Audiology

We provide hearing testing and hearing counselling.

About

We test hearing of any child under age 16 who is a resident of BC or the Yukon and who meets any of these criteria:

Any child for whom previous community testing has been incomplete or unsuccessful or who can’t be tested behaviourally (either due to age or complications)
Any child who refers on hearing screening (BC Early Hearing Program web page) where BC Children's is the most convenient location for the family
A child planned for or on ototoxic medications or bone marrow transplant (Oncology, Hematology & BMT website)
Some children referred from physicians or clinics at BC Children's in other programs (Other BC Children's Clinics web page)
A child enrolled in the BC Children’s Neonatal Follow Up (NFU) or Cleft Palate/Craniofacial programs(Cleft Palate/Craniofacial Clinic web page)
A child referred from any of the interdisciplinary teams at BC Children's Hospital and Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children (Sunny Hill Health Centre website) – including their visual impairment or hearing loss teams or inpatient wards
A child who may be a cochlear implant candidate (Cochlear Implant website)
A child requiring hearing testing from the Children’s Otolaryngology (Ear Nose Throat web page) service – on call

Care team

Kristina Bingham
Professional Practice Lead - Audiology

Kristina has worked as an audiologist since 2007, after graduating from the University of British Columbia with her Masters degree in Audiology. Kristina has experience with both adult and pediatric populations through her previous work at WorkSafeBC, and Surrey Memorial Hospital. Kristina has training in vestibular assessment and management, and also provides Diagnostic Auditory Brainstem Response testing through the BC Early Hearing Program. Kristina’s work at BCCH also involves assessment of children through the Cleft Palate/Craniofacial Team.

Beth Brooks
Audiologist

Beth has been working at BC Children's since 1985 and has also worked at Vancouver General Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, the Vancouver Oral Centre, the Western Institute of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adults at Vancouver Community College. Beth completed her MSc in Audiology and Speech Sciences at the University of British Columbia in 1982 and has been a Clinical Assistant Professor there since 1994. She has done research in aural rehabilitation, focussing on communication strategies and sensory devices for people with severe-profound hearing loss. She has taught speechreading (lipreading) at VCC since 1981. Beth currently works full-time at Children's. She has particular interests in ototoxicity and hearing assessment of difficult-to-test children.

Samantha Gill
Audiometric Technician

Samantha has worked as an Audiometric Technician for over 6 years. She worked at the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing for over 5 years before joining the BC Early Hearing program in November 2011 at BC Children’s & Women’s. She divides her time between Screening newborns and assisting the audiologists in the Cochlear Implant program and Audiology department.

Selma Karsan
Audiologist

Selma has worked as a clinical audiologist since completing her M.Sc. in Audiology and Speech Sciences from the University of British Columbia in 2001. Over the course of her career in BC and Alberta, she has worked with adults and children providing services in a wide variety of areas including cochlear implants, hearing aids and balance. She most recently was working with the Adult Cochlear Implant Program at St. Pauls' hospital. She joined our team in June 2017.

Jenny Hatton
Audiologist

Jenny is trained as an Audiologist and has worked at BC Children’s Hospital since 2008. Prior to this, she worked at the UBC Human Auditory Physiology Lab for over four years. Jenny has a number of publications in the field of auditory evoked potential testing, and continues to be actively involved in research in this area. She joined the BC Early Hearing Program (BCEHP) in August 2010. In her Clinical Diagnostic Audiology role, she provides clinical Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) testing at BC Children’s Hospital, as well as ABR testing support and training to the BCEHP Diagnostic Audiologists around the province.

Prepare

We usually pre-register our patients. You should be getting a call from the Admitting Department a couple of days before your appointment. If you do not hear from the Admitting Department, please arrive 15 minutes prior to your appointment and report to the information and admitting area (in the hospital lobby) to register your child.

If your child has been pre- registered, please report directly to the Audiology and Speech Department, Ambulatory Care Building, Section K2-192 (Area 9) OR If you have a cochlear implant appointment, report to the 1D clinic area in the main building.

If at all possible, please arrange for care of siblings.

Care paths/practice guidelines

We have produced a series of flow diagrams called “care paths” that outline recommendations regarding the timing of testing and frequency of audiological monitoring for various populations. The available care paths are shown below:

BC Early Hearing Program (BCEHP) referral

All infants born in BC are referred for audiological services following Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) if they have the following results:

NHS Fail, No Risk Factors

NHS Fail, BCEHP Risk Factors

NHS Pass, BCEHP Risk Factors

Specialized audiological monitoring

This care path addresses the audiological follow up for children with congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) in BC.

Congenital CMV Care Path

This care path and clinical practice guideline address the audiological follow up for children with meningitis in BC.

This care path addresses the audiological follow up for children identified as having Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD)

Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) Care Path

Specialised BC Children's teams

BCCH Neonatal Follow-Up

The BCCH Neonatal Follow-Up (NFU) Program is a multidisciplinary team program that enrols families to participate in regular interdisciplinary team review and assessment. Enrolment is offered to families whose infants have certain perinatal/risk factors that place them at high risk of additional/complex needs or for whom little is known about potential outcomes. Patient recruitment criteria are available on their website.

BC Children's Neonatal Follow-up enrolment information for PHA final (PDF)

This care path addresses the typical audiological schedule for children followed by this program for which hearing assessment is recommended:

BCCH NFU Care Path

This care path addresses the typical audiological schedule for children followed by this program with a history of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) or those that have received Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO):

BCCH NFU CDH/ECMO Care Path

Cleft Palate & Craniofacial

There are many exceptions to this guideline, each child's case is reviewed with the information we have at the time and if hearing loss has not been ruled out by the time of their team visit, we will book Audiology as part of their visit.

Patients with cleft lip and/or cleft palate and some craniofacial anomalies are referred to the team.

Many infants with cleft lip and/or palate receive nursing support early in life for feeding and other consultation.

Generally, babies with cleft palate receive a hearing screening through the BC Early Hearing Program as well as a diagnostic hearing test prior to 3 months of age and again at around 9 months of age, prior to their cleft repair surgery.

Many children with cleft palates have more episodes of middle ear fluid than children without clefts. For this reason many get ear tubes (myringotomy tubes) at the time of their palate repair and are followed closely by ENT.

The audiologist on the team works closely with public health audiology in the community to ensure appropriate follow up hearing testing is provided in the early years.

For more information the Cleft Palate Program Nurse can be contacted at 604-875-2345 local 7057 or visit the Cleft Palate Craniofacial Disorders Team website.

Care Paths

This clinical guideline is designed to address the audiology follow up for children with cleft palate, craniofacial anomalies and syndromes associated with hearing loss.

Cleft Palate, Craniofacial Syndromic Clinical Practice Guideline

Several specific care paths have been developed for various groups of children covered in this guideline.

Care paths have been developed for three groups of children with syndromes with varying degrees of known risk of late onset permanent hearing loss.

Patient Handout

Here is a brochure for Audiologists to provide and review with families of children with a cleft palate. It is suggested that this brochure be provided at the early diagnostic ABR visit and/or around the first behavioural assessment, not at the time of screening.

Cleft Palate And Hearing 2016

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Provincial Health Services Authority

Audiology

Care team

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