Macquarie University
Browse

Evaluation of hearing aid performance in school-aged children with moderately severe to profound hearing loss fitted according to the NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 prescriptive procedures

Download (4.12 MB)
thesis
posted on 2022-03-29, 01:29 authored by Tian Kar Quar
"The National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) and the Desired Sensation Level (DSL) prescriptive procedures are often cited as the most sustainable, validated procedures and the most common methods used for hearing aid fitting in adults and in children. The overall aim of the present study is to evaluate the relative performance of the two procedures in children. The study focuses on children because they are most likely to rely on hearing aids fitted with techniques based solely on prescriptive approach. Sixteen Malaysian children with moderately severe to profound hearing loss were involved in the study. The children were fitted with the Phonak Naida V SP hearing aids based on the NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 prescriptive procedures. The NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 were the latest versions of the respective prescriptive formulae available at the time when this study was carried out. After hearing aid fitting, an extended period of hearing aid trial was given to each child. The relative performance of the two procedures was assessed using speech tests, paired-comparison judgments of speech intelligibility tests and questionnaires completed by the parents, teachers and the children themselves. The questionnaires used in the study were the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH), the Teachers' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (TEACH) and the Self Evaluation of Listening Function (SELF). The questionnaires were adapted into the Malay language. Each child also completed a short diary for them to compare the performance of the two procedures in different listening environments. The results showed a significant difference of performance between the NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 procedures for sentence test in quiet and for the subjective measures using questionnaires completed by the parents, teachers and children. The study concluded that the required hearing aid gain for children with moderately severe to profound hearing loss would seem to approximate the DSL v5 prescription, at least in quiet listening environments. The findings have important clinical implications for country like Malaysia where many children with severe to profound hearing loss still rely on hearing aids as their primary amplification devices". -- Abstract.

History

Table of Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. The National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) procedure -- 3. The desired sensation level (DSL) procedure -- 4. Comparison of NAL and DSL procedures -- 5. Hearing aid fitting in children -- 6. Study I: the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/oral performance of Children (PEACH) scale in the Malay language : data of normal-hearing children -- 7. Study II: prescribed and achieved gain of hearing aids fitted according to the NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 procedure in children with moderately severe to profound hearing losses -- 8. Study III: evaluation of real-world preferences and performance of hearing aid in children with moderately severe to profound hearing losses fitted according to the NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 procedures -- 9. Summary and conclusions -- References -- Appendices.

Notes

Includes bibliographical references "Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University & National Acoustic Laboratories". "Thesis submitted as a requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, April 2012"

Awarding Institution

Macquarie University

Degree Type

Thesis PhD

Degree

PhD, Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Linguistics

Department, Centre or School

Department of Linguistics

Year of Award

2012

Principal Supervisor

Teresa Ching

Rights

Copyright disclaimer: http://www.copyright.mq.edu.au Copyright Quar Tian Kar 2012.

Language

English

Extent

1 online resource (xi, 210 pages) illustrations

Former Identifiers

mq:28230 http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/267895 2066290

Usage metrics

    Macquarie University Theses

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC