Hearing aids in children: the importance of the verification and validation processes.
BACKGROUND
during the fitting of hearing aids in children it is important, besides using a verification protocol, to have a validation process.


OBJECTIVE
to describe and discuss the use of a protocol for the fitting and the verification of hearing aids in children, as well as the impact of the adjustment of the acoustic characteristics in speech perception tasks.


METHODS
ten children aging from three to eleven years were enrolled in this study. All children presented bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment, were users of hearing aids and were followed at a public hearing health care service in Bahia. The children were submitted to the following procedures: pure tone air and bone conduction thresholds; real-ear coupler difference (RECD); verification with real-ear measurement equipment: coupler gain/output and insertion gain and to speech perception tasks: 'The Six-Sound Test' (Ling, 2006) and the 'Word Associations for Syllable Perception' (WASP - Koch, 1999). The programmed electro acoustic characteristics of the hearing aids were compared to the electro acoustic characteristics prescribed by the DSL [i/o] v4.1 software. The speech perception tasks were reapplied on three occasions: straight after the modification of the electro acoustic characteristics, after 30 days and 60 days.


RESULTS
for more than 50% of the tested children, the programmed electro acoustic characteristics of the hearing aids did not correspond to that suggested by the DSL [i/o] software. Adequate prescription was verified in 70% of the investigated sample; this was also confirmed by the results in the speech perception tasks (p=0.000). This data confirmed that the mean percentage of correct answers increased after the modification of the electro acoustic characteristics.


CONCLUSIONS
the use of a protocol that verifies and validates the fitting of hearing aids in children is necessary.
Rissatto
Mara Renata
MR
Universidade do Estado da Bahia e da União Metropolitana de Educação e Cultura (BA). mararenata@uol.com.br
Novaes
Beatriz Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Caiuby
BC
D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement