Updated June 08, 2015.

Written or reviewed by a board-certified physician. See About.com's Medical Review Board.

Before anyone of any age can be diagnosed with a hearing loss, hearing tests need to be done. A hearing test can determine what level of hearing loss a child or adult has. In addition, an adult who suspects he or she has a hearing loss can do unprofessional tests of themselves online and follow up with a visit to a professional audiologist for confirmation.

Testing Hearing of Infants and Children

It is critical for hearing loss to be identified as soon as possible, because the optimum time for learning language is birth to three years old.

Fortunately, in the United States we have laws and programs to ensure the early identification of hearing loss in as many babies as possible.

Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program
Profile of this very important government program, which works to identify newborns and infants with hearing loss so they can be treated early.

ABR versus OAE
The auditory brainstem response (ABR) and the otoacoustic emmissions (OAE) test are two methods for testing to see if an infant or young child has a hearing loss. These are preliminary tests that determine if further testing is needed to confirm a hearing loss.

Testing of hearing at birth is only preliminary. When babies fail hearing screening, their parents are supposed to bring them in for more in-depth follow-up testing. Unfortunately, as reported by both the New York Times (Sept 4, 2007) and USA Today (5/8/2007), parents often do not bring their babies in, and the hearing loss is not identified until later, after valuable language learning time has been lost.

Booth Hearing Tests
Babies, children, and adults can have Booth hearing tests to evaluate their hearing loss. Booth tests are done by professional audiologists, and are dependent on cooperation/effective elicitation of responses for accurate results.

Testing Hearing of Adults

While you are waiting for an appointment with a professional audiologist, you can do preliminary testing of your hearing online. It is important to note that these online tests are not a replacement for a professional hearing assessment. In addition, About.com is not able to formally evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of these tests.
About.com readers also share their hearing test experiences in Readers Respond: Most Disliked Part of Hearing Test.

Audiograms from Hearing Tests

After a hearing test is done, the person has an audiogram. An audiogram shows what level a sound must be at in order to be heard. You can see a picture of my audiogram from 2007, before I received a cochlear implant.

More on Hearing Tests

• Convince Someone to Get a Hearing Test or Hearing Aid? - This article discusses how to convince someone to get a hearing test when it's suspected they may have a hearing loss.
• Video: Hearing Test - This animated video demonstrates a hearing test done with a tuning fork.