Children and Young People’s Hearing Test Service at Spire London East Hospital

Are you concerned about your child’s hearing? Spire London East Hospital offers hearing tests for children from 7 months to 16 years of age. Children may be referred because of concerns with their hearing or a delay in their speech development.

Children and young people can be referred by a GP, healthcare professional or through direct self-referral to the Audiology service. An ENT referral or appointment is not required before booking a hearing assessment.

How do you know if your child has a hearing problem?

Signs to look for are:

• Delayed speech development
• Fails to respond when called
• Needs the TV volume louder than other members of the family
• Change in behaviour such as poor concentration, inattentive and frustration
• Suffers from frequent ear infections

The team

• Mr Abir Bhattacharyya is an established Consultant ENT Surgeon with over 20 years of experience in NHS and private practice. He has a specialist ENT practice in the independent sector with a wide referral base and works with his team (audiologist, audiological scientist, vestibular therapist) in the treatment of ear (otological) conditions in adults and children.
• Mrs Indira Gadhvi is a Senior Audiologist with over 30 years of experience, and has worked in a variety of NHS areas. Mrs Gadhvi specialises in testing patients with complex issues, and has a special interest in testing children’s hearing as she has been a lead in paediatric audiology in the NHS for 20 years.
• Mrs Gemma MacQueen is a Clinical Scientist in Audiology with over 15 years of experience in the NHS, specialising in paediatric hearing tests/rehabilitation and adult hearing/balance testing with rehabilitation. She has extensive experience in testing babies, very young children and patients with complex issues.
• Dr Kinjal Mehta is an Advanced Paediatric Audiologist with over 12 years of experience in the NHS. Academically, she has progressed her field of expertise through her PhD at University College London by publishing papers on the advances of Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials and children with hearing losses. She has extensive experience in testing new-born babies, young children and patients with complex issues. 

Clinic times

• Children aged 3.5 years and over: Mrs MacQueen and Mrs Gadhvi – Wednesday and Saturdays 9:30 am – 12:30pm
• Children under 3.5 years: Mrs MacQueen, Mrs Gadhvi and Dr Mehta – Thursdays 9:30am – 12:30pm

Hearing tests

We offer various tests that are tailored to the child’s developmental age to determine the hearing levels:

• Visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA): This test is suitable for children from seven months old. In this test, the baby turns towards a toy that lights up when they hear a sound.
• Play audiometry: This test is suitable for children from 2.5 years old. It uses a play method to test the child’s hearing. The child makes a response such as putting a toy in a box each time a sound is made.
• Pure tone audiometry: This test is suitable for children from six years old. The child makes a response by pressing a button when they hear a sound.
• Otoacoustic emissions: This test is used to assess the integrity of the outer hair cell function in the inner ear, the cochlear. It is an objective test used to assess the cochlear function and to rule out the possibility of hearing loss.
• Tympanometry: This test checks the middle ear status and determines if ‘Glue Ear’ is present.

We investigate for:

• Conductive hearing loss: This can be caused by sound not being able to pass freely to the inner ear, possibly due to a blockage in the middle ear. ‘Glue ear’ is the most common cause of conductive hearing loss in children.
• Sensory neural hearing loss: This can be caused by the result of damage to the inner ear, or the hearing nerve, or both.

What happens next?

Results of the tests are discussed with you and an explanatory report will be forwarded to your GP or any other relevant Healthcare Professionals. If clinically required following assessment, patients may be referred to a specialist Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) consultant for further investigation or treatment.

How much does it cost?

Although we’ll do our best to offer you an all-inclusive package price, every patient has individual needs, which will affect the price of the service. For further details and pricing, please speak to our appointments teams. 

Booking an appointment for your child

When booking an appointment, please ask for the Children's and Young People's Audiology Service.

Children under 3.5 years should be booked into the dedicated under-3.5-years Audiology Clinic. Children aged 3.5 years and over should be booked into one of the Wednesday or Saturday Audiology clinics.

If you’re paying for yourself, you can book an appointment on 020 8709 7817 or make an enquiry online.

If you’re using your private medical insurance, please contact our Appointments Team on 020 8709 7878.

For more information about our Children and Young People's Services, please visit our paediatric page or call our private patient team on 020 8709 7817.