Communication partners play an important role in the hearing healthcare (HHC) process of the person with hearing impairment (HI). However, present research focuses mainly on the role of the spouse; the role of the adult child is often overlooked or understated.The aim of the study was to describe the role of the adult child in the HHC process of a parent with HI.Using a qualitative study design, participants described their role in their parents’ HHC process and the impact of a parent’s HI on their relationship and communication in individual semi-structured interviews.Twelve adult children of ten parents with HI participated; two sets of siblings were included to gain different perspectives on the HHC process within the same family.Thematic analysis, a qualitative method to explore participant’s perceptions and viewpoints, was used as the method of analysis.The superordinate theme discussed most frequently by participants, communication management, was bolstered by three ideas or pillars: facilitating HHC, communication strategies, and encouraging hearing aid use. Adult children saw themselves as advocates or supporters of their parent’s HHC by taking an ongoing and active role in promoting successful communication rather than a role in directing their parent’s HHC actions. Within each pillar of communication management, participants’ perceptions and actions were modulated by the varying levels of effort and a desire to ask questions to better understand how to help their parent, which in turn influenced their awareness of the HI and HHC options, often resulting in the adult child putting forth new effort.Whereas the patient journey is often presented to the patient as a linear process, the adult children instead viewed the process of communication management as an ongoing and continuous cycle. The audiologist should be encouraged to involve adult children in the HHC process, as adult children play an important role in everyday communication management.
Passive electrophysiological protocols, such as the middle latency response and speech auditory brainstem response, are often advocated in the objective assessment of central auditory processing disorder (CAPD). However, few established electrophysiological protocols exist for CAPD assessment that have patients participate in active tasks which more closely approximate real-world listening. To this end, the present study used a discrimination task (i.e., oddball paradigm) to measure an enhancement of the auditory late response (N1-P2) that occurs when participants direct their auditory attention toward speech arising from an unexpected spatial location.To establish whether N1-P2 is enhanced when auditory attention is directed toward an unexpected location during a two-word discrimination task. In addition, it was also investigated whether any enhancements in this response were contingent on the stimulus being counted as part of the oddball paradigm.Prospective study with a repeated measures design.Ten normal hearing adults, with an age range of 18–24 years.The N1 and P2 latencies and peak-to-peak amplitudes were recorded during a P300 paradigm. A series of repeated measures of analysis of variance and a correlation analysis was performed.There was a significant effect of stimulus location, in which words arising from the unexpected location showed a larger N1-P2 peak-to-peak amplitude and an earlier N1 latency. This effect was seen regardless of whether or not participants had to count the word total in memory.These findings suggest that spatial enhancement of the N1-P2 is a fairly robust phenomenon in normal hearing adult listeners. Additional studies are needed to determine whether this enhancement is absent or reduced in patients with CAPD.
Family-centered care emphasizes collaboration and open communication between the patient, clinician, and the family. Social support from a frequent communication partner can help to promote initiation of hearing health care services, auditory rehabilitation (AR), or everyday communication management. Research in the caregiving fields has shown different amounts of caregiving burden in adult children compared to spouses, thus the audiologist should recognize that the adult child may be trying to assist their parent in the AR process, while at the same time juggling multiple responsibilities of their own such as a career or raising children. Preliminary investigations of the role of the adult child in the AR process are discussed in order to determine if adult children should be considered differently than spouses in the AR process, primarily due to the fact that many adult children may not live with their parent. The article concludes with 3 recommendations to include communication partners in AR, ranging from invitations to the hearing health care appointment, the physical setup of the room, introducing discussion regarding family-centered care, and the use of tools to promote a structured discussion to include all in the shared decision-making process.
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