Babies are too young to do hearing tests until 8 to 10 months of age, and at such young ages, tracking brain waves to sounds is the only reliable way to assess hearing.
Age-Related Hearing Loss and Brainwave Changes
Brain oscillations (brainwaves) are associated with specific cognitive and sensory processes. How age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) alters the oscillations is unclear. Age-related speech recognition problems can be caused by changes in neurotransmission (chemical messaging between nerve cells) and temporal processing (the perception of sound within a defined time frame).