Abstract
This study of 12 adolescents, ages 9 to 14 years, evaluated the performance of three
different sound-processing strategies within the same hearing aid. These strategies
included (1) linear amplification with peak clipping, (2) linear amplification with
compression limiting, and (3) wide dynamic range compression. Each strategy was evaluated
using objective measures of speech recognition in quiet and in babble after a 2-month
wearing period. Following the evaluation of all three strategies, the subjects' hearing
aids were programmed with all three strategies in memory that could be accessed via
a remote control. The processing strategies were also compared by determining the
signal-to-noise ratio for 50% correct identification of words in sentences. Finally,
a diary of memory usage was completed to evaluate how successfully adolescents can
utilize multiple-memory hearing aids. Results indicated no significant performance
differences between the three hearing aid processing strategies on the objective outcome
measures. However, subjects reported liking the ability to switch between memories
and to use a remote control.
Keywords:
Hearing aids - pediatric audiology - hearing loss
*Data for this project was collected at the author's previous affiliation: Louisiana
State University Medical Center, Department of Communication Disorders, New Orleans,
LA
