BAMBINO
Helping to improve hearing tests for babies.
The BAMBINO (Behavioural Audiometry Measures in Babies: Innovation, Novelty and Optimisation) project is a University of Manchester study working with families and children under 2 years old to improve hearing tests for babies.
Our goal is to increase the amount of information audiologists (hearing specialists) obtain during hearing assessment by making tests more fun and engaging, and by exploring new ways of measuring how babies respond to sounds.
Better tests would mean:
- Earlier and more accurate diagnosis of hearing problems.
- Earlier, more thorough, checks that babies are getting the maximum benefit from their hearing devices.
- Fewer visits to hospitals and hearing clinics for caregivers and babies.
On this page:

Project background
Our work looks into how sounds and images that are meaningful to children, like the theme from a favourite TV show, could be used to increase their level of engagement during hearing tests.
We will also explore how new technology and machine learning can help us interpret subtle changes in babies’ faces and behaviour in response to sounds.
Information for participants
We rely on caregivers and babies volunteering to take part in our research so that we can improve hearing tests.
Thank you to all the caregivers and babies who volunteered to take part in our research so that we can improve hearing tests. We don’t currently have any studies running for this project. But we have collected some fantastic data showing the benefits of our newly developed hearing tests. We will publish the results here soon.

Our team
Anisa Visram – Research Fellow
Anisa is a paediatric audiologist and hearing researcher with an interest in improving clinical practice in paediatric audiology. She has significant experience in leading large-scale research studies working with infants with hearing loss.
Iain Jackson – Research Associate
Iain is a developmental psychologist working in research at The University of Manchester. His interests focus on babies’ development and how they learn about the world around them, as well as how we can improve the methods researchers use to learn about babies.
Other team members
- Kevin Munro
- Michael Stone
- Josef Schlittenlacher
- Søren Laugesen
