Elizabeth A. Walker|Ryan McCreery|Meredith Spratford|Patricia Roush
Children with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder Fitted with Hearing Aids Applying the American Academy of Audiology Pediatric Amplification Guideline: Current Practice and Outcomes
background 15 children permanent hearing loss hl auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder ansd involves normal outer hair cell function disordered afferent neural activity auditory nerve brainstem given varying presentations ansd children need evidencebased research appropriate clinical interventions population purpose study compared speech production speech perception language outcomes children ansd hard hearing children similar degrees mildtomoderately severe sensorineural hearing loss snhl fitted bilateral hearing aids based american academy audiology pediatric amplification guidelines research design speech perception communication outcomes data gathered prospective accelerated longitudinal design entry study six mo seven yr age three sites involved participant recruitment boys town national research hospital university north carolina chapel hill university iowa study sample sample consisted 12 children ansd 22 children snhl groups matched based betterear puretone average betterear aided speech intelligibility index gender maternal education level newborn hearing screening result ie pass refer data collection analysis children families participated initial baseline visit followed visits twice year children lt2 yr age yr children gt2 yr age pairedsample ttests used compare children ansd children snhl results paired ttests indicated significant differences ansd snhl groups language articulation measures children ansd displayed functional speech perception skills quiet although number participants small conduct statistical analyses speech perception testing appeared trend ansd group performed poorly background noise compared snhl group conclusions american academy audiology pediatric amplification guidelines recommend children ansd receive ha trial behavioral thresholds sufficiently high enough impede speech perception conversational levels children ansd mildtosevere hl range current results support recommendation children ansd achieve functional outcomes similar peers snhl