabreznik’s hearing using an AuDx machine in the Head Start classroom at Methow Valley Elementary. “I heard a robot,” Zabreznik reported.
Dotti and Bob Wilson volunteer to conduct testing
By Laurelle Walsh
September means back to school for students in the Methow Valley; older kids are returning to a familiar campus and routine, while some of the youngest kids may be entering a classroom for the first time. September also means that volunteers Bob and Dotti Wilson are back in the schools conducting hearing and vision screenings for tots, preschoolers, kindergartners and first-graders, helping to make sure their ears and eyes are ready to listen and learn.
The Wilsons began at Early Head Start and Head Start last week, using a portable AuDX machine to check for hearing loss, and giving two vision tests — the Random Dot “E” and the Blackbird Vision Screening test — to check depth perception and visual acuity. Each of these tests can be administered to little ones who are too young to understand or participate in other standard tests.
The Wilsons — both retired health care professionals — have been conducting these screenings in the Methow for 13 years, beginning in late August and winding up in October. First they take their equipment and know-how to area preschools, the Methow Valley Community School and Little Star Montessori School. Then in early October they’ll be back at Methow Valley Elementary School where, with help from Kiwanis volunteers, they will test all the grades in one day.
Winthrop Kiwanis pays for the AuDX machine’s annual calibration, and buys disposable cardboard glasses for the vision tests and single-use ear probe covers for the AuDX. Funding for the Wilsons’ first AuDX unit came from a Northwest Lions Foundation grant endorsed by the Lake Chelan Lions Club.
Just last month the Wilsons received a new AuDX machine from the Department of Health’s Early Hearing-loss Detection, Diagnosis and Intervention program, which replaces a unit they’d been using since 2004. The AuDX is “a very smart machine,” which gives fast, objective results requiring no active participation from the child, according to Bob Wilson.
In normal hearing, when sound waves enter the ear, tiny hairs vibrate inside the inner ear and send sound information to the brain. In the late 1970s, doctors discovered that a sensitive microphone placed in the outer ear canal could detect sounds that were actually being emitted by the ear — bounced back from the inner ear like an echo — called otoacoustic emission (OAE).
OAEs disappear when the inner ear has been damaged, so passive OAE screening tests — like the AuDX system that the Wilsons use — were developed that can detect hearing loss, especially in newborns and young children who might not otherwise be able to understand and respond to testing instructions.
Vital program
Bob ran the AuDX at Head Start last week, while teachers and parents discussed the program and reviewed application documents. Dotti administered the vision tests in another part of the room.
Dotti Wilson performs a vision screening.
At the AuDX table, each student sat across from Bob, who demonstrated putting a probe tip in his own ear, let the child feel the squishy disposable probe cover, and told the child he might hear sounds like a robot or a spaceship. Bob then gently inserted the probe tip into the child’s ear, and watched the readout as the machine emitted soft beeps and clicks that only the child could hear. The machine tells the operator if the tip is not inserted correctly, whether background noise is interfering with the test, or if the child has an occluded ear canal possibly due to a cold or ear infection.
If the child does not pass right away, the machine tests at additional frequencies before giving a “pass” or “refer” result. The AuDX prints out the test result, which is kept on record at Head Start or goes home with the child. If the child does not pass the test the first time, the Wilsons come back two weeks later for a recheck; a second “refer” result means that the child is referred to an audiologist for further testing.
“Dotti and Bob are vital to our program,” said Methow Valley Head Start supervisor Maria Sutton. “Their testing helps us work with parents to refer kids to specialists if that’s needed,” she said.
Second-graders and third-graders are tested “as needed,” along with special needs students in older grades, and seventh graders are given a standard audiometer screening as required by the state, according to the Wilsons.
The Blackbird Vision Screening test is given annually, starting in preschool and repeated in kindergarten, first, second, third, fifth and seventh grades, the Wilsons said.
All newborns receive OAE screening at the hospital before they are discharged; if a baby fails the hospital test, the Wilsons may be asked to do a re-screening in the baby’s home. “It’s better than expecting a new mother to drive back to Brewster for a recheck,” Dotti said. AuDX screening may even be done while a baby is nursing, she noted. Nurse midwife Blue Bradley refers in-home-birth babies to them, and local doctors sometimes refer speech-delayed children for testing, the Wilsons said.
