Audiological Assessment of Profoundly Hearing-Impaired Children

The design of an audiological assessment protocol for profoundly hearing-impaired children may be divided into three areas. First, accurate estimation of hearing loss includes the behavioral measures of unaided and aided thresholds and the objective measures of electrocochleography and auditory brain stem response. The reliability of these measures for the accurate diagnosis of a profound to total hearing loss is discussed. Second, speech perception includes the measure of perception in the audition alone, vision alone, and audition plus vision conditions. Test material should include speech features, words, and sentences. Factors influencing the choice of material are the developmental age of the child, the method of educational instruction, speech and language skills, and vocabulary limits. Third, psychophysical properties of residual auditory skills include measures such as frequency, intensity, and duration difference limens. These skills may be compared to those elicited through other sensory channels, such as visual and tactile. Other important factors that should be considered are the psychological well-being of the child and family, family motivations and expectations, and educational requirements.