WorldWideScience

Sample records for hearing impaired persons

  1. Personal Experiences of Hearing-impaired People in Higher ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This qualitative paper analyses the personal experiences of hearing-impaired people in accessing, participating and completing higher education in Zimbabwe, and the authors' experiences in the education of students with disabilities. A 6As' framework is informed by the 4As framework of Tomaševski (2001), namely ...

  2. Hearing aid fitting in older persons with hearing impairment: the influence of cognitive function, age, and hearing loss on hearing aid benefit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meister, Hartmut; Rählmann, Sebastian; Walger, Martin; Margolf-Hackl, Sabine; Kießling, Jürgen

    2015-01-01

    To examine the association of cognitive function, age, and hearing loss with clinically assessed hearing aid benefit in older hearing-impaired persons. Hearing aid benefit was assessed using objective measures regarding speech recognition in quiet and noisy environments as well as a subjective measure reflecting everyday situations captured using a standardized questionnaire. A broad range of general cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and intelligence were determined using different neuropsychological tests. Linear regression analyses were conducted with the outcome of the neuropsychological tests as well as age and hearing loss as independent variables and the benefit measures as dependent variables. Thirty experienced older hearing aid users with typical age-related hearing impairment participated. Most of the benefit measures revealed that the participants obtained significant improvement with their hearing aids. Regression models showed a significant relationship between a fluid intelligence measure and objective hearing aid benefit. When individual hearing thresholds were considered as an additional independent variable, hearing loss was the only significant contributor to the benefit models. Lower cognitive capacity - as determined by the fluid intelligence measure - was significantly associated with greater hearing loss. Subjective benefit could not be predicted by any of the variables considered. The present study does not give evidence that hearing aid benefit is critically associated with cognitive function in experienced hearing aid users. However, it was found that lower fluid intelligence scores were related to higher hearing thresholds. Since greater hearing loss was associated with a greater objective benefit, these results strongly support the advice of using hearing aids regardless of age and cognitive function to counter hearing loss and the adverse effects of age-related hearing impairment. Still, individual cognitive capacity might

  3. PSYCHOSOCIAL INFLUENCE OF HEARING IMPAIRMENT ON THE INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOR OF YOUTHS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Osisanya AYO

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Individuals with hearing impairment are confronted with a lot of problems due to the condition of their disability. This has a negative impact on their social and psychological well-being with multiplying effect on their interpersonal relationship. Therefore, this study investigated the psycho-social influence of hearing impairment on interpersonal behavior of youths with hearing loss.MethodologyThe study adopted a survey research design. A sample consisting of 211 participants with hearing loss were purposively selected from the Federal College of Education (Special Oyo, Nigeria. A questionnaire, part of Psycho-social Competence Scale (PCS, was used for data collection with reliability coefficient of 0.72.ResultsThe findings revealed that hearing impairement affects social interaction of youths with hearing impairment, hearing loss affects emotional well-being of youths with hearing impairment and youths with hearing impairment feel inferior in company of persons without hearing impairment. Based on this, it was recommended that a friendly home environment should be made and youths with hearing impairment should be advised to accept their loss and take it as a challenge that can be used to achieve a better end and the society should have right attitude and beliefs toward youths with hearing impairment.

  4. An assistive technology for hearing-impaired persons: analysis, requirements and architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mielke, Matthias; Grunewald, Armin; Bruck, Rainer

    2013-01-01

    In this contribution, a concept of an assistive technology for hearing-impaired and deaf persons is presented. The concept applies pattern recognition algorithms and makes use of modern communication technology to analyze the acoustic environment around a user, identify critical acoustic signatures and give an alert to the user when an event of interest happened. A detailed analysis of the needs of deaf and hearing-impaired people has been performed. Requirements for an adequate assisting device have been derived from the results of the analysis, and have been turned into an architecture for its implementation that will be presented in this article. The presented concept is the basis for an assistive system which is now under development at the Institute of Microsystem Engineering at the University of Siegen.

  5. Image and Video for Hearing Impaired People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aran Oya

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available We present a global overview of image- and video-processing-based methods to help the communication of hearing impaired people. Two directions of communication have to be considered: from a hearing person to a hearing impaired person and vice versa. In this paper, firstly, we describe sign language (SL and the cued speech (CS language which are two different languages used by the deaf community. Secondly, we present existing tools which employ SL and CS video processing and recognition for the automatic communication between deaf people and hearing people. Thirdly, we present the existing tools for reverse communication, from hearing people to deaf people that involve SL and CS video synthesis.

  6. Speech intelligibility of normal listeners and persons with impaired hearing in traffic noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aniansson, G.; Peterson, Y.

    1983-10-01

    Speech intelligibility (PB words) in traffic-like noise was investigated in a laboratory situation simulating three common listening situations, indoors at 1 and 4 m and outdoors at 1 m. The maximum noise levels still permitting 75% intelligibility of PB words in these three listening situations were also defined. A total of 269 persons were examined. Forty-six had normal hearing, 90 a presbycusis-type hearing loss, 95 a noise-induced hearing loss and 38 a conductive hearing loss. In the indoor situation the majority of the groups with impaired hearing retained good speech intelligibility in 40 dB(A) masking noise. Lowering the noise level to less than 40 dB(A) resulted in a minor, usually insignificant, improvement in speech intelligibility. Listeners with normal hearing maintained good speech intelligibility in the outdoor listening situation at noise levels up to 60 dB(A), without lip-reading (i.e., using non-auditory information). For groups with impaired hearing due to age and/or noise, representing 8% of the population in Sweden, the noise level outdoors had to be lowered to less than 50 dB(A), in order to achieve good speech intelligibility at 1 m without lip-reading.

  7. Congenital hearing impairment

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    Robson, Caroline D. [Children' s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Division of Neuroradiology, Department of Radiology, Boston, MA (United States)

    2006-04-15

    Establishing the etiology of congenital hearing impairment can significantly improve treatment for certain causes of hearing loss and facilitates genetic counseling. High-resolution CT and MRI have contributed to the evaluation and management of hearing impairment. In addition, with the identification of innumerable genetic loci and genetic defects involved in hearing loss, genetic testing has emerged as an invaluable tool in the assessment of hearing impairment. Some of the common forms of congenital hearing loss are reviewed and their imaging features illustrated. (orig.)

  8. Congenital hearing impairment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robson, Caroline D.

    2006-01-01

    Establishing the etiology of congenital hearing impairment can significantly improve treatment for certain causes of hearing loss and facilitates genetic counseling. High-resolution CT and MRI have contributed to the evaluation and management of hearing impairment. In addition, with the identification of innumerable genetic loci and genetic defects involved in hearing loss, genetic testing has emerged as an invaluable tool in the assessment of hearing impairment. Some of the common forms of congenital hearing loss are reviewed and their imaging features illustrated. (orig.)

  9. Potential barriers and facilitators for implementation of an integrated care pathway for hearing-impaired persons: an exploratory survey among patients and professionals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Verschuure Hans

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Because of the increasing costs and anticipated shortage of Ear Nose and Throat (ENT specialists in the care for hearing-impaired persons, an integrated care pathway that includes direct hearing aid provision was developed. While this direct pathway is still under investigation, in a survey we examined expectations and potential barriers and facilitators towards this direct pathway, of patients and professionals involved in the pathway. Methods Two study populations were assessed: members of the health professions involved in the care pathway for hearing-impaired persons (general practitioners (GPs, hearing aid dispensers, ENT-specialists and clinical audiologists and persons with hearing complaints. We developed a comprehensive semi-structured questionnaire for the professionals, regarding expectations, barriers, facilitators and conditions for implementation. We developed two questionnaires for persons with hearing complaints, both regarding evaluations and preferences, and administered them after they had experienced two key elements of the direct pathway: the triage and the hearing aid fitting. Results On average GPs and hearing aid dispensers had positive expectations towards the direct pathway, while ENT-specialists and clinical audiologists had negative expectations. Professionals stated both barriers and facilitators towards the direct pathway. Most professionals either supported implementation of the direct pathway, provided that a number of conditions were satisfied, or did not support implementation, unless roughly the same conditions were satisfied. Professionals generally agreed on which conditions need to be satisfied. Persons with hearing complaints evaluated the present referral pathway and the new direct pathway equally. Many, especially older, participants stated however that they would still visit the GP and ENT-specialist, even when this would not be necessary for reimbursement of the hearing aid, and

  10. Dialogue enabling speech-to-text user assistive agent system for hearing-impaired person.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Seongjae; Kang, Sunmee; Han, David K; Ko, Hanseok

    2016-06-01

    A novel approach for assisting bidirectional communication between people of normal hearing and hearing-impaired is presented. While the existing hearing-impaired assistive devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants are vulnerable in extreme noise conditions or post-surgery side effects, the proposed concept is an alternative approach wherein spoken dialogue is achieved by means of employing a robust speech recognition technique which takes into consideration of noisy environmental factors without any attachment into human body. The proposed system is a portable device with an acoustic beamformer for directional noise reduction and capable of performing speech-to-text transcription function, which adopts a keyword spotting method. It is also equipped with an optimized user interface for hearing-impaired people, rendering intuitive and natural device usage with diverse domain contexts. The relevant experimental results confirm that the proposed interface design is feasible for realizing an effective and efficient intelligent agent for hearing-impaired.

  11. Structure and correlating variables of attitudes of students, future helping professionals, towards persons with hearing impairments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glintić Milica

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to explore the structure and the correlates of students attitudes towards persons with hearing impairments. The sample consisted of 103 first year students of The Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation (F-93; M-10, divisions Prevention and treatment of conduct disorders and Speech therapy. These attitudes were assessed by The revised version of Multidimensional Attitudes Scale Toward Persons With Disabilities, Empathy by Empathy Quotient, dimensions of personality by The Big Five Inventory, the attachment by Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, the motivation for studying the Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation by the scale assembled for this research. It was found that in the domain of basic dimensions of personality only tendency to collaborate with others negatively correlates with absence of pro-social thoughts (-0.204, scale of anxiety in close relationships, in attachment domain, positively correlates with inhibiting thoughts and feelings (0.220, while the empathy quotient negatively correlates with the absence of pro-social thoughts (-0.226. The motivation for studying Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation was not associated with components of the attitude towards people with hearing impairment. Future researches should try to identify predictors of negative emotional and behavioral which lead to ignoring and rejecting of persons with disability.

  12. A Review of Self-Esteem of the Hearing Impaired Football Players

    Science.gov (United States)

    Açak, Mahmut; Kaya, Oktay

    2016-01-01

    The current study aimed at reviewing the level of self-esteem of the hearing impaired football players. The sample of the study was composed of 95 football players who played in the 1st hearing impaired football league. To gather the study-data; a Personal Information Form and Self-esteem Scale were used. The data obtained were analyzed through…

  13. The School-to-Community Transition of Hearing-Impaired Persons with Developmental Disabilities: A Review of the Empirical Literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Cheryl; Bullis, Michael

    1990-01-01

    This article summarizes 43 empirical studies of school-to-community transition of hearing-impaired persons with developmental disabilities; discusses data collection and interpretation issues; and recommends future research, development, and evaluation. The studies deal with such areas as career/vocational preparation, independent living skills,…

  14. Assessment of Hearing Impaired Youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hicks, Doin E., Ed.; And Others

    1980-01-01

    The issue of Directions contains 11 articles on assessment of hearing impaired individuals. Entries have the following titles and authors: "Classroom Assessment Techniques for Hearing Impaired Students--A Literature Review" (B. McKee, M. Hausknecht); "Informal Assessment of Hearing Impaired Students In the Classroom" (B. Culhane, R. Hein);…

  15. The Personal Hearing System—A Software Hearing Aid for a Personal Communication System

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    Giso Grimm

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available A concept and architecture of a personal communication system (PCS is introduced that integrates audio communication and hearing support for the elderly and hearing-impaired through a personal hearing system (PHS. The concept envisions a central processor connected to audio headsets via a wireless body area network (WBAN. To demonstrate the concept, a prototype PCS is presented that is implemented on a netbook computer with a dedicated audio interface in combination with a mobile phone. The prototype can be used for field-testing possible applications and to reveal possibilities and limitations of the concept of integrating hearing support in consumer audio communication devices. It is shown that the prototype PCS can integrate hearing aid functionality, telephony, public announcement systems, and home entertainment. An exemplary binaural speech enhancement scheme that represents a large class of possible PHS processing schemes is shown to be compatible with the general concept. However, an analysis of hardware and software architectures shows that the implementation of a PCS on future advanced cell phone-like devices is challenging. Because of limitations in processing power, recoding of prototype implementations into fixed point arithmetic will be required and WBAN performance is still a limiting factor in terms of data rate and delay.

  16. The Personal Hearing System—A Software Hearing Aid for a Personal Communication System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grimm, Giso; Guilmin, Gwénaël; Poppen, Frank; Vlaming, Marcel S. M. G.; Hohmann, Volker

    2009-12-01

    A concept and architecture of a personal communication system (PCS) is introduced that integrates audio communication and hearing support for the elderly and hearing-impaired through a personal hearing system (PHS). The concept envisions a central processor connected to audio headsets via a wireless body area network (WBAN). To demonstrate the concept, a prototype PCS is presented that is implemented on a netbook computer with a dedicated audio interface in combination with a mobile phone. The prototype can be used for field-testing possible applications and to reveal possibilities and limitations of the concept of integrating hearing support in consumer audio communication devices. It is shown that the prototype PCS can integrate hearing aid functionality, telephony, public announcement systems, and home entertainment. An exemplary binaural speech enhancement scheme that represents a large class of possible PHS processing schemes is shown to be compatible with the general concept. However, an analysis of hardware and software architectures shows that the implementation of a PCS on future advanced cell phone-like devices is challenging. Because of limitations in processing power, recoding of prototype implementations into fixed point arithmetic will be required and WBAN performance is still a limiting factor in terms of data rate and delay.

  17. HIV/AIDS among Adolescents with Hearing Impairment in Nigeria ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Toshiba

    low literacy level, cycle of poverty among people with hearing impairment ... some strategies, such as participatory approaches, deaf-friendly .... incapable of learning. ... that the greatest life challenge to any persons with disability is social.

