If a child has undiagnosed hearing problems, they can often struggle in school and fall behind. A new tablet app could help.
Sounds Scouts hopes to make hearing tests more accessible, through an interactive tablet game that children can play at home, ensuring that hearing problems are diagnosed and treated.
The Australian company was founded by Carolyn Mee. The app is available for iOS and Android tablets and each session costs $14.99 ($11.22). The game was developed in collaboration with the National Acoustic Laboratories.
To use the app, children over the age of 4 years and 9 months must play a game on the tablet with Patch, the dog with the bionic ears. During the 15-minute test, children are screened for “conductive loss, sensorineural loss, and central auditory processing disorder.”
“Children are being tested in secret – they don’t know their hearing is being tested and they are simply absorbed in the narrative,” Mee said.
The data is then collected and sent to the cloud. A result is calculated and a report is sent back to the parents. The report clearly states whether the child is within normal hearing limits. If the child “fails”, the report is able to give an indication of the possible cause and depending on the situation, suggests seeing a doctor.
“I was thinking about the challenges that children with hearing loss face,” she said. “I have three children … and I know what it’s like to go to clinics, miss hours of work, and wait weeks for an appointment. I wanted to create something that allowed for greater access, was enjoyable, and could ensure that children weren’t disadvantaged by their hearing loss.”
Currently, the data collected by the app is used solely to drive outcomes, but in the long term Mee suggested it could help indicate which areas need additional resources for hearing health.
The game is intended for home use, although Mee said there is interest from clinicians and hearing doctors.
