Assessment and Monitoring of the LittlEARS? Auditory Questionnaire Used for Young Hearing Aid Users in Auditory Speech Development / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective The objective of the present study was to evaluate the early auditory development in hearing impaired infants by LittlEARS? auditory questionnaire .Methods A total of 162 hearing impaired infants participated in the study .LEAQ consists of 35 items ,which were further divided into receptive auditory behavior , semantic auditory behavior ,and productive auditory behavior .The assessment was performed before hearing aid fit‐ting ,3 ,6 and 12 months after hearing aid fitting ,respectively .Results LEAQ scores improved dramatically in the first 12 months after hearing aid fitting ,total LEAQ scores prior to hearing aid fitting ,3 ,6 and 12 months after hearing aid fitting were 10 .47 ,17 .73 ,20 .64 and 26 .47 ,respectively .The receptive auditory behavior performance improved significantly after 3 months of hearing aid use .The duration of hearing aid use for dramatic improvement of semantic auditory behaviors ,and productive auditory behavior was 6 and 12 months ,respectively .The age of hearing aid fitting ,living environments ,degrees of parent education and degrees of hearing loss influenced LEAQscores significantly .Conclusion Hearing impaired infants exhibited significant auditory improvement in the first 12 months after hearing aids fitting .Early hearing aid fitting ,high level of parent education and well living environ‐ments promote preverbal auditory development .LEAQ is an effective tool for clinical auditory assessment and moni‐toring in infants and little toddlers .