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AbstractObjectiveDesignStudy SampleResultsConclusionUp to 10% of adults seeking hearing healthcare for significant hearing concerns have diagnostic test results that indicate normal hearing. Knowledge of the interactions between patients with unexplained hearing concerns and hearing healthcare providers is minimal. In this study, we explored what themes emerged when individuals with unexplained hearing concerns discuss their experiences seeking hearing healthcare.We employed a prospective, cross-sectional qualitative design with semi-structured interviews.Fifteen adults who had sought professional hearing evaluations in the United States due to hearing concerns but had audiological testing that indicated hearing within normal limits, and no other medical explanation for their hearing concerns participated in the study. Saturation of themes was reached by Interview #2, suggesting sufficient sampling.Thematic analysis revealed 3 themes from the interviews: (1) dismissive healthcare providers, (2) misalignment of patient concerns and assessment protocols, and (3) doctor shopping.These findings highlight the need for improved care for patients with unexplained hearing concerns. Clinicians could help improve care provision for patients with unexplained hearing concerns, despite a lack of professional guidance on diagnostic tests or treatment recommendations, by soliciting, listening to, and trusting patient experiences as they seek support for their hearing concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time captions appear to be an effective tool in assisting deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) college students' access information and communication in certain classroom settings. However, there is limited knowledge of DHH students' direct experiences with real-time captioning services. In this study, we gathered narratives from 15 DHH college students across the United States about their experiences with real-time captioning services in college. We analyzed the stories using thematic narrative analysis and uncovered 4 types that students told about their experiences. The story types were (a) stories of overcoming obstacles, (b) stories of resignation, (c) pragmatic stories, and (d) stories of personal connection. These story types reveal that although many students eventually experience effective communication access through real-time captioning services, they can initially struggle to overcome barriers to using the services successfully. Making time and space to listen to DHH students' narratives can teach educators and professionals how to support these students and resolve barriers before they arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) is used to assess auditory development in young children with hearing loss. Despite being widely used, previous research showed that its psychometric properties are not ideal. As a first step toward psychometric advancements of the IT-MAIS, this study aimed to create videos with strong content validity that can later be used to supplement the IT-MAIS questions and ultimately improve its reliability. Researchers first surveyed 10 pediatric audiologists to determine how representative 6 different video scripts were of their corresponding IT-MAIS questions. Researchers then filmed the top-rated scripts. Finally, researchers surveyed an additional 25 pediatric audiologists and 25 caregivers unfamiliar with the IT-MAIS to assess the videos' content validity. Analyses showed that the audiologists and caregivers agreed on which video best depicted each of the 10 ITMAIS questions, thus suggesting that the videos had strong content validity.

We aimed to determine the types of identities hearing parents construct when telling online stories about their children with hearing loss (HL) who use cochlear implants (CIs). To do so, we employed a qualitative design and sampled 20 different blogs United States origins and written by parents of children who use CIs. We then used thematic narrative analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.) to uncover recurring themes from these parents' blogs. The themes then allowed us to assign identities to the parents. Four identities emerged in the parents' stories: (1) advocates, (2) resilient parents, (3) obedient worriers, and (4) matter-of-fact narrators. Identifying and understanding these parent identities is a first step toward improving theoretical and clinical insights into parents' perspectives and experiences following their children's diagnosis of HL. Such insights could ultimately improve audiologists' abilities to help families seek out, implement, and follow-through with family-centered hearing healthcare.

After an infant hearing loss (HL) diagnosis, parents face a multitude of stressors as they try to make the best decisions for their children. For many parents with typical hearing, opting for cochlear implantation is part of the decision-making process. Findings from a sample of hearing parents who chose cochlear implantation for their children with HL reveal that they experience (a) five resilience triggers, (b) five resilience processes, and (c) multiple relationships between the triggers and processes. In this study, we also advance the communication theory of resilience to illustrate four ways parents enact resilience on behalf of their children and formalize a heuristic we call other resilience. By examining the resilience between and across the resilience triggers, parent processes, and children processes, we provide practical applications for clinicians, families, and networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the growth of expressive language skills in children who received cochlear implants (CIs) in infancy. Repeated language measures were gathered from 29 children who received CIs between 10 and 40 months of age. Both cross-sectional and growth curve analyses were used to assess the relationship between expressive language outcomes and CI experience. A beneficial effect of earlier implantation on expressive language growth was found. Growth curve analysis showed that growth was more rapid in children implanted as infants than those implanted as toddlers. Age at initial stimulation accounted for 14.6% of the variance of the individual differences in expressive language growth rates. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

Little is known about the acoustic cues infants might use to selectively attend to one talker in the presence of background noise. This study examined the role of talker familiarity as a possible cue. Infants either heard their own mothers (maternal-voice condition) or a different infant's mother (novel-voice condition) repeating isolated words while a female distracter voice spoke fluently in the background. Subsequently, infants heard passages produced by the target voice containing either the familiarized, target words or novel words. Infants in the maternal-voice condition listened significantly longer to the passages containing familiar words; infants in the novel-voice condition showed no preference. These results suggest that infants are able to separate the simultaneous speech of two women when one of the voices is highly familiar to them. However, infants seem to find separating the simultaneous speech of two unfamiliar women extremely difficult.