  18. Improving Mobile Phone Speech Recognition by Personalized Amplification: Application in People with Normal Hearing and Mild-to-Moderate Hearing Loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kam, Anna Chi Shan; Sung, John Ka Keung; Lee, Tan; Wong, Terence Ka Cheong; van Hasselt, Andrew

    In this study, the authors evaluated the effect of personalized amplification on mobile phone speech recognition in people with and without hearing loss. This prospective study used double-blind, within-subjects, repeated measures, controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of applying personalized amplification based on the hearing level captured on the mobile device. The personalized amplification settings were created using modified one-third gain targets. The participants in this study included 100 adults of age between 20 and 78 years (60 with age-adjusted normal hearing and 40 with hearing loss). The performance of the participants with personalized amplification and standard settings was compared using both subjective and speech-perception measures. Speech recognition was measured in quiet and in noise using Cantonese disyllabic words. Subjective ratings on the quality, clarity, and comfortableness of the mobile signals were measured with an 11-point visual analog scale. Subjective preferences of the settings were also obtained by a paired-comparison procedure. The personalized amplification application provided better speech recognition via the mobile phone both in quiet and in noise for people with hearing impairment (improved 8 to 10%) and people with normal hearing (improved 1 to 4%). The improvement in speech recognition was significantly better for people with hearing impairment. When the average device output level was matched, more participants preferred to have the individualized gain than not to have it. The personalized amplification application has the potential to improve speech recognition for people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, as well as people with normal hearing, in particular when listening in noisy environments.

  19. Comparison of Reading Literacy in Hearing Impaired and Normal Hearing Students

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    Dr. Ali Asghar Kakojoibari

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: listening, speaking, reading and writing are considered the lingual skills. These skills are in direct relation with each other. Listening is the first skill learnt by the individual through development. If damaged by hearing impairment, listening can cause serious defect to lingual skills. The goal of our research was to study the effect of hearing loss on reading literacy in hearing impairment students in comparison with normal hearing students.Methods: Study was performed using the examination booklets of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2001. 119 hearing impairment students of 4th grade primary school, last year guidance school, and last year high school levels in schools providing exceptional student education were included. These individuals were compared to 46 normal hearing students of 4th grade primary school of ordinary schools. Comparative statistical analysis was performed using t-test.Results: Reading literacy and literal contents understanding was shown to have a significant difference between normal hearing and whole hearing impaired student (p<0.05, except the ones in high school level with moderate hearing loss. There was also seen a significant difference between normal hearing and hearing impairment students in understanding of information contents (p=0.03.Conclusion: Hearing loss has a negative effect on reading literacy. Consequently, curriculum change and evolution of educational programs in exceptional centers is needed, in order to promote reading literacy and to enhance rest hearing

  20. COMPARISON OF ABILITY OF OPPOSITION WORDS PROCESSING BETWEEN HEARING AND HEARING IMPAIRED STUDENT IN FIFTH GRADE IN TEHRAN

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    B SHAFIEI

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Hearing impaired Persons have disorders in Communication. Theu are not able to learning many aspects of language Structures in Paroper time; quantity and quality. They can not Process these factors as same as Partners. In this research we going to assess and comparison opposite word in hearing and hearing impaired Student in fifth grade. This is a semantic research.
    Methods: Subjects of this research were hearing impaired students in fifth grade in tehramwohad + 70dbheaing loss in Best Binaural Average and in order to comparison with them, we selected hearing students in fifth grade. In this research four non linguistic factors were investigated (age, sex, words of Farsi language. The subjects must read these words and write an opposite Word in front of it. In this examination the quantity of types: right, false and without answers.
    Findings: The sequence of right answers had significant different in two group. The Sequence of learned words had significant different two groups. The time of processing in hearing students was shorter than hearing impaired students. The female subjects gave right answers more than male subjects. Discussion: The differences between bearing and hearing impaired students were in the quantity of answers specially in right answers and time of doing the test. probably these differences were due to lack of proper lexicon words and/or poor of it. The hearing students had more right answers and were shorter in time of processing.

  1. Binaural pitch perception in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Santurette, Sébastien; Dau, Torsten

    2007-01-01

    The effects of hearing impairment on the perception of binaural-pitch stimuli were investigated. Several experiments were performed with normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners, including detection and discrimination of binaural pitch, and melody recognition using different types of binaural...... pitches. For the normal-hearing listeners, all types of binaural pitches could be perceived immediately and were musical. The hearing-impaired listeners could be divided into three groups based on their results: (a) some perceived all types of binaural pitches, but with decreased salience or musicality...... compared to normal-hearing listeners; (b) some could only perceive the strongest pitch types; (c) some were unable to perceive any binaural pitch at all. The performance of the listeners was not correlated with audibility. Additional experiments investigated the correlation between performance in binaural...

  2. Is Hearing Impairment Associated with Rheumatoid Arthritis?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Emamifar, Amir; Bjoerndal, Kristine; Jensen Hansen, Inger Marie

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic, inflammatory disease that affects 1% of the population. The auditory system may be involved during the course of disease; however the association of RA and hearing impairment has not been clearly defined. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review...... is to evaluate published clinical reports related to hearing impairment in patients with RA. Furthermore, we discuss possible pathologies and associated factors as well as new treatment modalities. METHOD: A thorough literature search was performed using available databases including Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane...... and ComDisDome to cover all relative reports. The following keywords were used: hearing loss, hearing difficulties, hearing disorders, hearing impairment, sensorineural hearing loss, conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss, autoimmune hearing loss, drug ototoxicity, drug-induced hearing loss, hearing...

  3. Hearing Aid Personalization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Jens Brehm; Nielsen, Jakob; Jensen, Bjørn Sand

    2013-01-01

    Modern digital hearing aids require and offer a great level of personalization. Today, this personalization is not performed based directly on what the user actually perceives, but on a hearing-care professional’s interpretation of what the user explains about what is perceived. In this paper......, an interactive personalization system based on Gaussian process regression and active learning is proposed, which personalize the hearing aids based directly on what the user perceives. Preliminary results demonstrate a significant difference between a truly personalized setting obtained with the proposed system...

  4. Reaching Out to Develop the Creative Reading Potential of the Hearing Impaired in Community Colleges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norton, Audree L.

    Hearing impaired students need the opportunity to develop their creative reading ability (the ability to acquire ideas and information through printed words, to apply them to personal problems, and to attempt to resolve those problems). Although many hearing impaired students have the intelligence to be successful readers, they have been…

  5. Comparison of general health status in mothers of hearing and hearing-impaired children

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    Movallali

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: The birth of a hearing-impaired child and raising him/her often brings special psychological feelings for parents, especially mothers who spend more time with the child. This study aimed to compare the general health status in mothers of hearing-impaired and hearing children. Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic study. General Health Questionnaire was used to identify general health status; and data were analyzed with independent-t test. Results: The general health level of mothers of hearing-impaired children was lower than mothers of normal hearing children (p=0.01 . The average scores of anxiety (p=0.01, depression (p= 0.01 and physical (p=0.02 symptoms and social function (p=0.01 of mothers of hearing-impaired children was higher than mothers of normal hearing ones (p=0.01. Conclusion: Having a child with hearing impairment affects mothers’ general health status. Our findings show that it’s necessary to provide psychological and social support for mothers of hearing-impaired children.

  6. External ear anomalies and hearing impairment in Noonan Syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Trier, Dorothée C; van Nierop, Josephine; Draaisma, Jos M Th; van der Burgt, Ineke; Kunst, Henricus; Croonen, Ellen A; Admiraal, Ronald J C

    2015-06-01

    This is the first cohort in which hearing impairment and external ear anomalies in Noonan Syndrome are described extensively. Retrospective analysis of the otorhinolaryngological and clinical genetic data from 97 Noonan Syndrome (NS) patients. Forty-four NS patients were seen by an otorhinolaryngologist for the analysis of hearing impairment. In our cohort 80 of the 97 patients were genetically tested. In 71 of these mutations were found: in 48 patients a mutation in PTPN11, in 10 patients in SOS1, in 5 patients in SHOC2, in 5 patients in RAF1, in 1 patient in MAP2K2, in 1 patient in KRAS and in 1 patient in A2ML1. External ear anomalies were reported in 75 NS patients (77%). In 69 patients the ears were low-set, 28 patients had posteriorly rotated ears, 14 patients showed protruding ears and 18 had thickened helices. Hearing impairment was detected in 34 NS patients. Nine patients had sensorineural hearing impairment, two a permanent conductive hearing impairment, two other patients had mixed hearing impairment and 20 patients had conductive hearing impairment in the past, caused by otitis media with effusion. Their temporary conductive hearing impairment resolved between the ages of 2 and 18 years. Sensorineural hearing impairment varied between mild high-frequency hearing impairment and profound (uni- and bilateral) hearing impairment and was progressive in three patients. Four NS patients received cochlear implants for their severe sensorineural hearing impairment. The cohort is small for genotype-phenotype correlations, but sensorineural hearing impairment, especially the bilateral severe hearing impairment, was only seen in patients with a PTPN11 mutation. NS is characterized by dysmorphic external ear anomalies and both sensorineural and conductive hearing impairment. Audiological examinations are recommended in all patients with Noonan Syndrome. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Hearing impairment, social networks, and coping: the need for families with hearing-impaired children to relate to other parents and to hearing-impaired adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hintermair, M

    2000-03-01

    For a report on the stress experiences of parents with hearing-impaired children in Germany, 317 parents completed a survey on how their families communicate and socialize, among other issues. The report focuses on how contacts with other parents and with hearing-impaired adults affect stress experiences, in the context of the child's hearing status and the means of communication. Parents who frequently meet with other parents show evidence of a warm, accepting, trusting relationship with their child. Parents who have many contacts with hearing-impaired adults show evidence of a strong sense of competence in regard to their child's upbringing. The findings confirm the implication found in most reports describing empirical studies. Social support is to be regarded as a cornerstone of psychosocial intervention and has to play as great a role as possible in institutional programs.

  8. What factors influence help-seeking for hearing impairment and hearing aid adoption in older adults?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Carly; Hickson, Louise

    2012-02-01

    The purpose of this review paper was to identify factors that influence older adults' decisions to seek help for hearing impairment and to adopt hearing aids. A literature search of abstracts within peer-reviewed journal articles published in English between 1990 and 2010 was conducted in online bibliographic databases using the keywords: hearing; impair* or loss; seek* or candidate* or applicant* or acquir*; and hearing aid* or help or advice. Twenty-two articles that were directly relevant to this topic were included in this review. The evidence suggests that individuals are more likely to seek help for hearing impairment and/or adopt hearing aids if they: (1) have a moderate to severe hearing impairment and self-reported hearing-related activity limitations or participation restrictions; (2) are older; (3) perceive their hearing as poor; (4) consider there to be more benefits than barriers to amplification; and (5) perceive their significant other/s as supportive of hearing rehabilitation. A barrier to help-seeking for hearing impairment and hearing aid adoption appears to be general practitioners' management of age-related hearing impairment.

  9. Motor Skills in Hearing Impaired Children with or without Cochlear Implant--A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vidranski, Tihomir; Farkaš, Daria

    2015-07-01

    Hearing impairment is a major limitation in communication, and it can obstruct psychological development, development of social skills and motor development. Hearing impairment is the third most common contemporary chronic health condition, and it has become a public health problem. The effectiveness of problem solving in everyday life and in emergency situations depends greatly on the amount and quality of the motor programs. Therefore, it is evident that the normal motor development in persons with hearing impairment is essential for everyday life. The aim of this research is to analyze the available information pertaining to motor skills of hearing impaired children both with and without a cochlear implant (CI) and to analyze possibilities of influencing their motor skills. The relevant studies on motor skills of hearing impaired children both with and without CI were obtained by an extensive computer search of various databases using special keywords and extraction with respect to certain criteria, resulting in 22 studies. The overall results of this systematic review indicate that the children with hearing impairment exhibit suboptimal levels of motor skills especially balance. Very few studies compared children with hearing impairment with CI units and without CI units and the results of those studies are quite contradictory. Numerous studies have confirmed that the regular and appropriate physical exercise can improve motor skills of children with hearing impairment, especially balance. The fact that the development of motor skills is crucial for the child's interaction with the outside world, action, perception and acquisition of academic skills and other skills necessary for life shows the importance of motor skills development for children with hearing impairment.

  10. Dimensions for hearing-impaired mobile application usability model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nathan, Shelena Soosay; Hussain, Azham; Hashim, Nor Laily; Omar, Mohd Adan

    2017-10-01

    This paper discuss on the dimensions that has been derived for the hearing-impaired mobile applications usability model. General usability model consist of general dimension for evaluating mobile application however requirements for the hearing-impaired are overlooked and often scanted. This led towards mobile application developed for the hearing-impaired are left unused. It is also apparent that these usability models do not consider accessibility dimensions according to the requirement of the special users. This complicates the work of usability practitioners as well as academician that practices research usability when application are developed for the specific user needs. To overcome this issue, dimension chosen for the hearing-impaired are ensured to be align with the real need of the hearing-impaired mobile application. Besides literature studies, requirements for the hearing-impaired mobile application have been identified through interview conducted with hearing-impaired mobile application users that were recorded as video outputs and analyzed using Nvivo. Finally total of 6 out of 15 dimensions gathered are chosen for the proposed model and presented.

  11. Consanguineous Marriage Among the Parents of Hearing Impaired Students in Baghcheban Primary Schools

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    Mansoureh Nikbakht

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Genetic studies show that consanguineous marriage can increase the probability of incidence of genetic impairments such as hearing impairments. The target of this study is to identify the prevalence of consanguinity among the parents of hearing impaired students in primary schools. Materials and Methods: We selected all of deaf students of Tehran (614 students. Their mothers answered to questionnaires. The questions were about Risk Factors of deafness in mother pregnancy or in neonatal period. Results: from 614 students, 389 parents of them (64% had consanguineous marriage and 223 person (36% didn’t have this factor. 2 person did not answer to this question. In this study we observed that there is 32.3% family history of hearing loss, 29.2%deaf sister and brother, 17% ear infection history. Other risk factors were studied too. Also there is significant correlation between consanguinity and more than one deaf children in the family (p<0.005. Conclusion: According to high incidence of consanguinity (64%that was observed in this study it may be one of most important causes of sensory neural hearing loss in children, so we should give enough information about this problem to the people.

