Development of preverbal communication skills in children with hearing aids

LI Ying; CHEN Xueqing; LIU Haihong; MENG Chao; GUO Qianqian; ZHENG Yan; ZHANG Hua; WU Yanjun; KONG Ying

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1672-2922.2016.02.018

Abstract：Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate preverbal communication skills in children with hearing aids, to provide a basis for establishing a hearing and speech habilitation program. Methods Sixty children with hearing aids participated in this study. They all had prelingual hearing loss and aged from 4 to 49 months (mean=22.4 months) at hearing aid fitting. According to their hearing levels, children in this study were divided into three groups, i.e. those with moderate hearing loss (group A, n=11), severe hearing loss (group B, n=36), or with profound hearing loss (group C, n=13). According to their age at hearing aid fitting, they were divided into two groups, i.e. those who were fitted under the age of 2 (group a, n=41) and those who were fitted when older than 2 years old (groups b, n=19). Tait video analysis was used to as-sess preverbal communication skills, including turn-taking, eye-contact, autonomy and auditory awareness, and was per-formed at 0, 3, 6 and 12 months after hearing aid fitting. Results The mean scores of turn-taking and auditory-awareness showed significant improvements within the first year after hearing aid fitting for groups A, B and C (P<0.05), while there were no significant differences in mean scores of eye-contact and autonomy (P>0.05). The mean scores of turn-taking showed significant improvements within the first year after hearing aid fitting for groups A, B and C (p<0.05), while there were no significant differences in mean scores of Eye-contact and Autonomy (p>0.05). The mean scores of Turn-taking showed significant improvements within the first year after hearing aid fitting for groups a and b (p<0.05). The mean scores of Auditory-awareness showed no significant improvement within the first year after hearing aid fitting for group a (p>0.05), while there was significant difference for group b (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in mean scores of Eye-contact and autonomy (p>0.05) within the first year after hearing aid fitting for groups a and b. Conclusion:The longer the children use the hearing aids, the better they achieve the preverbal communication skills. The lighter the children have the hearing loss, the faster they develop the preverbal communication skills. Video analysis is a useful tool to access prever-bal communication skills in children with hearing aids.