An audiological fear reduction program for a child

This article presents a program for reducing the fear of audiological procedures in a 6-year-old female student who is deaf. Developed by a school audiologist and the school counselor, this eight-session program involved several interventions. These included familiarizing the subject with the procedures and providing reassurance, hands-on activities, graded exposure to the procedures, peer modeling, and reinforcement for cooperation with the procedures. A significant reduction in anxiety and an increase in cooperation with audiological procedures the school was noted. At 8-month follow-up, the client was cooperative when earmolds were made for her at the school. ln addition, some generalization to another audiological setting was reported.