  12. Hearing Impairment Affects Dementia Incidence. An Analysis Based on Longitudinal Health Claims Data in Germany

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teipel, Stefan; Óvári, Attila; Kilimann, Ingo; Witt, Gabriele; Doblhammer, Gabriele

    2016-01-01

    Recent research has revealed an association between hearing impairment and dementia. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of hearing impairment on dementia incidence in a longitudinal study, and whether ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist care, care level, institutionalization, or depression mediates or moderates this pathway. The present study used a longitudinal sample of 154,783 persons aged 65 and older from claims data of the largest German health insurer; containing 14,602 incident dementia diagnoses between 2006 and 2010. Dementia and hearing impairment diagnoses were defined according to International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, codes. We used a Kaplan Meier estimator and performed Cox proportional hazard models to explore the effect of hearing impairment on dementia incidence, controlling for ENT specialist care, care level, institutionalization, and depression. Gender, age, and comorbidities were controlled for as potential confounders. Patients with bilateral (HR = 1.43, pimpairment had higher risks of dementia incidence than patients without hearing impairment. We found no significant effect for unilateral hearing impairment and other diseases of the ear. The effect of hearing impairment was only partly mediated through ENT specialist utilization. Significant interaction between hearing impairment and specialist care, care level, and institutionalization, respectively, indicated moderating effects. We discuss possible explanations for these effects. This study underlines the importance of the association between hearing impairment and dementia. Preserving hearing ability may maintain social participation and may reduce the burden associated with dementia. The particular impact of hearing aid use should be the subject of further investigations, as it offers potential intervention on the pathway to dementia. PMID:27391486

  13. Sound localization in noise in hearing-impaired listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorenzi, C; Gatehouse, S; Lever, C

    1999-06-01

    The present study assesses the ability of four listeners with high-frequency, bilateral symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss to localize and detect a broadband click train in the frontal-horizontal plane, in quiet and in the presence of a white noise. The speaker array and stimuli are identical to those described by Lorenzi et al. (in press). The results show that: (1) localization performance is only slightly poorer in hearing-impaired listeners than in normal-hearing listeners when noise is at 0 deg azimuth, (2) localization performance begins to decrease at higher signal-to-noise ratios for hearing-impaired listeners than for normal-hearing listeners when noise is at +/- 90 deg azimuth, and (3) the performance of hearing-impaired listeners is less consistent when noise is at +/- 90 deg azimuth than at 0 deg azimuth. The effects of a high-frequency hearing loss were also studied by measuring the ability of normal-hearing listeners to localize the low-pass filtered version of the clicks. The data reproduce the effects of noise on three out of the four hearing-impaired listeners when noise is at 0 deg azimuth. They reproduce the effects of noise on only two out of the four hearing-impaired listeners when noise is at +/- 90 deg azimuth. The additional effects of a low-frequency hearing loss were investigated by attenuating the low-pass filtered clicks and the noise by 20 dB. The results show that attenuation does not strongly affect localization accuracy for normal-hearing listeners. Measurements of the clicks' detectability indicate that the hearing-impaired listeners who show the poorest localization accuracy also show the poorest ability to detect the clicks. The inaudibility of high frequencies, "distortions," and reduced detectability of the signal are assumed to have caused the poorer-than-normal localization accuracy for hearing-impaired listeners.

  14. Attitudes hearing impaired children face from hearing people : a case study from Wollega, Ethiopia

    OpenAIRE

    Olika, Ruth Erin Liselott

    2009-01-01

    The aim of this research is to find out what kind of attitudes that hearing impaired children face from hearing people, and how these attitudes influence the hearing impaired child’s life. This is a qualitative research project with interview as the instrument of collecting data. The interviews were conducted in Wollega, Ethiopia with four different informant groups: Children with hearing impairment (CWHI), their parents (Parents CWHI), Children with hearing (CWH), and their parents (Parents ...

  15. Characteristics of reading and understanding of hearing impaired students in classes VI-VIII

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustaf Morina

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Good reading has a very important role in the development of children with hearing impaired; also reading in explicit way is one of the crucial factors which affect the oral language development of children with hearing impaired. The best form and possibility of improvement, development of oral language, development of communicating, receipt of information, knowledge, and ideas over the world, is reading. When the auditory perception is damaged reading is poor. Hearing impairment causes a lot of problems in the development of personality of children with hearing impairment in these fields: poor development of vocabulary, poor quality of lexica, poor quality of sentences, and disorder in articulation. The purpose of this research is to verify the following: 1-Speed of reading of hearing impaired children, 2-The number of errors, 3-The kind of errors, 4-To understand the text in the context of the degree of hearing impairment, age (class, success in school and gender. This theoretical-experimental study was made with students from two schools; special school “Mother Teresa” in Prizren and Primary School “Elena Gjika” in Prishtina (class attached. The research included a total of 32 students (respondent 27 students (respondent from special schools “Mother Teresa” in Prizren and 5 elementary school students “Elena Gjika” Prishtina, all these students are with hearing impairment. From 32 students involved in the research, 23 were male and 9 female. The research was done by applying a text fables “The fox and the raven” watched and analyzed in terms of three dimensions. The research results have shown that students with hearing impairments have considerable problems in many aspects; in terms of speed of reading, students with hearing impairment have stagnated compared with their peers in the ratio 8/1. In terms of reading errors have stagnated considered being incomparable. In terms of understanding the text students with hearing

  16. 38 CFR 4.85 - Evaluation of hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... impairment. 4.85 Section 4.85 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SCHEDULE FOR RATING DISABILITIES Disability Ratings Impairment of Auditory Acuity § 4.85 Evaluation of hearing impairment. (a) An examination for hearing impairment for VA purposes must be conducted by a state-licensed...

  17. The prevalence of Usher syndrome and other retinal dystrophy-hearing impairment associations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenberg, T; Haim, M; Hauch, A M; Parving, A

    1997-05-01

    The study was undertaken to procure population-based prevalence data on the various types of Usher syndrome and other retinal dystrophy-hearing impairment associations. The medical files on 646 patients with a panretinal pigmentary dystrophy aged 20-49 years derived from the Danish Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) register were scrutinised. The data were supplemented by a prior investigation on hearing ability in a part of the study population. After exclusion of patients with possibly extrinsic causes of hearing impairments, 118 patients, including 89 cases of Usher syndrome were allocated to one of five clinically defined groups. We calculated the following prevalence rates: Usher syndrome type I: 1.5/100,000, Usher syndrome type II: 2.2/100,000, and Usher syndrome type III: 0.1/100,000 corresponding to a 2:3 ratio between Usher syndrome type I and II. The overall prevalence rate of Usher syndrome was estimated to 5/100,000 in the Danish population, devoid of genetic isolates. The material comprised 11 cases with retinal dystrophy, hearing impairment, and additional syndromic features. Finally, 18 subjects with various retinal dystrophy-hearing impairment associations without syndromic features were identified, corresponding to a prevalence rate of 0.8/100,000. This group had a significant overrepresentation of X-linked RP, including two persons harboring a mutation in the retinitis pigmentosa GTP-ase regulator (RPGR) gene.

  18. Story retelling skills in Persian speaking hearing-impaired children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jarollahi, Farnoush; Mohamadi, Reyhane; Modarresi, Yahya; Agharasouli, Zahra; Rahimzadeh, Shadi; Ahmadi, Tayebeh; Keyhani, Mohammad-Reza

    2017-05-01

    Since the pragmatic skills of hearing-impaired Persian-speaking children have not yet been investigated particularly through story retelling, this study aimed to evaluate some pragmatic abilities of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children using a story retelling test. 15 normal-hearing and 15 profound hearing-impaired 7-year-old children were evaluated using the story retelling test with the content validity of 89%, construct validity of 85%, and reliability of 83%. Three macro structure criteria including topic maintenance, event sequencing, explicitness, and four macro structure criteria including referencing, conjunctive cohesion, syntax complexity, and utterance length were assessed. The test was performed with live voice in a quiet room where children were then asked to retell the story. The tasks of the children were recorded on a tape, transcribed, scored and analyzed. In the macro structure criteria, utterances of hearing-impaired students were less consistent, enough information was not given to listeners to have a full understanding of the subject, and the story events were less frequently expressed in a rational order than those of normal-hearing group (P hearing students who obtained high scores, hearing-impaired students failed to gain any scores on the items of this section. These results suggest that Hearing-impaired children were not able to use language as effectively as their hearing peers, and they utilized quite different pragmatic functions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Prevalence and causes of hearing impairment in Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulwafu, W; Kuper, H; Ensink, R J H

    2016-02-01

    To systematically assess the data on the prevalence and causes of hearing impairment in Africa. Systematic review on the prevalence and causes of hearing loss in Africa. We undertook a literature search of seven electronic databases (EMBASE, PubMed, Medline, Global Health, Web of Knowledge, Academic Search Complete and Africa Wide Information) and manually searched bibliographies of included articles. The search was restricted to population-based studies on hearing impairment in Africa. Data were extracted using a standard protocol. We identified 232 articles and included 28 articles in the final analysis. The most common cut-offs used for hearing impairment were 25 and 30 dB HL, but this ranged between 15 and 40 dB HL. For a cut-off of 25 dB, the median was 7.7% for the children- or school-based studies and 17% for population-based studies. For a cut-off of 30 dB HL, the median was 6.6% for the children or school-based studies and 31% for population-based studies. In schools for the deaf, the most common cause of hearing impairment was cryptogenic deafness (50%) followed by infectious causes (43%). In mainstream schools and general population, the most common cause of hearing impairment was middle ear disease (36%), followed by undetermined causes (35%) and cerumen impaction (24%). There are very few population-based studies available to estimate the prevalence of hearing impairment in Africa. Those studies that are available use different cut-offs, making comparison difficult. However, the evidence suggests that the prevalence of hearing impairment is high and that much of it is avoidable or treatable. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. Comparison of reading comprehension and working memory in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Rezaei

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Reading is the most important human need for learning. In normal-hearing people working memory is a predictor of reading comprehension. In this study the relationship between working memory and reading comprehension skills was studied in hearing-impaired children, and then compared with the normal-hearing group.Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic study. The working memory and reading comprehension skills of 18 (8 male, 10 female sever hearing-impaired children in year five of exceptional schools were compared by means of a reading test with 18 hearing children as control group. The subjects in the control group were of the same gender and educational level of the sample group.Results: The children with hearing loss performed similarly to the normal-hearing children in tasks related to auditory-verbal memory of sounds (reverse, visual-verbal memory of letters, and visual-verbal memory of pictures. However, they showed lower levels of performance in reading comprehension (p<0.001. Moreover, no significant relationship was observed between working memory and reading comprehension skills.Conclusion: Findings indicated that children with hearing loss have a significant impairment in the reading comprehension skill. Impairment in language knowledge and vocabulary may be the main cause of poor reading comprehension in these children. In hearing-impaired children working memory is not a strong predictor of reading comprehension.

  1. Risk behaviors and sexual abuse among men and woman with visual or hearing impairments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvia Susana Robles Montijo

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The present study proposed a descriptive analysis of sociodemographic and family variables, as well as risky sexual behaviors and sexual abuse in a sample of young Mexicans with hearing or visual impairments, examining differences based on gender and type of disability of the participants. 128 young persons (64 hearing impaired and 64 visually impaired of whom, 53.2% were male and 86.6% were single, were included in the study. The instruments used were adapted linguistically to be answered by young people with hearing disabilities, and translated into Braille for visually impaired young people. The results show that participants maintain an active sex life with a risk profile that is characterized by the early onset of sexual intercourse, lack of planning their first sexual encounter, underuse of condoms and victimization of some form of sexual abuse. The risk was higher in women and among those with visual disabilities.

  2. Genetic testing for hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Topsakal, V; Van Camp, G; Van de Heyning, P

    2005-01-01

    For some patients, genetic testing can reveal the etiology of their hearing impairment, and can provide evidence for a medical diagnosis. However, a gap between fundamental genetic research on hereditary deafness and clinical otology emerges because of the steadily increasing number of discovered genes for hereditary hearing impairment (HHI) and the comparably low clinical differentiation of the HHIs. In an attempt to keep up with the scientific progress, this article enumerates the indications of genetic testing for HHI from a clinical point of view and describes the most frequently encountered HHIs in Belgium. Domains of recent scientific interest, molecular biological aspects, and some pitfalls with HHIs are highlighted. The overview comprises bilateral congenital hearing loss, late-onset progressive high frequency hearing loss, progressive bilateral cochleo-vestibular deficit, and progressive low frequency hearing loss. Also, several syndromal forms of HHI are summarized, and the availability of genetic tests mentioned. Finally, the requirements for successful linkage analysis, an important genetic research tool for localizing the potential genes of a trait on a chromosome, are briefly described.

  3. Assistive Technologies for Improving Communication of Hearing Impairment in the Higher Education in Panama

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lineth Alain

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The ability to communicate, specifically the gift of hearing, is a necessity often taken for granted. A lack of sense of hearing affects the intellectual and emotional development of the human being who suffers from it. It prevents the fluid exchange of knowledge, thoughts and ideas that allow personal growth and development. This article emerges due to an interest in providing assistive technologies that can be considered to improve communication among hearing impaired and normal hearing listeners in the class-room of a higher education level in the Republic of Panama. Information has been compiled from various primary and secondary sources highlighting the communication problem facing this group of disabled people. Information about the situation of hearing impairment, laws, organizations, the reality with the higher education system, and finally, we will talk about Information and Communication Technologies (TICs that will work as technology support in order to improve communication in the classroom in higher education among normal-hearing and deaf people.

