Assessing Speech Perception and Amplification Benefit During Infancy

University of Colorado, Denver36 enrolled

Overview

The goal of this project is to compare aided and unaided speech discrimination among infants with hearing loss and a cohort of infants with typical hearing. Working Hypothesis: Among this group of infants with hearing loss, performance will be significantly better when infants are tested while using amplification (i.e., aided condition) compared to when tested without amplification (i.e., unaided condition). Infants fit with optimally programmed amplification will perform similarly to the infants with typical hearing on speech discrimination tasks.

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Enrollment

Conditions

Hearing Loss Children With Hearing Differences Amplification Speech Perception

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 6 MonthsMax age: 36 MonthsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Children between the ages of 6 months and 36 months (inclusive) at the time of enrollment. * English is the primary spoken language in the home * Demonstrated ability to complete a conditioned head turn via visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) * If normal hearing -Normal hearing sensitivity bilaterally * If Hearing Loss * Children with diagnosis of bilateral sensorineural hearing ranging from mild to severe * Children currently using hearing aids * Children currently enrolled in intervention Exclusion Criteria: * Children born earlier than 35 weeks gestation * Children with abnormal tympanometry on the day of testing * Children with concerns of secondary disabilities * Children with Auditory Neuropathy * Concerns of hearing loss in normal hearing children

Locations (1)

University of Colorado School of Medicine - Speech Perception Over Time Lab

Aurora, Colorado, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Behavioral Speech Perception

To measure speech perception ability, infants are trained to complete a task in response to a change in a speech sound played over a speaker. Scores are given in d' (or equivalent) and are calculated from both true and false responses. Scores can range from 0.97 and 3.00. Scores above 1.2 are considered significantly above chance indicating successful perception of speech contrasts. To separate issues such as speech discrimination abilities versus proper conditioning, if a child is unable to discriminate a speech contrast (e.g., /ba-da/ or /sa-sha/) testing will transition to the 'easier' speech contrast /a-i/. If the child can discriminate between /a-i/, the investigators will repeat the previously tested contrast. Upon completion of this contrast the next contrast in will be assessed based on randomization ordering. If either contrast was not assessed/the child did not reach criterion, the participant will be rescheduled within 1 month, pending subject factors.

Time frame: Through study completion, up to 6 weeks pending subject factors (e.g., fatigue, otitis media)

Secondary Outcomes

Aided Behavioral Speech Perception Improvement

Scores are measured from 0 to 2.03. Higher scores indicate greater benefit from hearing aid use in the hearing loss cohort.

Time frame: Through study completion, up to 6 weeks pending subject factors (e.g., fatigue, otitis media)

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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