title: [European Portuguese EARS test battery adaptation].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The use of adequate assessment tools in health care is crucial for the management of care. The lack of specific tools in Portugal for assessing the performance of children who use cochlear implants motivated the translation and adaptation of the EARS (Evaluation of Auditory Responses to Speech) test battery into European Portuguese. This test battery is today one of the most commonly used by (re)habilitation teams of deaf children who use cochlear implants worldwide. The goal to be achieved with the validation of EARS was to provide (re)habilitation teams an instrument that enables: (i) monitoring the progress of individual (re)habilitation, (ii) managing a (re)habilitation program according to objective results, comparable between different (re)habilitation teams, (iii) obtaining data that can be compared with the results of international teams, and (iv) improving engagement and motivation of the family and other professionals from local teams.
  
  
  METHODS
  For the test battery translation and adaptation process, the adopted procedures were the following: (i) translation of the English version into European Portuguese by a professional translator, (ii) revision of the translation performed by an expert panel, including doctors, speech-language pathologists and audiologists, (iii) adaptation of the test stimuli by the team's speechlanguage pathologist, and (iv) further review by the expert panel.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For each of the tests that belong to the EARS battery, the introduced adaptations and adjustments are presented, combining the characteristics and objectives of the original tests with the linguistic and cultural specificities of the Portuguese population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The difficulties that have been encountered during the translation and adaptation process and the adopted solutions are discussed. Comparisons are made with other versions of the EARS battery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We defend that the translation and the adaptation process followed for the EARS test battery into European Portuguese was correctly conducted, respecting the characteristics of the original instruments and adapting the test stimuli to the linguistic and cultural reality of the Portuguese population, thus meeting the goals that have been set.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Graça
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: MED-EL. Innsbruck. Áustria.
authors.forename: Ilona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Magalhães
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Jorge H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Margarida
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simões
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Luís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Otorrinolaringologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudos e Investigação em Saúde. Faculdade de Economia. Universidade de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.. pedrof@fe.uc.pt.
authors.forename: Pedro Lopes
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D003054:Cochlear Implants; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D011174:Portugal; D013067:Speech Perception; D014177:Translations