Characteristics of Hearing Aid Fittings in Infants and Young Children

Hearing aids provide the basis for improving audibility and minimizing developmental delays in children with mild to severe hearing loss. Multiple guidelines exist to recommend methods for optimizing amplification in children, but few previous studies have reported hearing aid fitting outcomes for a large group of children. The current study sought to evaluate the proximity of the fitting to prescriptive targets and aided audibility of speech, as well as survey data from pediatric audiologists who provided hearing aids for the children in the current study. Deviations from prescriptive target were predicted to have a negative impact on aided audibility. Additionally, children who were fitted using verification with probe microphone measurements were expected to have smaller deviations from prescriptive targets and improved audibility than cohorts fitted without these measures

Enhancing PhD Preparation through Shared Ideas across CSD Program

Shortages of PhD graduates to fill CSD faculty positions have been a concern for over 15 years. The ASHA AAB (collaborating with CAPCSD) completed interviews of Coordinators of almost all 76 CSD PhD Programs. Results and successful aspects of the programs will be highlighted to stimulate discussion among participants

An empirical examination of the factor structure of compassion

Compassion has long been regarded as a core part of our humanity by contemplative traditions, and in recent years, it has received growing research interest. Following a recent review of existing conceptualisations, compassion has been defined as consisting of the following five elements: 1) recognising suffering, 2) understanding the universality of suffering in human experience, 3) feeling moved by the person suffering and emotionally connecting with their distress, 4) tolerating uncomfortable feelings aroused (e.g., fear, distress) so that we remain open to and accepting of the person suffering, and 5) acting or being motivated to act to alleviate suffering. As a prerequisite to developing a high quality compassion measure and furthering research in this field, the current study empirically investigated the factor structure of the five-element definition using a combination of existing and newly generated self-report items. This study consisted of three stages: a systematic consultation with experts to review items from existing self-report measures of compassion and generate additional items (Stage 1), exploratory factor analysis of items gathered from Stage 1 to identify the underlying structure of compassion (Stage 2), and confirmatory factor analysis to validate the identified factor structure (Stage 3). Findings showed preliminary empirical support for a five-factor structure of compassion consistent with the five-element definition. However, findings indicated that the ‘tolerating’ factor may be problematic and not a core aspect of compassion. This possibility requires further empirical testing. Limitations with items from included measures lead us to recommend against using these items collectively to assess compassion. Instead, we call for the development of a new self-report measure of compassion, using the five-element definition to guide item generation. We recommend including newly generated ‘tolerating’ items in the initial item pool, to determine whether or not factor-level issues are resolved once item-level issues are addressed

Characteristics of Hearing Aid Fittings in Infants and Young Children

OBJECTIVES: Hearing aids provide the basis for improving audibility and minimizing developmental delays in children with mild to severe hearing loss. Multiple guidelines exist to recommend methods for optimizing amplification in children, but few previous studies have reported hearing aid fitting outcomes for a large group of children. The current study sought to evaluate the proximity of the fitting to prescriptive targets and aided audibility of speech, as well as survey data from pediatric audiologists who provided hearing aids for the children in the current study. Deviations from prescriptive target were predicted to have a negative impact on aided audibility. Additionally, children who were fitted using verification with probe microphone measurements were expected to have smaller deviations from prescriptive targets and improved audibility than cohorts fitted without these measures. DESIGN: Hearing aid fitting data from 195 children with mild to severe hearing losses were analyzed as part of a multicenter study evaluating outcomes in children with hearing loss. Proximity of fitting to prescriptive targets was quantified by calculating the average RMS error of the fitting compared to Desired Sensation Level prescriptive targets for 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. Aided audibility was quantified using the speech intelligibility index (SII). Survey data from the pediatric audiologists who fit amplification for children in the current study were collected to evaluate trends in fitting practices and relate those patterns to proximity of the fitting to prescriptive targets and aided audibility. RESULTS: More than half (55%) of the children in the study had at least one ear that deviated from prescriptive targets by more than 5 dB RMS on average. Deviation from prescriptive target was not predicted by pure tone average (PTA), assessment method or reliability of assessment. Study location was a significant predictor of proximity to prescriptive target with locations who recruited subjects who were fit at multiple clinical locations (University of Iowa and Boys Town National Research Hospital) having larger deviations from target than the location where the subjects were recruited primarily from a single, large pediatric audiology clinic (University of North Carolina). Fittings based on average real-ear to coupler differences (RECD) resulted in larger deviations from prescriptive targets than fittings based on individually-measured RECD. Approximately 26% of the children in the study had aided audibility less than .65. Aided audibility was significantly predicted by the proximity to prescriptive targets and PTA, but not age in months. CONCLUSIONS: Children in the study had a wide range of fitting outcomes in terms of proximity to prescriptive targets (RMS error) and aided speech audibility (SII). Even when recommended hearing aid verification strategies were reported, fittings often exceeded the criteria for both proximity to the prescriptive target and aided audibility. The implications for optimizing amplification for children are discussed