Framed by relational dialectics theory, the present study takes a critical approach to interrogating the social structures that promote and resist hearing loss and hearing aid-related stigma. Specifically, this study explores the ways the meaning of hearing loss is constructed in 30 narrative interviews with adults who use hearing aids. Contrapuntal analysis revealed that two discourses compete to illuminate meanings of hearing loss. Four interrelated themes that emphasize (a) expectations of zero hearing and for disability, (b) assumptions of cognitive deficit, (c) mistaken rudeness and resulting isolation, and (d) conflation with old age constitute the Discourse of Hearing Loss as a Personal Short-coming (DHLPS). Three interrelated themes that emphasize (a) collective responsibility, (b) a part of (my) life, and (c) (re)education constitute the Discourse of Hearing Loss as a Relational Reality (DHLRR) and resist the DHLPS. The competition of these discourses, in the form of diachronic separation, synchronic interplay, and an aesthetic moment coalesce to make meaning of hearing loss and hold implications for both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to determine the identities that adults with hearing loss construct when telling stories about their experiences with hearing loss and hearing aids. Determining and understanding these identities is important because research shows that who a person believes themselves to be has implications for how they approach their healthcare, along with their emotional and physical wellbeing. Design: We employed a qualitative narrative approach. We then used thematic narrative analysis to identify emergent identities across stories gathered from hearing aid users. These themes allowed us to assign emergent identities to the hearing-aid users. Study Sample: Thirty adults with hearing loss who reported using their hearing aids during all waking hours. Results: Five identities emerged from the hearing-aid users' narratives: (1) the satisfied user, (2) the overcomer, (3) the dispassionate user, (4) the frustrated and resigned user, and (5) the griever. Conclusion: These findings are a first step to improving theoretical and clinical insights into the perspectives and experiences of satisfied hearing-aid users following diagnosis of their hearing loss and their hearing aid fittings. Such insights could ultimately improve hearing healthcare providers' abilities to employ person-centered care while helping adults with hearing loss seek out, implement, and adhere to treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand how talker-specific information influences spoken language processing in different experimental listening tasks, we examined the effect of a foreign accent on preschoolers’ word recognition and story comprehension. In Experiment 1, preschoolers listening to words presented by a native-accented talker recognized significantly more words than did preschoolers listening to words presented by a foreign-accented talker. In Experiment 2, preschoolers listening to a story narrated by a native-accented talker demonstrated significantly lower comprehension accuracy compared to preschoolers listening to a foreign-accented narrator. These findings underscore the importance of the experimental task when examining and making claims about the influence of accent information on young children's spoken language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Very young children were followed during their pre-operative, hearing aid use and subsequent cochlear implant use. Repeated measures of audio-visual (AV) speech perception were collected from each child using the Split-Screen Preferential Looking Paradigm (SPLP). Audibility was calculated using the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) pre- and post-cochlear implantation. The relationship of AV speech perception to changes in audibility was examined retrospectively using an approximation of a single-subject design. A subset of this preliminary data is presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Research on pediatric cochlear implantation has frequently shown that speech perception, speech production, and language outcomes are better for children who are implanted earlier in life than later. These findings are often explained on the grounds that earlier implantation takes advantage of a critical or sensitive period. This paper reviews the literature concerning sensitive periods within the framework of speech and language development. It particularly emphasizes two alternate mechanisms proposed for these periods: an experience-independent mechanism, and an experience-dependent mechanism. Based on this literature review we proposed that research in the field of pediatric cochlear implantation needs to carefully define what kind of evidence is needed to reflect a sensitive period for speech and language learning. The field also needs to consider designing studies that allow the viability of these two mechanisms to be tested. An example of such a study is provided within.

Objectives: To determine the feasibility of replicating prior bimodal perception findings with hearing-impaired infants during their preimplant, hearing aid trial, and postimplant experiences; secondarily, to determine the point in development at which these infants were able to match phonetic information in the lips and voice for the vowels /a/ and /i/., Methods: A total of 10 infants with hearing loss, aged 4 to 24 months, were assessed at least once prior to cochlear implantation and previous to implant stimulation. The Split-Screen Preferential Looking Procedure was used to evaluate the bimodal perception skills of these infants., Results: Examples of individual bimodal perception data and preliminary group data are presented. A difference in performance across preimplant and postimplant test sessions was noted for the individuals and the group., Conclusion: These data provide evidence that the infants' audibility levels were improved by their cochlear implants, which may have contributed to their evolving ability to match phonetic information in the lips and voice.