title: Assistive hearing technologies among students with hearing impairment: factors that promote satisfaction.
abstract: Hearing technology can play an essential part in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing children in inclusive schools. Few studies have examined these children's experiences with this technology. This article explores factors pertaining to children's use of and attitudes toward hearing technologies, such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, teacher-worn microphones, and student-worn microphones. The study included 153 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. All students communicated orally and were in inclusive schools from grades 5-10. The results suggest that males view hearing technology more positively than do females. Having severe hearing loss also promoted positive attitudes toward hearing aids and cochlear implants, but not toward microphones. The students with positive self-descriptions tended to be more satisfied with hearing aids or cochlear implants than the students with negative self-descriptions. The main factors promoting the use of hearing aids were severe hearing loss, positive attitudes toward hearing aids, and the sound quality of hearing aids.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Work and Health Science, Norwegian University of Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway. ann.m.rekkedal@svt.ntnu.no
authors.forename: Ann Mette
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Rekkedal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D002648:Child; D003054:Cochlear Implants / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000523:psychology; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012044:Regression Analysis