Phonak brings new questionnaires to support successful pediatric fittings to more people
Stäfa, May 26, 2003 - Phonak is giving more people access to two vital questionnaires dedicated to giving pediatric audiologists and hearingcare professionals crucial inputs for helping children with hearing loss. ELF (Early Listening Function for infants and toddlers) by Karen Anderson PhD and CHILD (Children's Home Inventory of Listening Difficulties) by Karen Anderson PhD and Joseph Smaldino PhD represent two parent completion tools to stimulate the secret ingredient of successful pediatric fittings - parental involvement.
The ELF defines 12 contrived listening activities that parents and caregivers present in the home environment and then observe the responses of their children aged from 0 - 3 years. The object of these activities is to elicit child responses to quiet, typical and loud sounds in order to discover the individual child's hearing range or "listening bubble". An example of a quiet activity is rubbing together the palms of the hands or saying 'sh, sh, sh' out of the child's view, while noisy activities include knocking loudly on a door and speaking in a loud voice. The user-friendly questionnaire allows the parent or caregiver presenting the activities to monitor the child's response at various distances from the sound's source and to rate this on a simple, three-tier scale. As the adults observing the responses gain experience and confidence, they are able to better understand the effects of hearing loss on their child's access to communication in the home. When the ELF results are shared with the audiologist the information will be invaluable to ongoing effective audiological management and validation of the hearing aid fitting.
Karen Anderson PhD, audiologist and author of the ELF questionnaire explains the importance of parental involvement, "Following the diagnosis of a hearing loss in their child, parents face a simultaneous need for information and a huge emotional barrier preventing them from processing that information properly. The object of the ELF questionnaire is to meaningfully inform and empower parents, showing them that their contribution is key to discovering their child's ability to access sound in different environments. Parents are the most important influence in developing a child's optimal language learning and parental buy-in and understanding of the effects of hearing loss motivates their commitment to communicate effectively with their child."
The second questionnaire, the CHILD, also focuses on the parents' role in the observation and monitoring of their child's listening behavior. The 15 items in this questionnaire represent typical family communication situations at different distances and in background noise. The CHILD tasks relate to dynamic communication situations and is appropriate for use with children aged from 3 - 12 years. The parent uses an eight-point scale to estimate the child's listening ability. Adults carrying out the tests check the child's response to both speech in different environments and to other important sounds such as an alarm clock. Apart from providing the hearingcare professional with vital information regarding the effectiveness of amplification, the CHILD also represents a reality check regarding the communication challenges the child is facing in daily life. If a child is having difficulty communicating in background noise or when speech is at a distance at home, this could indicate the need for an FM system, especially when the child enters school. The CHILD can also be used to compare different hearing instruments and settings.
Paul Checkley, pediatric audiologist at Phonak in Switzerland, explains, "Phonak has been dedicated to finding practical and effective ways of helping children with a hearing loss for over three decades. These questionnaires introduce a vital new dimension of teamwork between parents and audiologists. We strongly believe that this collaboration will bring an improved quality of life to a huge number of children with a hearing loss AND their parents and caregivers."
Both questionnaires are extremely flexible and can be adjusted easily to suit individual needs and circumstances. CHILD and ELF are available for downloading from www.phonak.com. Regular use of the tools by parents enables hearingcare professionals to track auditory development accurately and identify emerging needs in good time.
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