At Home Child Hearing Screening

From New Zealand's National Foundation for the Deaf here's a simple checklist you can use to test your child's hearing at various ages from six weeks to three years. If the answer is "no" to more than one or two questions, you should have an audiologist test your baby's hearing.

Six Weeks

If there is a loud noise, does baby:
- Jump or blink
- Stir in his or her sleep
- Stop sucking for a moment
- Look up from sucking
- Cry

Three Months

Does your baby:
- Blink or cry at a sudden noise
- Stop crying or sucking when you talk
- Wake or stir to loud sounds
- Coo or smile when you talk
- Turn his or her eyes to voices
- Seem to like a new musical toy
- Stop moving when there is a new sound
- Seem to know your voice

Six Months

Does your baby:
- Turn towards a sound or someone speaking
- Smile when you talk
- Cry when there is a sudden noise
- Stop moving at a new sound
- Like music
- Make lots of different babbling sounds

Nine Months

Does your baby:
- Respond to his or her own name
- Look around to find new sounds, even quiet sounds
- Listen when people talk
- Like copying sounds
- Use babbling sounding like real speech
- Try to talk back when you talk

Twelve Months

Does your child:
- Point to things or people he or she knows when asked to
- Copy and repeat simple words or sounds
- Try to talk
- Understand often-spoken words like "Come here"
- Say two or three words
- Listen when people talk
- Do what he or she is told
- Say sentences with two words, like "Me drink"
- Know a few parts of the body
- Do one thing when asked, like "Get your shoes"
- Ask for things by pointing, trying to say the word
- Understand things like "Give me that" or "Don't touch"

Two Years

Does your child:
- Do two things when asked, such as "Get the ball and bring it here"
- Repeat what you say
- Know lots of words
- Like being read to
- Point to a picture when asked, for example "Show me the baby"
- Use the names of people and things he or she knows
- Have a name for him or herself
- Like the radio
- Say simple sentences like "Milk all gone"

Three Years

Does your child:
- Know a few rhymes or songs
- Understand most words
- Find you when you call from another room
- Tell a story
- Use words like "me", "go", "in", and "big"
- Remember and tell about things that have happened
- Count to three
- Like naming things.