Ensuring Accuracy of the Pediatric Hearing Aid Fitting

Abstract

Considerable effort has recently been dedicated towards early detection of hearing loss in infants. The goal is to subsequently fit hearing aids to hearing-impaired infants so that they can develop speech and language as early and as well as possible. The responsibility of the audiologist is to provide the child with the optimal amplification from the hearing aid. This paper gives an overview of aspects involved in correctly assessing the hearing loss and optimally fitting and verifying the performance of the child's hearing aids. Special emphasis is directed towards differences that exist between children and adults, and how these differences can be considered during a pediatric fitting. We suggest a stringent terminology that can help avoid ambiguous terms and connotations in the child's domain which are derived from those that have become established in adult audiometry and hearing aid fittings. The quantification of hearing thresholds and their appropriate representation is reviewed. An appropriate threshold-based prescription of gain or output of the hearing aid is described. Issues of verification and the actual programming of the hearing aid are discussed.