  4. Auditory hallucinations in adults with hearing impairment: a large prevalence study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linszen, M M J; van Zanten, G A; Teunisse, R J; Brouwer, R M; Scheltens, P; Sommer, I E

    2018-03-20

    Similar to visual hallucinations in visually impaired patients, auditory hallucinations are often suggested to occur in adults with hearing impairment. However, research on this association is limited. This observational, cross-sectional study tested whether auditory hallucinations are associated with hearing impairment, by assessing their prevalence in an adult population with various degrees of objectified hearing impairment. Hallucination presence was determined in 1007 subjects aged 18-92, who were referred for audiometric testing to the Department of ENT-Audiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. The presence and severity of hearing impairment were calculated using mean air conduction thresholds from the most recent pure tone audiometry. Out of 829 participants with hearing impairment, 16.2% (n = 134) had experienced auditory hallucinations in the past 4 weeks; significantly more than the non-impaired group [5.8%; n = 10/173; p impairment, with rates up to 24% in the most profoundly impaired group (p impairment in the best ear. Auditory hallucinations mostly consisted of voices (51%), music (36%), and doorbells or telephones (24%). Our findings reveal that auditory hallucinations are common among patients with hearing impairment, and increase with impairment severity. Although more research on potential confounding factors is necessary, clinicians should be aware of this phenomenon, by inquiring after hallucinations in hearing-impaired patients and, conversely, assessing hearing impairment in patients with auditory hallucinations, since it may be a treatable factor.

  5. Training of Speechreading for Severely Hearing-Impaired Persons by Human and Computer

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bothe, Hans-Heinrich

    2007-01-01

    This paper describes evaluation results for a software programme that is intended to be used as a training-aid for lipreading in German. Tests were carried out in schools for hearing-impaired children in Germany which indicate that the ability to lipread increases significantly already after use...... of the software during a short period of time....

  6. Concurrent Speech Segregation Problems in Hearing Impaired Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hossein Talebi

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: This study was a basic investigation of the ability of concurrent speech segregation in hearing impaired children. Concurrent segregation is one of the fundamental components of auditory scene analysis and plays an important role in speech perception. In the present study, we compared auditory late responses or ALRs between hearing impaired and normal children. Materials & Methods: Auditory late potentials in response to 12 double vowels were recorded in 10 children with moderate to severe sensory neural hearing loss and 10 normal children. Double vowels (pairs of synthetic vowels were presented concurrently and binaurally. Fundamental frequency (F0 of these vowels and the size of the difference in F0 between vowels was 100 Hz and 0.5 semitones respectively. Results: Comparing N1-P2 amplitude showed statistically significant difference in some stimuli between hearing impaired and normal children (P<0.05. This complex indexing the vowel change detection and reflecting central auditory speech representation without active client participation was decreased in hearing impaired children. Conclusion: This study showed problems in concurrent speech segregation in hearing impaired children evidenced by ALRs. This information indicated deficiencies in bottom-up processing of speech characteristics based on F0 and its differences in these children.

  7. The specifics of reading to students with hearing and speech impairment in classes VI-VIII

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustaf Morina

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Good reading has a very important role in the development of children with hearing impaired; also reading in explicit way is one of the crucial factors which affect the oral language development of children with hearing impaired. The best form and possibility of improvement, development of oral language, development of communicating, receipt of information, knowledge, and ideas over the world, is reading. When the auditory perception is damaged reading is poor. Hearing impairment causes a lot of problems in the development of personality of children with hearing impairment in these fields: poor development of vocabulary, poor quality of lexica, poor quality of sentences, and disorder in articulation. The purpose of this research is to verify the following: 1-Speed of reading of hearing impaired children, 2-The number of errors, 3-The kind of errors, 4-To understand the text in the context of the degree of hearing impairment, age (class, success in school and gender. This theoretical-experimental study was made with students from two schools; special school “Mother Teresa” in Prizren and Primary School “Elena Gjika” in Prishtina (class attached. The research included a total of 32 students (respondent 27 students (respondent from special schools “Mother Teresa” in Prizren and 5 elementary school students “Elena Gjika” Prishtina, all these students are with hearing impairment. From 32 students involved in the research, 23 were male and 9 female. The research was done by applying a text fables “The fox and the raven” watched and analyzed in terms of three dimensions. The research results have shown that students with hearing impairments have considerable problems in many aspects; in terms of speed of reading, students with hearing impairment have stagnated compared with their peers in the ratio 8/1. In terms of reading errors have stagnated considered being incomparable. In terms of understanding the text students with hearing

  8. Real-Time Detection of Important Sounds with a Wearable Vibration Based Device for Hearing-Impaired People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mete Yağanoğlu

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Hearing-impaired people do not hear indoor and outdoor environment sounds, which are important for them both at home and outside. By means of a wearable device that we have developed, a hearing-impaired person will be informed of important sounds through vibrations, thereby understanding what kind of sound it is. Our system, which operates in real time, can achieve a success rate of 98% when estimating a door bell ringing sound, 99% success identifying an alarm sound, 99% success identifying a phone ringing, 91% success identifying honking, 93% success identifying brake sounds, 96% success identifying dog sounds, 97% success identifying human voice, and 96% success identifying other sounds using the audio fingerprint method. Audio fingerprint is a brief summary of an audio file, perceptively summarizing a piece of audio content. In this study, our wearable device is tested 100 times a day for 100 days on five deaf persons and 50 persons with normal hearing whose ears were covered by earphones that provided wind sounds. This study aims to improve the quality of life of deaf persons, and provide them a more prosperous life. In the questionnaire performed, deaf people rate the clarity of the system at 90%, usefulness at 97%, and the likelihood of using this device again at 100%.

  9. Does hearing aid use affect audiovisual integration in mild hearing impairment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gieseler, Anja; Tahden, Maike A S; Thiel, Christiane M; Colonius, Hans

    2018-04-01

    There is converging evidence for altered audiovisual integration abilities in hearing-impaired individuals and those with profound hearing loss who are provided with cochlear implants, compared to normal-hearing adults. Still, little is known on the effects of hearing aid use on audiovisual integration in mild hearing loss, although this constitutes one of the most prevalent conditions in the elderly and, yet, often remains untreated in its early stages. This study investigated differences in the strength of audiovisual integration between elderly hearing aid users and those with the same degree of mild hearing loss who were not using hearing aids, the non-users, by measuring their susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion. We also explored the corresponding window of integration by varying the stimulus onset asynchronies. To examine general group differences that are not attributable to specific hearing aid settings but rather reflect overall changes associated with habitual hearing aid use, the group of hearing aid users was tested unaided while individually controlling for audibility. We found greater audiovisual integration together with a wider window of integration in hearing aid users compared to their age-matched untreated peers. Signal detection analyses indicate that a change in perceptual sensitivity as well as in bias may underlie the observed effects. Our results and comparisons with other studies in normal-hearing older adults suggest that both mild hearing impairment and hearing aid use seem to affect audiovisual integration, possibly in the sense that hearing aid use may reverse the effects of hearing loss on audiovisual integration. We suggest that these findings may be particularly important for auditory rehabilitation and call for a longitudinal study.

  10. Follow-up of permanent hearing impairment in childhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Della Volpe, A; De Lucia, A; Pastore, V; Bracci Laudiero, L; Buonissimo, I; Ricci, G

    2016-02-01

    Programmes for early childhood childhood hearing impairment identification allows to quickly start the appropriate hearing aid fitting and rehabilitation process; nevertheless, a large number of patients do not join the treatment program. The goal of this article is to present the results of a strategic review of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats connected with the audiologic/prosthetic/language follow-up process of children with bilateral permanent hearing impairment. Involving small children, the follow-up includes the involvement of specialised professionals of a multidisciplinary team and a complex and prolonged multi-faced management. Within the framework of the Italian Ministry of Health project CCM 2013 "Preventing Communication Disorders: a Regional Program for Early Identification, Intervention and Care of Hearing Impaired Children", the purpose of this analysis was to propose recommendations that can harmonise criteria for outcome evaluation and provide guidance on the most appropriate assessment methods to be used in the follow-up course of children with permanent hearing impairment. © Copyright by Società Italiana di Otorinolaringologia e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale.

  11. Prevalence of hearing impairment in a rural midwestern cohort: estimates from the Keokuk county rural health study, 1994 to 1998.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flamme, Gregory A; Mudipalli, V Ranjit; Reynolds, Stephen J; Kelly, Kevin M; Stromquist, Ann M; Zwerling, Craig; Burmeister, Leon F; Peng, Shu-Chen; Merchant, James A

    2005-06-01

    The current paper estimates the prevalence of hearing problems in a rural population, analyzes the prevalence of hearing problems across age groups, and compares the prevalence of hearing problems in this population with results obtained in other populations. Data were obtained from a random sample of the residents of a rural county, stratified by farm, rural non-farm, and town residence. Hearing test results were obtained from participants between the ages of 8 and 92 years (N = 1972; 47% male). Pure-tone thresholds were classified as normal or impaired using a number of metrics, including speech intelligibility index values. Selected comparisons of crude rates were made with previous population-based studies of hearing loss prevalence. Nearly all (99%) of the participants in this study had significant hearing impairment. Atypical hearing impairment is most prevalent at 6 kHz. In males, this excess impairment shifts to lower frequencies with age but monotonically decreases in females. Notched configurations were most common among those between 30 and 59 years old. In females, the prevalence of hearing impairments sufficient to interfere with speech understanding begins to rapidly increase in the 6th decade (4th decade in males). Comparisons with prior population-based studies in the United States and Great Britain identified few significant differences. Significant hearing impairment is common in rural populations. The high prevalence in this population is similar to that found in other population-based studies. Future studies are needed to examine (1) the risk factors for hearing impairment, (2) the natural course of hearing problems across the life span, and (3) the effect of programs for the prevention of hearing impairment and rehabilitation for persons with existing hearing impairments.

  12. 38 CFR 4.86 - Exceptional patterns of hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... hearing impairment. 4.86 Section 4.86 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SCHEDULE FOR RATING DISABILITIES Disability Ratings Impairment of Auditory Acuity § 4.86 Exceptional patterns of hearing impairment. (a) When the puretone threshold at each of the four specified...

  13. Psychopathology among a sample of hearing impaired adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosaku, Kolawole; Akinpelu, Victoria; Ogunniyi, Grace

    2015-12-01

    Hearing impairment is a recognized cause of emotional and psychological disturbances worldwide, however little is known about this condition in Nigeria. The aim of this study is to compare the prevalence of psychopathology between hearing impaired adolescents and healthy adolescents. Students attending two special schools for the hearing impaired were assessed for psychopathology with the help of a trained signer and their teacher, using the International Classification of Diseases Diagnostic Criteria (ICD 10). Fifty two hearing impaired students and 52 age and sex matched controls from the same school were also interviewed using the same instrument. The mean age of the hearing impaired students was 16 (sd=3.8), while for the controls the mean age was 16 (sd=2.5). Psychopathology was present in 10 (19%) of the hearing impaired adolescents compared to 2 (4%) among the control group, this difference was statistically significant (χ(2)=4.62 p=0.03). The most common diagnosis was generalized anxiety disorder 4 (8%), followed by depression 2 (4%). Years spent in school (t=4.81, p=0.001), primary guardian (χ(2)=18.3, p=0.001) and mean income of guardian (t=7.10, p=0.001) were all significantly different between the two groups. Psychopathology is relatively common in this population. Proper assessment and treatment should be made available for this population group. A limitation to this study is communication difficulty which made only a third party assessment possible; this may affect the generalizability of the findings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Hearing impairment in genotyped Wolfram syndrome patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plantinga, Rutger F; Pennings, Ronald J E; Huygen, Patrick L M; Bruno, Rocco; Eller, Philipp; Barrett, Timothy G; Vialettes, Bernard; Paquis-Fluklinger, Veronique; Lombardo, Fortunato; Cremers, Cor W R J

    2008-07-01

    Wolfram syndrome is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by the features "DIDMOAD" (diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, optic atrophy, and deafness). We sought to study the audiometric data of genotyped Wolfram syndrome patients with sensorineural hearing impairment. Pure tone threshold data of 23 Wolfram syndrome patients were used for cross-sectional analysis in subgroups (age less than 16 years or between 19 and 25 years, gender, and origin). All subgroups, with 1 exception, showed a fairly similar type of hearing impairment with, on average, thresholds of about 25 dB (range, 0 to 65 dB) at 0.25 to 1 kHz, gently sloping downward to about 60 dB (range, 25 to 95 dB) at 8 kHz. The subgroup of Dutch women, which was excluded from the calculations of the average hearing thresholds, showed a higher degree of hearing impairment. Only the latter subgroup showed progression; however, contrary to the previous longitudinal analysis, progression was not significant in the present cross-sectional analysis, presumably because of the high degree of cross-subject variability. This unique collection of audiometric data from genotyped Wolfram syndrome patients shows no substantial progression in sensorineural hearing impairment with advancing age, no relation to the types of WFS1 mutations identified, and, with exclusion of the subgroup of Dutch female patients, no significant sex-related differences.

  15. Status of Perceived Social Support and Quality of Life among Hearing-Impaired Adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tayebeh Reyhani

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Background Annual four to five thousand babies are born with hearing loss in the Iran. Hearing impairment is a disability that affects the quality of life of people with this problem. These individuals need to support from family and friends because of their specific conditions that this received support has impact on their quality of life. This study was conducted to assess the status of perceived social support and quality of life of hearing-impaired adolescent. Material and Methods A cross-correlation study was performed with cluster and multi stage random sampling method on 83 students with hearing impairment who met the inclusion criteria of the study in Mashhad. The data collection tools included Pediatric quality of life inventory (adolescent form and perceived social support inventory (from family and friends.The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed through SPSS software version 16. Results The results showed that the majority of the most of adolescents with hearing impairment were reported moderate total quality of life (%51.8. But the majority of them reported perceived social support from family was moderate (%61.5 and from friends was week (%45.8. Also there was a significant relationship between category of total quality of life of adolescent viewpoint with perceived social support from family (P=0.056. Conclusion Based on the obtained results, the majority of the most of adolescents with hearing impairment were reported moderate total quality of life. Disability and condition of these persons affects quality of life of them, so need for adequate support from family, friends and society. Nurses play an important role in identifying and introduce these needs and condition and how to deal with them.

