An Approach for Ensuring Accuracy in Pediatric Hearing Instrument Fitting

Hearing instrument fitting with infants and young children differs in several important ways relative to the fitting process with adults. In developing the Desired Sensation Level method, we have attempted to account for those factors that are uniquely associated with pediatric hearing instrument fitting. Within this article we describe how the external ear acoustics of infants and young children have been systematically accounted for in developing the Desired Sensation Level method. Specific evidence-based procedures that can be applied with infants and young children for the purposes of audiometric assessment, electroacoustic selection, and verification of hearing instrument performance are described.

[1]  F. Bess.  Amplification for Infants and Children with Hearing Loss* , 1996 .

[2]  M. Pollack.  Amplification for the hearing impaired , 1980 .

[3]  N P Erber.  Body-baffle and real-ear effects in the selection of hearing aids for deaf children. , 1973, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[4]  Kathryn Hoberg Arehart,et al.  State of the States: The Status of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening, Assessment, and Intervention Systems in 16 States. , 1998, American journal of audiology.

[5]  R C Seewald,et al.  Validity and Repeatability of Level‐Independent HL to SPL Transforms , 1998, Ear and hearing.

[6]  Fred H. Bess,et al.  Amplification for children with auditory deficits , 1996 .

[7]  Infants are not average adults: Implications for audiometric testing , 1999 .

[8]  P. Stelmachowicz,et al.  Real ear to 6-cm3 coupler differences in young children. , 1993, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[9]  Fred H. Bess.  Amplification for Infants and Children With Hearing Loss , 1996 .

[10]  Richard C. Seewald,et al.  Procedure for Predicting Real-Ear Hearing Aid Performance in Young Children , 1994 .

[11]  Denis Byrne,et al.  Evaluation of Hearing Aid Fittings for Infants , 1974 .

[12]  P. Stelmachowicz,et al.  Repeatability of a Real-Ear-to-Coupler Difference Measurement as a Function of Age , 1996 .

[13]  Carole E. Johnson.  Children with Hearing Impairment: Contemporary Trends , 1999 .

[14]  Harvey Dillon,et al.  NAL-NL1: A new procedure for fitting non-linear hearing aids , 1999 .

[15]  R V Harrison,et al.  Cochlear nerve action potentials during cerebellopontine angle surgery: relationship of latency, amplitude, and threshold measurements to hearing. , 1989, Ear and hearing.

[16]  Susan D Scollie,et al.  Real-ear-to-coupler difference predictions as a function of age for two coupling procedures. , 2002, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[17]  J. Katz,et al.  Handbook of clinical audiology , 1978 .

[18]  W A Cole,et al.  The Audioscan RM500 Speechmap/DSL Fitting System , 1998, Trends in amplification.

[19]  Susan Scollie,et al.  Predictive Validity of a Procedure for Pediatric Hearing Instrument Fitting , 1999 .

[20]  D. Markle,et al.  Hearing Aids , 1936, The Journal of Laryngology & Otology.

[21]  R W Gengel,et al.  A frequency-response procedure for evaluating and selecting hearing aids for severely hearing-impaired children. , 1971, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[22]  Marlene P. Bagatto.  Optimizing your RECD measurements , 2001 .

[23]  Richard C. Seewald,et al.  Electroacoustic Verification Measures with Modern Hearing Instrument Technology , 2002 .

[24]  P G Stelmachowicz,et al.  Probe-tube microphone measures of ear-canal sound pressure levels in infants and children. , 1989, Ear and hearing.

[25]  D L Zelisko,et al.  Signal delivery/real ear measurement system for hearing aid selection and fitting. , 1992, Ear and hearing.

[26]  B. Kruger,et al.  An update on the external ear resonance in infants and young children. , 1987, Ear and hearing.