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 Healthy Hearing is the audiological component to the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program. Healthy Hearing began providing hearing screenings for Special Olympics athletes during the 1999 World Summer Games.
The purpose of Healthy Hearing is to:
- screen the hearing of athletes and notify athletes and their coaches if follow-up care is needed
- provide corrective (hearing aids) and preventative (custom swim earplugs) services where possible, and
- study the frequency of hearing loss in athletes competing in Special Olympics events.
During a Healthy Hearing screening, athletes are directed through two registration/checkout desks and four screening stations. Many Special Olympics athletes require only the first two stations, examining the ear canals for cerumen (earwax) and an otoacoustic (OAE) hearing screening of both ears.
If athletes pass the OAE station, they exit the screening area and this usually takes 7 minutes. If they do not pass, they are checked again using tympanometry (middle ear) and pure tone screening in other 8 minutes. Upon completion of all examinations and screenings, the athlete receives a copy of the screening report form, which includes follow-up recommendations.
The following form is designed for the use of Clinical Directors when administering their individual programs:
< Download the HAS form for Healthy Hearing (Adobe PDF, 82K) >
Contact Information
Salma ElGhandour, Healthy Athletes Manager
selghandour@specialolympics.org
Learn more about these components of the Healthy Athletes initiative:
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