  16. Objective Scaling of Sound Quality for Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Lars Bramsløw

    ) Subjective sound quality ratings of clean and distorted speech and music signals, by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners, to provide reference data, 2) An auditory model of the ear, including the effects of hearing loss, based on existing psychoacoustic knowledge, coupled to 3) An artificial neural......A new method for the objective estimation of sound quality for both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners has been presented: OSSQAR (Objective Scaling of Sound Quality and Reproduction). OSSQAR is based on three main parts, which have been carried out and documented separately: 1...... network, which was trained to predict the sound quality ratings. OSSQAR predicts the perceived sound quality on two independent perceptual rating scales: Clearness and Sharpness. These two scales were shown to be the most relevant for assessment of sound quality, and they were interpreted the same way...

  17. Communication between hearing impaired and normal hearing students: a facilitative proposal of learning in higher education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krysne Kelly de França Oliveira

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: There has been an increase in the number of hearing impaired people with access to higher education. Most of them are young people from a different culture who present difficulties in communication, inter-relationship, and learning in a culture of normal hearing people, because they use a different language, the Brazilian Sign Language - LIBRAS. Objective: The present study aimed to identify the forms of communication used between hearing impaired and normal hearing students, verifying how they can interfere with the learning process of the first. Methods: A qualitative study that used the space of a private university in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará state, Brazil, from February to April 2009. We carried out semi-structured interviews with three hearing impaired students, three teachers, three interpreters, and three normal hearing students. The content of the speeches was categorized and organized by the method of thematic analysis. Results: We verified that the forms of communication used ranged from mime and gestures to writing and drawing, but the most accepted by the hearing impaired students was LIBRAS. As a method of communication, it supports the learning of hearing impaired students, and with the mediation of interpreters, it gives them conditions to settle in their zones of development, according to the precepts of Vygotsky. Conclusion: Thus, we recognize the importance of LIBRAS as predominant language, essential to the full academic achievement of hearing impaired students; however, their efforts and dedication, as well as the interest of institutions and teachers on the deaf culture, are also important for preparing future professionals.

  18. Attitude and help-seeking for hearing impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    vandenBrink, RHS; Wit, HP; Kempen, GIJM; vanHeuvelen, MJG

    1996-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate help-seeking for hearing impairment in the elderly, and to compare groups showing dissimilar help-seeking on their attitude toward hearing loss and hearing aids. Attitude factors were based on a revised version of the Health Belief Model, and included

  19. Exploring an educational assessment tool to measure registered nurses' knowledge of hearing impairment and effective communication strategies: A USA study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruesch, Amy L

    2018-01-01

    Poor communication between the Registered Nurse and a hearing impaired patient can affect quality of care and health outcomes. Communication skills training programs for healthcare providers are needed to improve patient centered care. A descriptive research study, using a knowledge assessment tool developed and validated by the researcher, was conducted on 339 Registered Nurses to identify knowledge deficits to be addressed in a communication skills training program being designed. The educational tool measured the Registered Nurses' knowledge across four areas - hearing impairment, hearing aids, communication strategies, and regulations regarding access to care for a person with a hearing disability. Knowledge deficits were detected in all four areas. Using this educational assessment tool may enable nurse educators to tailor communication skills training programs to specifically address the gaps identified regarding hearing impairment and how to effectively communicate with the hearing impaired patient. Post training program, nurse educators can use the tool to evaluate effectiveness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Hearing Impairment Among Noise-Exposed Workers - United States, 2003-2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masterson, Elizabeth A; Bushnell, P Timothy; Themann, Christa L; Morata, Thais C

    2016-04-22

    Hearing loss is the third most common chronic physical condition in the United States, and is more prevalent than diabetes or cancer (1). Occupational hearing loss, primarily caused by high noise exposure, is the most common U.S. work-related illness (2). Approximately 22 million U.S. workers are exposed to hazardous occupational noise (3). CDC compared the prevalence of hearing impairment within nine U.S. industry sectors using 1,413,789 noise-exposed worker audiograms from CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Occupational Hearing Loss Surveillance Project (4). CDC estimated the prevalence at six hearing impairment levels, measured in the better ear, and the impact on quality of life expressed as annual disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), as defined by the 2013 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study (5). The mining sector had the highest prevalence of workers with any hearing impairment, and with moderate or worse impairment, followed by the construction and manufacturing sectors. Hearing loss prevention, and early detection and intervention to avoid additional hearing loss, are critical to preserve worker quality of life.

  1. Association of impairments of older persons with caregiver burden among family caregivers: Findings from rural South India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajay, Shweta; Kasthuri, Arvind; Kiran, Pretesh; Malhotra, Rahul

    In India, owing to cultural norms and a lack of formal long-term care facilities, responsibility for care of the older person falls primarily on the family. Based on the stress process model, we assessed the association of type and number of impairments of older persons (∼primary stressors) with caregiver burden among their family caregivers in rural South India. All impaired older persons (aged ≥60, with impairment in activities of daily living (ADL) or cognition or vision or hearing) residing in 8 villages in Bangalore district, Karnataka, India, and their primary informal caregivers were interviewed. Caregiver burden was measured using the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI; higher score indicating greater perceived burden). Linear regression models, adjusting for background characteristics of older persons and caregivers, assessed the association of type of impairment (physical [Yes/No], cognitive [Yes/No], vision [Yes/No] and hearing [Yes/No]) and number (1 or 2 or 3 or 4) of older person impairments with caregiver burden. A total of 140 caregivers, caring for 149 older persons, were interviewed. The mean (standard deviation) ZBI score was 21.2 (12.9). Of the various older person impairments, ZBI score was associated only with physical impairment (β=6.6; 95% CI: 2.1-11.1). Relative to caregivers of older person with one impairment, those caring for an older person with all 4 impairments had significantly higher ZBI score (β=13.9; CI: 2.5-25.4). Caregivers of older persons with multiple impairments, especially physical impairment, are vulnerable. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. HIV/AIDS among Adolescents with Hearing Impairment in Nigeria ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    AIDS to be elusive; such as prejudice against individuals with hearing impairment, lack of adequate data, exclusion from programmes that talk about sexuality, cultural beliefs, poor knowledge and attitude of adolescents with hearing impairment ...

  3. Peripheral auditory processing and speech reception in impaired hearing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Strelcyk, Olaf

    One of the most common complaints of people with impaired hearing concerns their difficulty with understanding speech. Particularly in the presence of background noise, hearing-impaired people often encounter great difficulties with speech communication. In most cases, the problem persists even...... if reduced audibility has been compensated for by hearing aids. It has been hypothesized that part of the difficulty arises from changes in the perception of sounds that are well above hearing threshold, such as reduced frequency selectivity and deficits in the processing of temporal fine structure (TFS......) at the output of the inner-ear (cochlear) filters. The purpose of this work was to investigate these aspects in detail. One chapter studies relations between frequency selectivity, TFS processing, and speech reception in listeners with normal and impaired hearing, using behavioral listening experiments. While...

  4. 45 CFR 1308.11 - Eligibility criteria: Hearing impairment including deafness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES THE ADMINISTRATION FOR... impairment including deafness. (a) A child is classified as deaf if a hearing impairment exists which is so... hearing loss can include impaired listening skills, delayed language development, and articulation...

  5. Syllabic compression and speech intelligibility in hearing impaired listeners

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verschuure, J.; Dreschler, W. A.; de Haan, E. H.; van Cappellen, M.; Hammerschlag, R.; Maré, M. J.; Maas, A. J.; Hijmans, A. C.

    1993-01-01

    Syllabic compression has not been shown unequivocally to improve speech intelligibility in hearing-impaired listeners. This paper attempts to explain the poor results by introducing the concept of minimum overshoots. The concept was tested with a digital signal processor on hearing-impaired

  6. Reading comprehension of pupils with hearing impairment

    OpenAIRE

    Pinkasová, Lucie

    2010-01-01

    Presented diploma thesis is focused on reading problems of people with hearing impairment. The theoretical part deals a hearing impairment, process of acquisition of reading skills of healthy people and deaf people as well. The practical part efforts to clarify preparations, process and results of the research. I am presenting my own reading comprehension test, which was compiled on purpose due to the research. The goal of my diploma thesis is to determine when the level of reading acquiremen...

  7. Binaural pitch perception in hearing-impaired listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dau, Torsten; Santurette, Sébastien; Strelcyk, Olaf

    2007-01-01

    When two white noises differing only in phase in a particular frequency range are presented simultaneously each to one of our ears, a pitch sensation may be perceived inside the head. This phenomenon, called ’binaural pitch’ or ’dichotic pitch’, can be produced by frequency-dependent interaural...... phasedifference patterns. The evaluation of these interaural phase differences depends on the functionality of the binaural auditory system and the spectro-temporal information at its input. A melody recognition task was performed in the present study using pure-tone stimuli and six different types of noises...... that can generate a binaural pitch sensation. Normal-hearing listeners and hearing-impaired listeners with different kinds of hearing impairment participated in the experiment....

  8. Online Personalization of Hearing Instruments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bert de Vries

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Online personalization of hearing instruments refers to learning preferred tuning parameter values from user feedback through a control wheel (or remote control, during normal operation of the hearing aid. We perform hearing aid parameter steering by applying a linear map from acoustic features to tuning parameters. We formulate personalization of the steering parameters as the maximization of an expected utility function. A sparse Bayesian approach is then investigated for its suitability to find efficient feature representations. The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated in an application to online personalization of a noise reduction algorithm. A patient trial indicates that the acoustic features chosen for learning noise control are meaningful, that environmental steering of noise reduction makes sense, and that our personalization algorithm learns proper values for tuning parameters.

  9. Human computer interaction and communication aids for hearing-impaired, deaf and deaf-blind people: Introduction to the special thematic session

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bothe, Hans-Heinrich

    2008-01-01

    This paper gives ail overview and extends the Special Thematic Session (STS) oil research and development of technologies for hearing-impaired, deaf, and deaf-blind people. The topics of the session focus oil special equipment or services to improve communication and human computer interaction....... The papers are related to visual communication using captions, sign language, speech-reading, to vibro-tactile stimulation, or to general services for hearing-impaired persons....

  10. Comparison of Different Levels of Reading Comprehension between Hearing-Impaired Loss and Normal-Hearing Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azam Sharifi

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Reading skill is one of the most important necessities of students' learning in everyday life. This skill is referred to the ability of comprehension, comment and conclusion from texts and receiving the meaning of the massage which is composed. Educational development in any student has a direct relation with the ability of the comprehension. This study is designed to investigate the effects of hearing loss on reading comprehension in hearing-impaired students compared to normal-hearing ones.Methods: Seventeen hearing-impaired students in 4th year of primary exceptional schools in Karaj, Robatkarim and Shahriyar, Iran, were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Seventeen normal-hearing students were randomly selected from ordinary schools next to exceptional ones as control group. They were compared for different levels of reading comprehension using the international standard booklet (PIRLS 2001. Results: There was a significant difference in performance between hearing-impaired and normal- hearing students in different levels of reading comprehension (p<0.05.Conclusion: Hearing loss has negative effects on different levels of reading comprehension, so in exceptional centers, reconsideration in educational planning in order to direct education from memorizing to comprehension and deeper layers of learning seems necessary.

  11. Rhyme and Syllable Recognition in Severe to Profound Hearing-Impaired Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MohammadReza Keihani

    2003-09-01

    Full Text Available Objective: A research was conducted to assess the phonological awareness in hearing-impaired children in comparison to normal children. In this context, we discussed about the ability of these children in identification of rhyme and word segmentation to syllables. Method and Material: The sample of this study is composed of 320 children, 160 normal & 160 hearing-impaired with a hearing-loss. Of over 70 dB, studying in the 1st t 4th grade of the primary schools in Tehran. They are divided into two groups at each level (20 girls & 20 boys. Results: 1 Hearing-impaired children's scores on test related to rhyme and syllable is lower as compared with normal children. 2 Hearing-impaired children are more potent on test of word segmentation to syllables in comparison to that related to rhyme, while normal children are more successful on test of word segmentation to syllables as compared with that related to rhyme. Discussion: Hearing is an important factor in phonological awareness. Formal education at special schools doesn't compensate for the hearing impairment as to development of the phonological awareness.

  12. Validation of the Korean Version of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire for Assessing the Severity and Symmetry of Hearing Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kong, Tae Hoon; Park, Yoon Ah; Bong, Jeong Pyo; Park, Sang Yoo

    2017-07-01

    Spatial hearing refers to the ability to understand speech and identify sounds in various environments. We assessed the validity of the Korean version of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (K-SHQ). We performed forward translation of the original English SHQ to Korean and backward translation from the Korean to English. Forty-eight patients who were able to read and understand Korean and received a score of 24 or higher on the Mini-Mental Status Examination were included in the study. Patients underwent pure tone audiometry (PTA) using a standard protocol and completed the K-SHQ. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha, and factor analysis was performed to prove reliability. Construct validity was tested by comparing K-SHQ scores from patients with normal hearing to those with hearing impairment. Scores were compared between subjects with unilateral or bilateral hearing loss and between symmetrical and asymmetrical hearing impairment. Cronbach's alpha showed good internal consistency (0.982). Two factors were identified by factor analysis: There was a significant difference in K-SHQ scores for patients with normal hearing compared to those with hearing impairment. Patients with asymmetric hearing impairment had higher K-SHQ scores than those with symmetric hearing impairment. This is related to a lower threshold of PTA in the better ear of subjects. The hearing ability of the better ear is correlated with K-SHQ score. The K-SHQ is a reliable and valid tool with which to assess spatial hearing in patients who speak and read Korean. K-SHQ score reflects the severity and symmetry of hearing impairment. © Copyright: Yonsei University College of Medicine 2017

  13. Cantonese tone production performance of mainstream school children with hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Karen K L; Lau, Ada H Y; Lam, Joffee H S; Lee, Kathy Y S

    2014-12-01

    This study investigated the Cantonese tone production ability of children with hearing impairment studying in mainstream schools. The participants were 87 Cantonese-speaking children with mild-to-profound degrees of hearing loss aged 5.92-13.58 in Hong Kong. Most of the children were fitted with hearing aids (n = 65); 17 of them had profound hearing impairment, one who had severe hearing loss had cochlear implantation, and four who had mild hearing loss were without any hearing device. The Hong Kong Cantonese Articulation Test was administered, and the tones produced were rated by two of the authors and a speech-language pathologist. Group effects of tones, hearing loss level, and also an interaction of the two were found to be significant. The children with profound hearing impairment performed significantly worse than most of the other children. Tone 1 was produced most accurately, whereas tone 6 productions were the poorest. No relationship was found between the number of years of mainstreaming and tone production ability. Tone production error pattern revealed that confusion patterns in tone perception coincided with those in production. Tones having a similar fundamental frequency (F0) at the onset also posed difficulty in tone production for children with hearing impairment.

