Hearing aid in children under 36 months: a longitudinal study of fitting and interview process

• Grant number: 11/10681-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Myriam de Lima Isaac
• Grantee: Myriam de Lima Isaac
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (FMRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Janaina Regina Bosso

Abstract

The diagnosis and early intervention of hearing impairment have been the strong commitment of professional clinical audiology and educational. With the advent and consolidation of programs for newborn hearing screening and hearing children's health programs, the ideal is that the intervention, which involves selecting anda fitting of a hearing aids (HA) and speech therapy, should be initiated as soon possible. The aim of this study is a longitudinal study of children 04-36 months that are included in the process of selection and fitting of hearing aids and speech therapy on hearing health program of the Hospital of the Medical School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (HCFMRP_USP). Selects 20 children, aged between 04 and 36 months, diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss of mild, moderate, severe and profound. The study will be conducted in four stages: 1 - Confirmation of the audiological diagnosis and determination of auditory thresholds through the auditory brainsteam response (ABR) with click and tone burst stimuli and evoked otoacoustic emissions (OAE), 2 - selection and verification of electroacoustic characteristics of hearing aids, through the prescriptive method Desired Sensation Level (DSL), 3 - validation and evaluation of results with the use of hearing aids and 4 - speech therapy. Children are supervised in a period of 12 months. At the end of the study, the children remain in service of the university hospital, whereas the process of rehabilitation of hearing impaired happens in the long term. (AU)