Duties and responsibilities
A pediatric audiologist focuses on diagnosing and treating hearing complications in children. Their typical duties and responsibilities include:
- Diagnosing and conforming hearing impairments in children
- Determining the nature and extent of hearing problems in children
- Performing hearing tests
- Creating, developing and designing treatment plans
- Collaborating with speech therapists if necessary
- Educating parents on how to help a child with hearing loss
Qualifications
Pediatric Audiologists will need a Master’s or Doctoral degree in Audiology from an accredited University. They will also need a valid license to practice Audiology in their state.
Skills and relevant work experience
As well as an in depth understanding of the audiology, pediatric audiologists will need:
- Verbal communication skills as they will need to communicate with patients, parents and a wide range of educational professionals
- Patience, as working with children can be slow and frustrating
- Compassion, as pediatric audiologists will work with distressed children and their parents and must be understanding and empathetic
- Problem solving skills, as pediatric audiologists must spot hearing problems and come up with the most effective treatment programs
Hours
Most pediatric audiologists will work full-time. They may have to work evenings or weekends to accommodate their clients and they may spend time travelling to and from different settings.
Salary
According to Salary Expert, the median annual salary for a pediatric audiologists in the United States is $70,600 per year. At the lower end, the median annual salary was around $51,277 per year. At the higher end, experienced pediatric audiologists can expect to earn around $88,226 per year.
Progression
It is likely that pediatric audiologists will have lots of exciting job opportunities over the coming year as there is expected to be a huge importance places on helping the hearing impaired. Pediatric audiologists consultants can progress further by taking additional training (e.g., special degrees). This will give them the further knowledge and skills to open their own practice and employ consultants to work under them.