Effect of Hearing Device Use on Speech-in-Noise Performance in Children with Severe-to-Profound Unilateral Hearing Loss.

Objectives: Limited evidence exists for the use of rerouting devices in children with severe-to-profound unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Many laboratory studies to date have evaluated hearing-in-noise performance in specific target-masker spatial configurations within a small group of participants and with only a subset of available hearing devices. In the present study, the efficacy of all major types of nonsurgical devices was evaluated within a larger group of pediatric subjects on a challenging speech-in-noise recognition task.

Hearing Aid Use in Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss: A Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial.

Objectives/hypothesis: In children with mild to moderately severe unilateral hearing loss (UHL), assess whether subject-reported quality of life (QOL) and teacher- and parent-reported perception of listening difficulty are affected by use of a hearing aid (HA) with baseline accommodations, compared to children receiving only baseline accommodations.

Study Design: Randomized crossover clinical trial.

Methods: Thirty-seven children 6-12 years of age with mild to moderately severe UHL and ≥80% word recognition scores in the poorer hearing ear were randomized into arm 1, using baseline accommodations (frequency-modulated system and strategic seating) for 12 weeks, followed by addition of a HA for 12 weeks.

Audibility-Based Hearing Aid Fitting Criteria for Children With Mild Bilateral Hearing Loss.

Purpose Because of uncertainty about the level of hearing where hearing aids should be provided to children, the goal of the current study was to develop audibility-based hearing aid candidacy criteria based on the relationship between unaided hearing and language outcomes in a group of children with hearing loss who did not wear hearing aids. Method Unaided hearing and language outcomes were examined for 52 children with mild-to-severe hearing losses. A group of 52 children with typical hearing matched for age, nonverbal intelligence, and socioeconomic status was included as a comparison group representing the range of optimal language outcomes.

Validation of a portable hearing assessment tool: Agilis Health Mobile Audiogram.

Objectives: To examine if the tablet-based Agilis Health Mobile Audiogram (Agilis Audiogram) is an effective and valid measure of hearing thresholds compared to a pure-tone audiogram in an adult and pediatric population.

Methods: Participants underwent an otologic exam, conventional audiometric evaluation and the self-administered Agilis Audiogram. We examined whether the difference of pure-tone average (PTA) between the two measurement techniques fell within the equivalence range of ±8 dB.

Does Clarithromycin Cause Hearing Loss? A 12-Year Review of Clarithromycin Therapy for Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Lymphadenitis in Children.

Objective(s): The objective was to describe the characteristics of hearing losses documented in patients treated with clarithromycin alone for nontuberculous mycobacterial NTM lymphadenitis in a pediatric tertiary care center over a 12-year period.

Methods: An institutional review board (IRB) approval was obtained. A database search was performed using the ICD-10 diagnosis codes 31.

Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct and Cochlear Implants: The Effect of Early Counseling on the Length of Time Between Candidacy and Implantation.

Objective: To determine if discussing cochlear implantation (CI) with patients with enlarged vestibular aqueducts (EVA) and their families before reaching audiological criteria for CI candidacy effects the length of time between reaching audiological candidacy and CI surgery, and to describe the universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) results and communication modality in this sample.

Patients: Forty-two patients (25 females) with confirmed EVA and cochlear implants.

Intervention(s): Diagnostic CI visit.

Applying experiential learning to audiology curricula.

In my quest to become a better professor, I have been searching for the instructional paradigms that best facilitate the educational process between me and my students. To support this endeavor, I opted to study learning diversity. The results of my investigation led me to reflect upon whether my teaching strategies inadvertently engaged only a subset of my students.

Wordlikeness and word learning in children with hearing loss.

Background: The more a novel word conforms to the phonotactics of the language, the more wordlike it is and the easier it is to learn. It is unknown to what extent children with hearing loss (CHL) take advantage of phonotactic cues to support word learning.

Aims: This study investigated whether CHL had similar sensitivities to wordlikeness during a word-learning task as children with normal hearing (CNH).

The Speech Intelligibility Index and the pure-tone average as predictors of lexical ability in children fit with hearing AIDS.

Purpose: To determine whether a clinically obtainable measure of audibility, the aided Speech Intelligibility Index (SII; American National Standards Institute, 2007), is more sensitive than the pure-tone average (PTA) at predicting the lexical abilities of children who wear hearing aids (CHA).

Method: School-age CHA and age-matched children with normal hearing (CNH) repeated words and nonwords, learned novel words, and completed a standardized receptive vocabulary test. Analyses of covariance allowed comparison of the 2 groups.

Vocabulary and working memory in children fit with hearing aids.

Purpose: To determine whether children with mild-to-moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss (CHL) present with disturbances in working memory and whether these disturbances relate to the size of their receptive vocabularies.

Method: Children 6 to 9 years of age participated. Aspects of working memory were tapped by articulation rate, forward and backward digit span in the auditory and visual modalities, Corsi span, parent surveys, and a sequential encoding task.