Shortpaper: Age at fitting of hearing aids and speech intelligibility

Abstract

This paper reports on the effect of age at fitting of hearing aids on subsequent achievements in speech intelligibility among hearing-impaired children. Four groups of hearing-impaired children were included in this investigation. Group A (n = 32) started using hearing aids in their first 6 months of life; Group B (n = 32) in their second 6 months of life; Group C (n = 38) in their second year of life and Group D (n = 51) in their third year of life. The children in each group were matched with regard to age, sex, age at onset of deafness, degree of hearing loss and educational establishment attended. The speech intelligibility of each child was rated by his/her class teacher on a 7-point scale. It was found that the speech intelligibility of the children in Group A was significantly superior to the speech intelligibility of the children in the other three groups. All other differences in speech intelligibility obtained between groups (Group B v. Group C v. Group D) were small and none proved to be statistically significant.

Assessment of deafmute patients: a study of ten years

“…Defi cits due to absent acoustic stimulation in the fi rst two year of life are nearly impossible to improve by later rehabilitation [2]. If congenital hearing disorders are detected and treated in time, most of the children can develop near normal speech and no special education is necessary [2][3][4]. For the detection of hearing disorders behavioural observation audiometry (BOA), brain stem evoked response audiometry (BSERA), transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAS), and acoustic refl ex test (ART) with acceptable sensitivity and specifi city are available.…”

İşi̇tme Tarama Üni̇tesi̇ne Başvuran Bebeklerde İşi̇tme Kaybi İçi̇n Ri̇sk Faktörleri̇ni̇n Beli̇rlenmesi̇ Ve İşi̇tme Tarama Testleri̇ Sonuçlarina Etki̇si̇ni̇n Araştirilmasi

“…Beyin sapı Cevabı (Auditory Brainstem Response, ABR) gibi testler işitme kaybının erken tespit edilmesinde kullanılan non-invaziv, nesnel ve fizyolojik ölçümlerdir (5). Doğum sonrasında en az iki kere yapıldığı halde TEOAE testinden geçemeyen bebeklere ilk üç ay içinde ABR testi yapılması önerilmektedir.…”

Intelligibility of Speech Produced by Children with Hearing Loss: Conventional Amplification versus Nonlinear Frequency Compression in Hearing Aids

“…One study reported the benefits of early hearing-aid fitting for speech intelligibility of children at 8-12 years of age, showing that about 50% of children who received their first hearing aids before 6 months of age were rated by their teachers to be fairly or very easy to understand, whereas only 10-15% of those who received later fitting produced intelligible speech [13].…”