The use of remote microphone systems in unilateral hearing loss: a preliminary study among Brazilian children and teenagers

Mondelli, Maria Fernanda Capoani Garcia; Jacob, Regina Tangerino de Souza; Honório, Heitor Marques

doi:10.1590/1678-7757-2018-0744

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Until recently, the effects of UHL in children have been understudied, and assumed to be minimal (44). For example, children with UHL in the United Kingdom are not routinely funded to have a remote microphone system (RMS), a wireless microphone system that transmits sound from a talker to the receiver's ear (28), even though use of RMS has been shown to improve performance in sustained auditory attention ability (45).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring listening-related fatigue in children with and without hearing loss using self-report and parent-proxy measures

et al. 2023

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Children with hearing loss appear to experience greater fatigue than children with normal hearing (CNH). Listening-related fatigue is often associated with an increase in effortful listening or difficulty in listening situations. This has been observed in children with bilateral hearing loss (CBHL) and, more recently, in children with unilateral hearing loss (CUHL). Available tools for measuring fatigue in children include general fatigue questionnaires such as the child self-report and parent-proxy versions of the PedsQLTM-Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (MFS) and the PROMIS Fatigue Scale. Recently, the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale (VFS-C: child self-report; VFS-P: parent-proxy report) was introduced with a specific focus on listening-related fatigue. The aims of this study were to compare fatigue levels experienced by CNH, CUHL and CBHL using both generic and listening-specific fatigue measures and compare outcomes from the child self-report and parent-proxy reports. Eighty children aged 6–16 years (32 CNH, 19 CUHL, 29 CBHL), and ninety-nine parents/guardians (39 parents to CNH, 23 parents to CUHL, 37 parents to CBHL), completed the above fatigue questionnaires online. Kruskal-Wallis H tests were performed to compare fatigue levels between the CNH, CUHL and CBHL. To determine the agreement between parent-proxy and child self-report measures, Bland-Altman 95% limits of agreement were performed. All child self-report fatigue measures indicated that CBHL experience greater fatigue than CNH. Only the listening-specific tool (VFS-C) was sufficiently able to show greater fatigue in CUHL than in CNH. Similarly, all parent-proxy measures of fatigue indicated that CBHL experience significantly greater fatigue than CNH. The VFS-P and the PROMIS Fatigue Parent-Proxy also showed greater fatigue in CUHL than in CNH. Agreement between the parent-proxy and child self-report measures were found within the PedsQL-MFS and the PROMIS Fatigue Scale. Our results suggest that CBHL experience greater levels of daily-life fatigue compared to CNH. CUHL also appear to experience more fatigue than CNH, and listening-specific measures of fatigue may be better able to detect this effect. Further research is needed to understand the bases of fatigue in these populations and to clarify whether fatigue experienced by CBHL and CUHL is comparable in nature and degree.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring listening-related fatigue in children with and without hearing loss using self-report and parent-proxy measures

et al. 2023

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“…The use of a RM has been reported to be associated with improvements in various hearing-impaired populations [30,59,60]. Moreover, RM systems are reported to have the advantage of not eliminating the head shadow effect, avoiding the significant reduction in speech perception when the signal comes from the better hearing side and the noise contralaterally (SbNw), which is typical of CROS systems [60].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Bone-Anchored Hearing Devices and Remote Microphones in Children with Congenital Unilateral Hearing Loss

Lazzerini,

Bruschini,

Fiacchini

et al. 2023

Brain Sciences

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Congenital unilateral hearing loss (UHL) represents a contemporary audiologic challenge. Children with UHL can struggle with understanding speech in noise, localizing sounds, developing language, and maintaining academic performance, leading to low self-esteem, anxiety, and decreased social support. Two specific conditions related to UHL in children are single-sided deafness (SSD) and unilateral auris atresia (UAA). This was a retrospective observational study on a group of children with UHL. The Simplified Italian Matrix Sentence Test was used for the assessment of speech reception threshold (SRT) in different conditions: speech and noise from the front (S0N0), speech at 45° from the side of the better ear and noise at 45° from the opposite side (SbNw), and vice versa (SwNb). Each test was conducted unaided, with a bone-anchored hearing device (BAHD), and with a remote microphone (RM) system. The use of a BAHD and RM led to an improvement in SRT in S0N0 and SwNb conditions. The SSD subgroup demonstrated significant benefits with both devices in SwNb, and the UAA subgroup from the use of BAHD in S0N0. In conclusion, the study underscores the potential benefits of both devices in enhancing speech perception for UHL children, providing insights into effective intervention strategies for these challenging cases.

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“…Access to critical speech information is negatively affected, even at small distances typical of classroom environments [Leavitt and Flexer, 1991], and compounded by the presence of competing noise. Further, previous studies have demonstrated that listening abilities are compromised in classroom environments even in mild and unilateral HL [Hawkins, 1984;Ruscetta et al, 2005;Noh and Park, 2012] and aided listening [Hawkins, 1984;Smaldino and Crandell, 2000;Lewis et al, 2004;Mondelli et al, 2019;Snapp et al, 2020].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Signal Transparency of Remote Microphone Technology in Pediatric Bone Conduction Device Users

2023

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Introduction: Competing noise in the environment negatively affects speech intelligibility, particularly when listening at a distance. This is especially true for children with hearing loss in classroom environments where the signal-to-noise ratio is often poor. Remote microphone technology has been shown to be highly beneficial at improving the signal-to-noise ratio in hearing device users. Children with bone conduction devices, however, often must rely on indirect transmission of the acoustic signal for commonly used classroom-based remote microphone listening (e.g., digital adaptive microphone) which may negatively affect speech intelligibility. There are no studies on the effectiveness of using a relay method of signal delivery using remote microphone technology to improve speech intelligibility in adverse listening environments in bone conduction device users. Methods: Nine children with irresolvable conductive hearing loss and 12 adult controls with normal hearing were included for study. Controls were bilaterally plugged to simulate conductive hearing loss. All testing was conducted using the Cochlear™ Baha® 5 standard processor coupled with either the Cochlear™ Mini Microphone 2+ digital remote microphone or the Phonak Roger™ adaptive digital remote microphone. Speech intelligibility in noise was evaluated in the (1) bone conduction device processor alone, (2) bone conduction device + personal remote microphone, and (3) bone conduction device + personal remote microphone + adaptive digital remote microphone listening conditions at −10 dB, 0 dB, and +5 dB signal-to-noise ratios. Results and Conclusions: Speech intelligibility in noise improved significantly in the bone conduction device + personal remote microphone condition over the bone conduction device alone, demonstrating significant benefit for listening at poor signal-to-noise ratios in children with conductive hearing loss using bone conduction devices with personal remote microphone use. Experimental findings demonstrate poor signal transparency when using the relay method. Coupling of the adaptive digital remote microphone technology to the personal remote microphone negatively affects signal transparency, and no hearing in noise improvements are observed. Significant gains in speech intelligibility are consistently observed for direct streaming methods and are confirmed in adult controls. Behavioral findings are supported by objective verification of the signal transparency between the remote microphone and the bone conduction device.

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The use of remote microphone systems in unilateral hearing loss: a preliminary study among Brazilian children and teenagers

Cited by 6 publications

References 32 publications

Exploring listening-related fatigue in children with and without hearing loss using self-report and parent-proxy measures

Exploring listening-related fatigue in children with and without hearing loss using self-report and parent-proxy measures

The Role of Bone-Anchored Hearing Devices and Remote Microphones in Children with Congenital Unilateral Hearing Loss

Signal Transparency of Remote Microphone Technology in Pediatric Bone Conduction Device Users

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