  14. Psychotic reactions to daily life stress and dopamine function in people with severe hearing impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gevonden, M. J.; Myin-Germeys, I.; van den Brink, W.; van Os, J.; Selten, J. P.; Booij, J.

    2015-01-01

    Minor stresses measured in daily life have repeatedly been associated with increased momentary psychotic experiences, both in individuals with psychotic disorders and in persons who are genetically at an increased risk for these disorders. Severe hearing impairment (SHI) is an environmental risk

  15. Narrative competence among hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children: analytical cross-sectional study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandra Dezani Soares

    Full Text Available CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Oral narrative is a means of language development assessment. However, standardized data for deaf patients are scarce. The aim here was to compare the use of narrative competence between hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children. DESIGN AND SETTING: Analytical cross-sectional study at the Department of Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo. METHODS: Twenty-one moderately to profoundly bilaterally hearing-impaired children (cases and 21 normal-hearing children without language abnormalities (controls, matched according to sex, age, schooling level and school type, were studied. A board showing pictures in a temporally logical sequence was presented to each child, to elicit a narrative, and the child's performance relating to narrative structure and cohesion was measured. The frequencies of variables, their associations (Mann-Whitney test and their 95% confidence intervals was analyzed. RESULTS: The deaf subjects showed poorer performance regarding narrative structure, use of connectives, cohesion measurements and general punctuation (P < 0.05. There were no differences in the number of propositions elaborated or in referent specification between the two groups. The deaf children produced a higher proportion of orientation-related propositions (P = 0.001 and lower proportions of propositions relating to complicating actions (P = 0.015 and character reactions (P = 0.005. CONCLUSION: Hearing-impaired children have abnormalities in different aspects of language, involving form, content and use, in relation to their normal-hearing peers. Narrative competence was also associated with the children's ages and the school type.

  16. Effects of Hearing Impairment and Hearing Aid Amplification on Listening Effort: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohlenforst, Barbara; Zekveld, Adriana A; Jansma, Elise P; Wang, Yang; Naylor, Graham; Lorens, Artur; Lunner, Thomas; Kramer, Sophia E

    To undertake a systematic review of available evidence on the effect of hearing impairment and hearing aid amplification on listening effort. Two research questions were addressed: Q1) does hearing impairment affect listening effort? and Q2) can hearing aid amplification affect listening effort during speech comprehension? English language articles were identified through systematic searches in PubMed, EMBASE, Cinahl, the Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO from inception to August 2014. References of eligible studies were checked. The Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes, and Study design strategy was used to create inclusion criteria for relevance. It was not feasible to apply a meta-analysis of the results from comparable studies. For the articles identified as relevant, a quality rating, based on the 2011 Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation Working Group guidelines, was carried out to judge the reliability and confidence of the estimated effects. The primary search produced 7017 unique hits using the keywords: hearing aids OR hearing impairment AND listening effort OR perceptual effort OR ease of listening. Of these, 41 articles fulfilled the Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes, and Study design selection criteria of: experimental work on hearing impairment OR hearing aid technologies AND listening effort OR fatigue during speech perception. The methods applied in those articles were categorized into subjective, behavioral, and physiological assessment of listening effort. For each study, the statistical analysis addressing research question Q1 and/or Q2 was extracted. In seven articles more than one measure of listening effort was provided. Evidence relating to Q1 was provided by 21 articles that reported 41 relevant findings. Evidence relating to Q2 was provided by 27 articles that reported 56 relevant findings. The quality of evidence on both research questions (Q1 and Q2) was very low, according to the Grading of

  17. Hearing Impairment Among Children Referred to a Public Audiology Clinic in Gaborone, Botswana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banda, Francis M; Powis, Kathleen M; Mokoka, Agnes B; Mmapetla, Moalosi; Westmoreland, Katherine D; David, Thuso; Steenhoff, Andrew P

    2018-01-01

    Objective . To describe and quantify hearing impairment among children referred to the audiology clinic in Princess Marina Hospital, a public referral hospital in Botswana. Methods . In a retrospective case series, we reviewed medical records of children aged 10 years and younger whose hearing was assessed between January 2006 and December 2015 at the audiology clinic of Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, Botswana. Results . Of 622 children, 50% were male, and median age was 6.7 years (interquartile range = 5.0-8.3). Hearing impairment was diagnosed in 32% of clinic attendees, comprising sensorineural (23%), conductive (25%), and mixed (11%) hearing loss, while 41% of children with diagnosed hearing impairment did not have a classification type. Hearing impairment was mild in 22.9%, moderate in 22.4%, severe in 19.4%, profound in 16.9%, and of undocumented severity in 18.4%. Children younger than 5 years were 2.7 times (95% confidence interval = 1.29-5.49; P = .008) more likely to be diagnosed with sensorineural hearing impairment compared with those older than 5 years. By contrast, children older than 5 years were 9.6 times (95% confidence interval = 2.22-41.0; P = .002) more likely to be diagnosed with conductive hearing loss compared with those under 5 years. Conclusion . Hearing impairment was common among children referred to this audiology clinic in Botswana. Of those with hearing impairment, more than a third had moderate or severe deficits, suggesting that referrals for hearing assessments are not occurring early enough. Hearing awareness programs individually tailored to parents, educators, and health care workers are needed. Neonatal and school hearing screening programs would also be beneficial.

  18. Newborn hearing screening vs later hearing screening and developmental outcomes in children with permanent childhood hearing impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Korver, Anna M. H.; Konings, Saskia; Dekker, Friedo W.; Beers, Mieke; Wever, Capi C.; Frijns, Johan H. M.; Oudesluys-Murphy, Anne M.; de Vries, Jutte; Vossen, Ann; Kant, Sarina; van den Akker-van Marle, Elske; le Cessie, Saskia; Rieffe, Carolien; Ens-Dokkum, Martina; van Straaten, Irma; Uilenburg, Noelle; Elvers, Bert; Loeber, Gerard; Meuwese-Jongejeugd, Anneke; Maré, Marcel; van Zanten, Bert; Goedegebure, André; Coster, Francien; van Dijk, Pim; Goverts, Theo; Admiraal, Ronald; Cremers, Cor; Kunst, Dirk; de Leeuw, Marina; Dijkhuizen, Janette; Scharloo, Marleen; Hoeben, Dirk; Rijpma, Gerti; Graef, Wim; Linschoten, Dik; Kuijper, Jessica; Hof, Nanda; Koldewijn, Reinoud; Pans, Donné; Jorritsma, Frank; van Beurden, Maarten; ter Huurne, Christien; Brienesse, Patrick; Seekles, Lisanne; de Jong, Jantine; Thijssen, Andrea; Lievense, Andrea; van Egdom-van der Wind, Marina; Theunissen, Stephanie; Mooij, Sophie

    2010-01-01

    Newborn hearing screening programs have been implemented in many countries because it was thought that the earlier permanent childhood hearing impairment is detected, the less developmentally disadvantaged children would become. To date, however, no strong evidence exists for universal introduction

  19. The effect of symmetrical and asymmetrical hearing impairment on music quality perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Yuexin; Zhao, Fei; Chen, Yuebo; Liang, Maojin; Chen, Ling; Yang, Haidi; Xiong, Hao; Zhang, Xueyuan; Zheng, Yiqing

    2016-09-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of symmetrical, asymmetrical and unilateral hearing impairment on music quality perception. Six validated music pieces in the categories of classical music, folk music and pop music were used to assess music quality in terms of its 'pleasantness', 'naturalness', 'fullness', 'roughness' and 'sharpness'. 58 participants with sensorineural hearing loss [20 with unilateral hearing loss (UHL), 20 with bilateral symmetrical hearing loss (BSHL) and 18 with bilateral asymmetrical hearing loss (BAHL)] and 29 normal hearing (NH) subjects participated in the present study. Hearing impaired (HI) participants had greater difficulty in overall music quality perception than NH participants. Participants with BSHL rated music pleasantness and naturalness to be higher than participants with BAHL. Moreover, the hearing thresholds of the better ears from BSHL and BAHL participants as well as the hearing thresholds of the worse ears from BSHL participants were negatively correlated to the pleasantness and naturalness perception. HI participants rated the familiar music pieces higher than unfamiliar music pieces in the three music categories. Music quality perception in participants with hearing impairment appeared to be affected by symmetry of hearing loss, degree of hearing loss and music familiarity when they were assessed using the music quality rating test (MQRT). This indicates that binaural symmetrical hearing is important to achieve a high level of music quality perception in HI listeners. This emphasizes the importance of provision of bilateral hearing assistive devices for people with asymmetrical hearing impairment.

  20. Teaching Strategies for Economics to the Hearing Impaired | Adu ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study sought to look at the teaching strategies for economics to the hearing impaired. Economics is said to be a living and dynamic subject, which is a vehicle of strict intellectual discipline, that involves looking at the world in a way which is for most, if not all of us quite new. Hearing impairment in a generic term covering ...

  1. Hearing impairment among workers exposed to excessive levels of noise in ginning industries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamalesh J Dube

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Cotton ginning workers have a risk of hearing loss due to excessive noise levels at the workplace environment. In this study, estimates of typical sound levels prevailing at the workplace environment and its effects on hearing ability of the exposed workers were made among cotton ginning workers. Data on self-reported health status was collected by a questionnaire survey at 10 cotton ginning industries located at Jalgaon district of Maharashtra state, India. The cotton ginning workers were exposed to continuous noise levels between 89 and 106 dBA. The hearing ability of the subjects was accessed by pure tone audiometry. The results of audiometry show mild, moderate and moderately severe degree of hearing impairment among the cotton ginning workers. The data generated during the study show that hearing loss was significantly associated with period of exposure to the workplace noise (P <0.0001. The prevalence of audiometric hearing impairment defined as a threshold average greater than 25 dB hearing level was 96% for binaural low-frequency average, 97% for binaural mid frequency average and 94% for binaural high-frequency average in the cotton ginning workers. We recommend the compulsory use of personal protective equipment like ear plug by the cotton ginning workers at the workplace environment. A regular maintenance of ginning and pressing machineries will avoid the emission of excessive noise at the workplace environment of cotton gins. A regular periodic medical examination is necessary to measure the impact of workplace noise on the health of cotton ginning workers.

  2. Age, duration of work, noise and vibration in inducing hearing and balance impairments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jenny Bashiruddin

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available Noisy and vibrating bajaj, a public transportation in Jakarta, is a potential risk in inducing hearing and balance problems. Bajaj drivers in the Jakarta area were chosen by consecutive sampling and examined medically in the Neurotological Subdivision of the ENT Department of the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta. Hearing and balance impairments were then diagnosed from audiometric and posturographic tests. The study was carried out from March 2000 until October 2001. A number of 350 bajaj drivers participated in this study. There were 97 subjects without hearing and balance impairments, and 96 subjects suffered from hearing and balance impairments. Compared to drivers aged less than 40 years, those aged 41 years or more had a four-fold increased risk of developing hearing and balance impairments [adjusted odds ratio (OR = 3.90; 95% confidence interval (CI = 1.67-9.01. Drivers working 9 hours or more a day had an increased risk 2.3 times of developing hearing and balance impairments compared those working less than 9 hours a day (adjusted OR = 2.32; 95% CI=I.22-4.41. Furthermore, when compared to those who had been working for 1-5 years, those who had been working for 5 years had an increased tendency of developing hearing and balance impairments. Those who had been working 21-30 years had a seven-fold increased risk of developing hearing and balance impairments (adjusted OR = 7.11; 95% CI = 1.88-26.92. To minimize hearing and balance impairments bajaj drivers are recommended to work less than 8 hours a day. (Med J Indones 2005; 14: 101-6Keywords: noise, vibration, hearing, balance impairments, driver

  3. Modeling Speech Intelligibility in Hearing Impaired Listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Scheidiger, Christoph; Jørgensen, Søren; Dau, Torsten

    2014-01-01

    speech, e.g. phase jitter or spectral subtraction. Recent studies predict SI for normal-hearing (NH) listeners based on a signal-to-noise ratio measure in the envelope domain (SNRenv), in the framework of the speech-based envelope power spectrum model (sEPSM, [20, 21]). These models have shown good...... agreement with measured data under a broad range of conditions, including stationary and modulated interferers, reverberation, and spectral subtraction. Despite the advances in modeling intelligibility in NH listeners, a broadly applicable model that can predict SI in hearing-impaired (HI) listeners...... is not yet available. As a firrst step towards such a model, this study investigates to what extent eects of hearing impairment on SI can be modeled in the sEPSM framework. Preliminary results show that, by only modeling the loss of audibility, the model cannot account for the higher speech reception...

