Visual Reinforcement Audiometry
Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA) is a behavioural audiometric test obtained in a sound-treated room.
This test is used for children between the age of 8 months through to 2 1/2 years old. Your child is seated on your lap in front of a calibrated loudspeaker, or wearing headphones. When a sound is presented, the infant's eye-shift or head-turn response toward the sound source is rewarded by activation of a puppet mounted near the loudspeaker. Your child's attention is then distracted back to the midline so that additional sounds can be presented.
Any test performed through loudspeakers rather than headphones is called "sound field" audiometry and does not test each ear separately; rather, sound field audiometry yields an audiogram for the better-hearing ear if there happens to be an ear difference in hearing. However, if your child tolerates wearing earphones, then each ear can be assessed seperately.