Studies on stigma regarding hearing impairment and hearing aid use among adults of working age: a scoping review.

Purpose: Research on stigma has been criticized for centering on the perceptions of individuals and their effect on social interactions rather than studying stigma as a dynamic and relational phenomenon as originally defined by Goffman. This review investigates whether and how stigma has been evaluated as a social process in the context of hearing impairment and hearing aid use.

Materials And Methods: Systematic literature searches were conducted within four major databases for peer-reviewed journal articles on hearing impairment and hearing aid rehabilitation.

Discussing Hearing Aid Rehabilitation at the Hearing Clinic: Patient Involvement in Deciding upon the Need for a Hearing Aid.

The quality of interaction between hearing health professionals and patients is one prominent, yet under-studied explanation for the low adherence in acquiring and using a hearing aid. This study describes two different ways of introducing hearing aid to the patients at their first visits at the hearing clinic: an inquiry asking patients opinion followed by offer, and an expert evaluation of the necessity of a hearing aid; and shows two different trajectories ensuing from these introductions. The trajectories represent two extreme ends of a continuum of practices of starting a discussion about hearing aid rehabilitation, in terms of how these practices affect patient participation in decision-making.

The MMN as a viable and objective marker of auditory development in CI users.

In the present article, we review the studies on the use of the mismatch negativity (MMN) as a tool for an objective assessment of cochlear-implant (CI) functioning after its implantation and as a function of time of CI use. The MMN indexes discrimination of different sound stimuli with a precision matching with that of behavioral discrimination and can therefore be used as its objective index. Importantly, these measurements can be reliably carried out even in the absence of attention and behavioral responses and therefore they can be extended to populations that are not capable of behaviorally reporting their perception such as infants and different clinical patient groups.

Early vocabulary development in children with bilateral cochlear implants.

Background: Children with unilateral cochlear implants (CIs) may have delayed vocabulary development for an extended period after implantation. Bilateral cochlear implantation is reported to be associated with improved sound localization and enhanced speech perception in noise. This study proposed that bilateral implantation might also promote early vocabulary development.

Lipreading Ability and Its Cognitive Correlates in Typically Developing Children and Children With Specific Language Impairment.

Purpose: Lipreading and its cognitive correlates were studied in school-age children with typical language development and delayed language development due to specific language impairment (SLI).

Method: Forty-two children with typical language development and 20 children with SLI were tested by using a word-level lipreading test and an extensive battery of standardized cognitive and linguistic tests.

Results: Children with SLI were poorer lipreaders than their typically developing peers.

Promoting lexical learning in the speech and language therapy of children with cochlear implants.

This study examines lexical intervention sessions in speech and language therapy for children with cochlear implants (CIs). Particular focus is on the therapist's professional practices in doing the therapy. The participants in this study are three congenitally deaf children with CIs together with their speech and language therapist.

Dilemmatic group memberships of hard-of-hearing employees during the process of acquiring and adapting to the use of hearing aids.

We describe how hard-of-hearing (HOH) employees renegotiate both their existing and new group memberships when they acquire and begin to use hearing aids (HAs). Our research setting was longitudinal and we carried out a theory-informed qualitative analysis of multiple qualitative data. When an individual discovers that they have a hearing problem and acquire a HA, their group memberships undergo change.

The mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response to sound frequency changes in adult cochlear implant recipients: a follow-up study.

Conclusion: Plasticity of auditory pitch discrimination driven by cochlear implant (CI) use uring a 2.5-year follow-up was indicated by an enhancement of the amplitude of mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related brain potential (ERP) to pure tone frequency changes.

Objectives: To follow up changes in MMN elicited to frequency and duration changes in tones during 2.

Spoken language skills and educational placement in Finnish children with cochlear implants.

Objective: This study reports the demographics, and the auditory and spoken language development as well as educational settings, for a total of 164 Finnish children with cochlear implants.

Methods: Two questionnaires were employed: the first, concerning day care and educational placement, was filled in by professionals for rehabilitation guidance, and the second, evaluating language development (categories of auditory performance, spoken language skills, and main mode of communication), by speech and language therapists in audiology departments.

Results: Nearly half of the children were enrolled in normal kindergartens and 43% of school-aged children in mainstream schools.

Mismatch negativity brain response as an index of speech perception recovery in cochlear-implant recipients.

Speech-discrimination performance and the mismatch negativity (MMN) response elicited by vowel changes were used to track vowel-perception improvement of 5 adult cochlear-implant (CI) recipients. The MMN was recorded several times during the first 3 years after CI activation. Artefacts, presumably caused by CI, contaminated most of the brain responses until 1 year after CI activation.