  4. Audiometric Characteristics of a Dutch DFNA10 Family With Mid-Frequency Hearing Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Beelen, Eline; Oonk, Anne M M; Leijendeckers, Joop M; Hoefsloot, Elisabeth H; Pennings, Ronald J E; Feenstra, Ilse; Dieker, Hendrik-Jan; Huygen, Patrick L M; Snik, Ad F M; Kremer, Hannie; Kunst, Henricus P M

    2016-01-01

    Mutations in EYA4 can cause nonsyndromic autosomal dominant sensorineural hearing impairment (DFNA10) or a syndromic variant with hearing impairment and dilated cardiomyopathy. A mutation in EYA4 was found in a Dutch family, causing DFNA10. This study is focused on characterizing the hearing impairment in this family. Whole exome sequencing was performed in the proband. In addition, peripheral blood samples were collected from 23 family members, and segregation analyses were performed. All participants underwent otorhinolaryngological examinations and pure-tone audiometry, and 12 participants underwent speech audiometry. In addition, an extended set of audiometric measurements was performed in five family members to evaluate the functional status of the cochlea. Vestibular testing was performed in three family members. Two individuals underwent echocardiography to evaluate the nonsyndromic phenotype. The authors present a Dutch family with a truncating mutation in EYA4 causing a mid-frequency hearing impairment. This mutation (c.464del) leads to a frameshift and a premature stop codon (p.Pro155fsX). This mutation is the most N-terminal mutation in EYA4 found to date. In addition, a missense mutation, predicted to be deleterious, was found in EYA4 in two family members. Echocardiography in two family members revealed no signs of dilated cardiomyopathy. Results of caloric and velocity step tests in three family members showed no abnormalities. Hearing impairment was found to be symmetric and progressive, beginning as a mid-frequency hearing impairment in childhood and developing into a high-frequency, moderate hearing impairment later in life. Furthermore, an extended set of audiometric measurements was performed in five family members. The results were comparable to those obtained in patients with other sensory types of hearing impairments, such as patients with Usher syndrome type IIA and presbyacusis, and not to those obtained in patients with (cochlear

  5. Incidence of risk factors for hearing impairment in premature babies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolić Mina

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of hearing impairment in newborn population is 1-3 per 1000 (WHO, 2012. Apart from that, many authors have found that the incidence of hearing impairment is twenty times higher, 2-4%, in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU. Thus, a congenital hearing loss is the most frequent sensory or motor deficit that could be diagnosed immediately upon birth. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of risk factors for hearing impairment in the population of preterm babies. We were especially interested in the impact of gestational age at birth on the incidence of risk factors for hearing loss. A cohort of 150 preterm babies was enrolled in the study. They were hospitalized in the Institute for Neonatology in Belgrade during 2014 and 2015 and the data were obtained from their medical files. The results of this study indicate high incidence of risk factors for hearing impairment in this population of babies. Gestational age at birth had a strong, statistically significant, correlation with risk factor incidence in lower gestational age and vice versa. High incidence of risk factors and their interaction could account for twenty times higher occurrence of congenital and early acquired hearing loss in population of preterm babies compared to term neonates. These results imply the need for systematic audiological surveillance of prematurely born babies at least until 12 months of corrected age.

  6. Perception Development of Complex Syntactic Construction in Children with Hearing Impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robab Teymouri

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Auditory perception or hearing ability is critical for children in acquisition of language and speech hence hearing loss has different effects on individuals’ linguistic perception, and also on their functions. It seems that deaf people suffer from language and speech impairments such as in perception of complex linguistic constructions. This research was aimed to study the perception of complex syntactic constructions in children with hearing-impairment. Methods: The study design was case-control. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, twenty children with severe to profound hearing impairment, aged 8-12 years and twenty normal-hearing children, aged 6-7 years were selected in a simple random sampling from exceptional schools for deaf people and from normal kindergartens and schools for normal cases. The perception of sentences was tested by using a researcher-made task called sentence-picture matching task. At first the content validity was determined and then the reliability was confirmed with Cronbach Alpha Test. Data were analyzed by statistical tests such as Independent Samples T-Test and Mann-Whitney U Test using SPSS. Results: Perception of the group with hearing-impairment was significantly lower than the normal control group. The hearing-impaired children failed to perceive complex syntactic structures. Linguistic function of the group with hearing-impairment on perception of sentences with simple word order was better than on complex sentences. Discussion: If rich linguistic inputs are not available for children during the critical period of the first language acquisition, the syntactic skill, especially in complex syntactic constructions, will not normally develop. In order to establish a foundation for a healthy perfect development of syntax, at the early years of life, children should be exposed to a natural language.

  7. Performance, fatigue and stress in open-plan offices: The effects of noise and restoration on hearing impaired and normal hearing individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helena Jahncke

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Hearing impaired and normal hearing individuals were compared in two within-participant office noise conditions (high noise: 60 L Aeq and low noise: 30 L Aeq . Performance, subjective fatigue, and physiological stress were tested during working on a simulated open-plan office. We also tested two between-participants restoration conditions following the work period with high noise (nature movie or continued office noise. Participants with a hearing impairment (N = 20 were matched with normal hearing participants (N = 18 and undertook one practice session and two counterbalanced experimental sessions. In each experimental session they worked for two hours with basic memory and attention tasks. We also measured physiological stress indicators (cortisol and catecholamines and self-reports of mood and fatigue. The hearing impaired participants were more affected by high noise than the normal hearing participants, as shown by impaired performance for tasks that involve recall of semantic information. The hearing impaired participants were also more fatigued by high noise exposure than participants with normal hearing, and they tended to have higher stress hormone levels during the high noise compared to the low noise condition. Restoration with a movie increased performance and motivation for the normal hearing participants, while rest with continued noise did not. For the hearing impaired participants, continued noise during rest increased motivation and performance, while the movie did not. In summary, the impact of noise and restorative conditions varied with the hearing characteristics of the participants. The small sample size does however encourage caution when interpreting the results.

  8. The usefulness of science knowledge for parents of hearing-impaired children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shauli, Sophie; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

    2018-04-01

    Hearing-impaired children's chances of integrating into hearing society largely depend on their parents, who need to learn vast amounts of science knowledge in the field of hearing. This study characterized the role played by science knowledge in the lives of nonscientists faced with science-related decisions by examining the interactions between general science knowledge, contextual science knowledge in the field of hearing, and parents' advocacy knowledge and attitudes. Based on six semi-structured interviews and 115 questionnaires completed by parents of hearing-impaired children, contextual science knowledge emerged as the only predictor for having slightly better advocacy attitudes and knowledge (5.5% explained variance). Although general science knowledge was the best predictor of contextual knowledge (14% of explained variance), it was not a direct predictor of advocacy knowledge and attitudes. Science knowledge plays some role in the lives of hearing-impaired families, even if they do not list it as a resource for successful rehabilitation.

  9. The effectiveness of linguistic plays on the grammatical skills of hearing-impaired children with hearing aids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sahar Mohammad Esmaeilzadeh

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Grammatical skills development of hearing-impaired children depends on using appropriate educational rehabilitation programs. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of linguistic plays on the grammatical skills in hearing-impaired children with hearing aids.Methods: Ten hearing-impaired children with hearing aids, aged between 5 and 7, were randomly assigned to two groups (5 children in each group. Each treatment group received 12 sessions on linguistic plays. The grammatical skills of these children were evaluated via the TOLD-P: 3 (Persian version; in addition, their level of intelligence was assessed by the Raven test.Results: The difference between the scores of both control and treatment groups revealed a statistically significant difference in grammatical skills (t=7.61, p=0.001 and three subskills of the children who participated in the linguistic plays. These subskills include syntactic understanding (t=3.16, p=0.013, sentence imitation (t=1.71, p=0.006, and morphological completion (t=6.55, p=0.001. In other words, the findings suggest that linguistic plays have a significant impact on the improvement of the aforementioned skills in hearing-impaired children.Conclusion: Results suggest that it would be beneficial to include linguistic plays as part of routine rehabilitation programs as a means of improving the grammatical difficulties of children. After partaking in linguistic plays, children significantly improved their ability to comprehend the meaning of sentences and also to recognize, understand, and use common Persian morphological forms.

  10. Childhood Hearing Impairment: How Do Parents Feel About It ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    -Briggs. Abstract. Background Hearing impairment or deafness is a major disabling condition worldwide. Etiology of the hearing loss range from congenital to acquired, and includes common and preventable childhood infections like otitis ...

  11. A Resource Guide for Signs of Sexual Assault. A Supplement to: Preventing Sexual Abuse of Persons with Disabilities: A Curriculum for Hearing Impaired, Physically Disabled, Blind and Mentally Retarded Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Day, Bonnie

    Part of a curriculum unit on preventing sexual abuse of persons with disabilities, the manual is intended to help instructors present the material to hearing impaired students. Illustrations of sign language are presented for such terms as sexual contact, sexual assault, incest, same sex assault (man/woman), rape (acquaintance/marital), exposer,…

  12. Early Detection of Hearing Impairment Among High Risk Neonates in a Tertiary Care Hospital

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gurudutt Joshi

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Background: Hearing impairment has a devastating, detrimental and an invariably adverse impact on the development of the newborns and the psychological well-being of their families. It also adversely affects development of the central auditory nervous system, and can affect speech perception that interferes with growth in social, emotional, behavioural and cognitive spheres, academic achievement, vocational options, employment opportunities and economic selfsufficiency. Objectives: To find out incidence of hearing impairment in high risk neonates in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU, prevalence of hearing impairment with and without high risk factors in newborns and to correlate the risk factors with hearing impairment. Material and Methods: A cohort study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital of Surat, Gujarat, India consisting of 190 normal newborns and 163 newborns with high risk factors. These newborns underwent a systematized Transient Otoacoustic Emissions Examination (TOAE and Brain Stem Evoked Audiometry (BERA examination according to designed protocol and were followed up with repeated ear examinations. Data were recorded and analyzed statistically. Results: The incidence of hearing impairment in NICU, newborns were 3.6% and the prevalence of hearing impairment was 13%. Hearing impairment was statistically significant in newborns with high risk factors such as low birth weight, preterms 5 days when compared to normal newborns. Conclusion: Presence of risk factors in newborns predisposes them to hearing impairment more as compared to normal newborns and the more the number of risk factors they are exposed to, the more will be the chances of hearing impairment.

  13. Externalization versus Internalization of Sound in Normal-hearing and Hearing-impaired Listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ohl, Björn; Laugesen, Søren; Buchholz, Jörg

    2010-01-01

    The externalization of sound, i. e. the perception of auditory events as being located outside of the head, is a natural phenomenon for normalhearing listeners, when perceiving sound coming from a distant physical sound source. It is potentially useful for hearing in background noise......, but the relevant cues might be distorted by a hearing impairment and also by the processing of the incoming sound through hearing aids. In this project, two intuitive tests in natural real-life surroundings were developed, which capture the limits of the perception of externalization. For this purpose...

  14. Modeling auditory perception of individual hearing-impaired listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jepsen, Morten Løve; Dau, Torsten

    showed that, in most cases, the reduced or absent cochlear compression, associated with outer hair-cell loss, quantitatively accounts for broadened auditory filters, while a combination of reduced compression and reduced inner hair-cell function accounts for decreased sensitivity and slower recovery from...... selectivity. Three groups of listeners were considered: (a) normal hearing listeners; (b) listeners with a mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss; and (c) listeners with a severe sensorineural hearing loss. A fixed set of model parameters were derived for each hearing-impaired listener. The simulations...

  15. Working memory and novel word learning in children with hearing impairment and children with specific language impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansson, K; Forsberg, J; Löfqvist, A; Mäki-Torkko, E; Sahlén, B

    2004-01-01

    Working memory is considered to influence a range of linguistic skills, i.e. vocabulary acquisition, sentence comprehension and reading. Several studies have pointed to limitations of working memory in children with specific language impairment. Few studies, however, have explored the role of working memory for language deficits in children with hearing impairment. The first aim was to compare children with mild-to-moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment, children with a preschool diagnosis of specific language impairment and children with normal language development, aged 9-12 years, for language and working memory. The special focus was on the role of working memory in learning new words for primary school age children. The assessment of working memory included tests of phonological short-term memory and complex working memory. Novel word learning was assessed according to the methods of. In addition, a range of language tests was used to assess language comprehension, output phonology and reading. Children with hearing impairment performed significantly better than children with a preschool diagnosis of specific language impairment on tasks assessing novel word learning, complex working memory, sentence comprehension and reading accuracy. No significant correlation was found between phonological short-term memory and novel word learning in any group. The best predictor of novel word learning in children with specific language impairment and in children with hearing impairment was complex working memory. Furthermore, there was a close relationship between complex working memory and language in children with a preschool diagnosis of specific language impairment but not in children with hearing impairment. Complex working memory seems to play a significant role in vocabulary acquisition in primary school age children. The interpretation is that the results support theories suggesting a weakened influence of phonological short-term memory on novel word

  16. Age-related Hearing Impairment and the Triad of Acquired Hearing Loss

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chao-Hui eYang

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Understanding underlying pathological mechanisms is prerequisite for a sensible design of protective therapies against hearing loss. The triad of age-related, noise-generated, and drug-induced hearing loss ¬¬displays intriguing similarities in some cellular responses of cochlear sensory cells such as a potential involvement of reactive oxygen species and apoptotic and necrotic cell death. On the other hand, detailed studies have revealed that molecular pathways are considerably complex and, importantly, it has become clear that pharmacological protection successful against one form of hearing loss will not necessarily protect against another. This review will summarize pathological and pathophysiological features of age-related hearing impairment (ARHI in human and animal models and address selected aspects of the commonality (or lack thereof of cellular responses in ARHI to drugs and noise.

  17. Severe hearing impairment among military veterans--United States, 2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-22

    A substantial proportion of hearing loss in the United States is attributable to employment-related exposure to noise. Among military veterans, the most common service-connected disabilities are hearing impairments, suggesting that occupational noise exposure during military service might cause more veterans to have hearing loss than nonveterans. However, a recent analysis of data from the 1993-1995 Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study did not find significant differences between the two groups. To further investigate hearing loss among veterans, specifically the prevalence of severe hearing impairment (SHI), data from the 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS) were analyzed. This report describes the results of those analyses, which indicated that the prevalence of SHI among veterans was significantly greater than among nonveterans. Veterans were 30% more likely to have SHI than nonveterans after adjusting for age and current occupation, and veterans who served in the United States or overseas during September 2001-March 2010, the era of overseas contingency operations (including Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom), were four times more likely than nonveterans to have SHI. These findings suggest a need for increased emphasis on improving military hearing conservation programs (HCPs) and on hearing loss surveillance in military and veterans' health systems.

  18. Sentence Writing and Perception of Written Sentences in Hearing-Impaired and Normal-Hearing Primary School Students in Hamadan, Western Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Afsaneh Yaghobi

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Learning language is acquired in early childhood and gradually developed by new words and new structures. Hearing sense is the most important acquisition for learning this skill. Hearing disorders are barriers for natural language learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between writing sentences and perception of written sentences in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing students.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among thirty hearing-impaired students with hearing loss of 70-90 dB and thirty normal hearing students. They were selected from 3rd grade primary school students in Hamadan, a large city in Western Iran. The language skills and non language information was assessed by questionnaire, Action Picture Test, and Sentence Perception Test.Results: Results showed that there was a significant relation between writing sentences and perception of written sentences in hearing impaired students (p<0.001, (r=0.8. This significant relation was seen in normal-hearing students as well (p<0.001, (r=0.7.Conclusion: Disability of hearing-impaired students in verbal communication is not only related to articulation and voice disorders but also is related to their disability to explore and use of language rules. They suffer lack of perception of written sentences, and they are not skilled to convey their feelings and thoughts in order to presenting themselves by using language structures.

  19. Hearing Impairment Caused by Occupational Noise | Mets | South ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Occupational noise-induced hearing impairment is an insidiously developing injury which only becomes apparent when it affects the hearing of conversational speech. As no remedy is possible, prevention is the only answer. In view of the impending legislation in South Africa a review of the literature is presented. This is ...

  20. Assisting Older Persons With Adjusting to Hearing Aids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lane, Kari R; Clark, M Kathleen

    2016-02-01

    This intervention study tested the feasibility and initial effect of Hearing Aid Reintroduction (HEAR) to assist persons aged 70 to 85 years adjust to hearing aids. Following this 30-day intervention, hearing aid use increased between 1 and 8 hr per day with 50% of participants able to wear them for at least 4 hr. Hearing aid satisfaction improved from not satisfied to satisfied overall. The study demonstrated that HEAR is feasible and could improve hearing aid use of a substantial number of older persons who had previously failed to adjust to their hearing aids and had given up. However, further testing among a larger and more diverse population is needed to better understand the effectiveness and sustainability of the intervention. © The Author(s) 2014.

  1. Anger Expression Styles of Hearing Impaired Individuals Doing Sport and Those Not Doing Sport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altin, Mehmet

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this research was to determine the anger expression styles between the sportive hearing impaired individuals and the sedentary hearing impaired individuals. In the sportive hearing impaired group, there were 170 participants: 62 females and 108 males doing basketball, volleyball and football teams as licensed sportsmen in various clubs…

  2. Prevalence and Social Risk Factors for Hearing Impairment in Chinese Children—A National Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chunfeng Yun

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Hearing impairment may affect children’s communication skills, social development, and educational achievement. Little is known about the prevalence of hearing impairment among Chinese children. Data were taken from the 2006 second China National Survey on Disability (CNSD. Hearing impairment was defined as moderate (41–60 dB HL, severe (61–80 dB HL, profound (81–90 dB HL, or complete (>91 dB HL. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR and 95% confidence intervals (CI. A weighted number of 567,915 hearing impairment children were identified, yielding a prevalence of 17.49 per 10,000 people (95% CI: 16.90–18.08, with prevention or treatment options possible for 64.6% of hearing impairment children. The main causes of hearing impairment were hereditary, tympanitis, and drug intoxication. Illiteracy in one or both parents (mother: OR = 1.388, 95% CI: 1.125–1.714, p < 0.0001; father: OR = 1.537, 95% CI: 1.152–2.049, p < 0.0001 relative to no school or primary school, annual family income lower than national average (OR = 1.323, 95% CI: 1.044–1.675, p = 0.0203, relative to higher than national average, household size larger than three people (OR = 1.432, 95% CI: 1.164–1.762, p = 0.0007, relative to smaller than three people and single-mother family (OR = 2.056, 95% CI: 1.390–3.042, p = 0.0176, relative to intact family were the independence risk factors for hearing impairment among Chinese children. Lower annual family income, male children, larger household size, single-mother family, and lower levels of maternal and paternal education were independent risk factors for hearing impairment for Chinese children. Further studies on hearing impairment prevention and the relationship between parental social factors and the risk of hearing impairment are needed.

  3. Implications of the information and communication technologies (ICT in the socialization of hearing-impaired persons. A case study: Zaragoza

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milagros Mayor Pérez

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Access to ICT is an important issue in contemporary societies, especially in vulnerable groups. From a case study of hearing impaired people living in Zaragoza, we study the assumption of ICT as a resource for socializing as well as the opinions and asses on them. In general, members of this group recognize the value and importance of ICT to information, communication and socialization. There are differences in their access between deaf persons with knowing of sign language or without it. Trends such as the increased use of smartphones replacing computers or valuation of certain risks or dangers associated ICT are identified. The domain in the use of ICT is conditioned by variables such as knowing of sign language, the age and condition of digital native.

  4. Hearing-impaired child at the pediatrician office from a phoniatrician‘s point of view

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Myska, P.

    2014-01-01

    Early diagnosis of hearing impairment is of crucial importance in a child’s life. For this reason, a pediatrician should perform a hearing exam, along with other necessary specialised tests, immediately after he/she had identified risks of hearing impairment in the newborn‘s anamnesis or had ben warned by the parents about a possible problem. Both the diagnosis of congenital or acquired hearing impairment after birth, and the installment of hearing aids, should take place by the end of the first year in a child’s life at the latest. (author)

  5. Speech understanding and directional hearing for hearing-impaired subjects with in-the-ear and behind-the-ear hearing aids

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leeuw, A. R.; Dreschler, W. A.

    1987-01-01

    With respect to acoustical properties, in-the-ear (ITE) aids should give better understanding and directional hearing than behind-the-ear (BTE) aids. Also hearing-impaired subjects often prefer ITEs. A study was performed to assess objectively the improvement in speech understanding and directional

  6. Hearing Aid Use and Mild Hearing Impairment: Learnings from Big Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timmer, Barbra H B; Hickson, Louise; Launer, Stefan

    2017-09-01

    Previous research, mostly reliant on self-reports, has indicated that hearing aid (HA) use is related to the degree of hearing impairment (HI). No large-scale investigation of the relationship between data-logged HA use and HI has been conducted to date. This study aimed to investigate if objective measures of overall daily HA use and HA use in various listening environments are different for adults with mild HI compared to adults with moderate HI. This retrospective study used data extracted from a database of fitting appointments from an international group of HA providers. Only data from the participants' most recent fitting appointment were included in the final dataset. A total of 8,489 bilateral HA fittings of adults over the age of 18 yr, conducted between January 2013 and June 2014, were included. Participants were subsequently allocated to HI groups, based on British Society of Audiology and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association audiometric descriptors. Fitting data from participating HA providers were regularly transferred to a central server. The data, with all personal information except age and gender removed, contained participants' four-frequency average (at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz) as well as information on HA characteristics and usage. Following data cleaning, bivariate and post hoc statistical analyses were conducted. The total sample of adults' average daily HA use was 8.52 hr (interquartile range [IQR] = 5.49-11.77) in the left ear and 8.51 hr (IQR = 5.49-11.72) in the right ear. With a few exceptions, there were no statistical differences between hours of HA use for participants with mild HI compared to those with moderate impairment. Across all mild and moderate HI groups, the most common overall HA usage was between 8 and 12 hr per day. Other factors such as age, gender, and HA style also showed no relationship to hours of use. HAs were used, on average, for 7 hr (IQR = 4.27-9.96) per day in quiet and 1 hr (IQR = 0.33-1.41) per

  7. TELEGRAM: contribution in assistive technology indication for individuals with hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacob, Regina Tangerino de Souza; Lopes, Natália Barreto Frederigue; Cruz, Aline Duarte da; Alves, Tacianne Kriscia Machado; Santos, Larissa Germiniani Dos; Angelo, Thais Corina Said de; Mondelli, Maria Fernanda Capoani Garcia; Moret, Adriane Lima Mortari

    2017-02-23

    The objective of the study was to translate and culturally adapt to Portuguese the TELEGRAM instrument and to evaluate its effectiveness in adults with hearing impairment using hearing aids. The TELEGRAM was translated into the Portuguese language, reviewed for grammatical and idiomatic equivalences (reverse translations) and linguistic and cultural adaptations. After translation, the TELEGRAM was applied to 20 individuals with hearing impairment. A descriptive analysis of the results was performed. After the grammatical and idiomatic equivalence, the replacement of one term/item was suggested, which was modified and adapted to the Brazilian context. In general, the questions of the instrument were considered easy to understand. Among the categories assessed, individuals with hearing loss had greater difficulty using the telephone and in activities such as attending church gatherings, parties, or in situations of noisy environments, distance and reverberation. The TELEGRAM translated into Brazilian Portuguese proved to be an easily applicable tool in population studies and effective to assess which are the main situations where individuals with hearing impairment have greater difficulty in communication, reinforcing the importance of hearing rehabilitation and assistive technology to minimize these difficulties.

  8. Hearing impairment after childhood bacterial meningitis dependent on etiology in Luanda, Angola.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karppinen, Mariia; Pelkonen, Tuula; Roine, Irmeli; Cruzeiro, Manuel Leite; Peltola, Heikki; Pitkäranta, Anne

    2015-11-01

    Childhood bacterial meningitis (BM) damages hearing, but the potential of different agents to cause impairment in developing countries is poorly understood. We compared the extent of hearing impairment in BM caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Streptococcus pneumoniae or Neisseria meningitidis among children aged 2 months to 13 years in Luanda, Angola. Hearing of 685 ears of 351 (78%) survivors among 723 enrolled patients was tested by brainstem-evoked response audiometry on day 7 of hospitalization. The causative agent was sought by cerebrospinal fluid culture, PCR or the latex-agglutination test. Altogether, 45 (12%) of the survivors were deaf (threshold >80 dB), and 20 (6%) had a threshold of 80 dB. The incidence of any kind of hearing loss, with ≥60 dB, was 34% with Hib, 30% with S. pneumoniae, 19% with N. meningitidis and 33% with other bacteria. Examining all ears combined and using the ≥60 dB threshold, the agents showed dissimilar harm (P=0.005), Hib being the most frequent and N. meningitidis the most infrequent cause. Compared to other agents, S. pneumoniae more often caused deafness (P=0.025) and hearing impairment at ≥60 dB (P=0.017) in infants, whereas this level of hearing loss in older survivors was most commonly caused by Hib (P=0.031). BM among children in Angola is often followed by hearing impairment, but the risk depends on the agent. S. pneumoniae is a major problem among infants, whereas Hib is mainly a risk beyond 12 months. N. meningitidis impairs hearing less frequently. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Overview of a public health approach to pediatric hearing impairment in the Pacific Islands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaspar, Annette; Kei, Joseph; Driscoll, Carlie; Swanepoel, De Wet; Goulios, Helen

    2016-07-01

    Childhood hearing impairment is a significant cause of disability in developing countries. Otitis media and meningitis are leading infectious causes of preventable hearing loss in children. It is estimated that the Pacific Islands have among the greatest global burden of childhood hearing impairment due to infectious causes, and yet there is currently very little in the research literature on pediatric hearing disorders in this region. (1) To review existing research literature on pediatric hearing impairment in the Pacific Islands, and (2) to present a public health approach to the development and improvement of childhood hearing services in the Pacific Islands. The primary tool was a comprehensive literature review. MEDLINE and ScienceDirect databases were searched for relevant journal articles. There was no limit on the date of publication. Any article reporting on hearing impairment in the Pacific Region was included. A total of 23 journal articles were found that satisfied the above inclusion criteria. The limited information available in the literature suggests that otitis media and vaccine-preventable infections are a significant cause of avoidable childhood hearing impairment in the Pacific Islands. Pediatric audiology services are limited in this region. Further research is required to develop effective public health programs that should reduce the burden of preventable childhood hearing loss in the Pacific Islands. There is limited information in the research literature on pediatric hearing impairment and audiology services in the Pacific Islands. Epidemiological data based on the WHO Ear and Hearing Disorders Survey Protocol are urgently needed, and the development of audiology services within the existing public and primary health care framework should reduce the burden of preventable hearing loss in the Pacific Islands. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Perceived competence and school adjustment of hearing impaired children in mainstream primary school settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatamizadeh, N; Ghasemi, M; Saeedi, A; Kazemnejad, A

    2008-11-01

    Although educational main streaming of children with special needs formally began in Iran since 1992 there is little information whether hearing impaired children feel competent in regular schools. To determine the perceived competence and school adjustment of hearing impaired children in mainstream primary school settings, the self-perception profile was administered to 60 mainstreamed hard of hearing children and 60 classmates with normal hearing matched for gender by a single interviewer. The instrument comprised 28 items, 23 of which were similar to those of 'adapted test Image for children with cochlear implants' asking children about their feelings about their own cognitive, physical, socio-emotional and communication competence and school adjustment. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for the instrument was 0.93. Hard of hearing children rated their competence significantly poorer than their hearing classmates for all domains. Mean differences for the five domains ranged from 0.48 (for physical competence) to 0.90 (for school adjustment) on a scale of 1-4. There were no significant differences between girls' and boys' competence, in either the hearing or the hearing impaired groups. Classifying overall scores for perceived competence into four groups ('poor competence', 'low competence', 'moderate competence' and 'high competence'), 23.4% of hearing impaired children but none of the hearing classmates rated themselves as having low or poor competence. On the other hand 85% of hearing children and only 18.3% of hearing impaired children rated themselves as highly competent. We suggest that periodical assessments of mainstreamed children might help to identify those children who are having difficulty adapting to their environment.

  11. Elements of museum mobile augmented reality for engaging hearing impaired visitors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Esraa Jaffar; Bakar, Juliana Aida Abu; Zulkifli, Abdul Nasir

    2017-10-01

    Nowadays, designers are more concern with the issue of engagement and informal learning at museum and gallery sites. This has made studies to focus more on the use of Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) at museum and gallery sites. However, most of the MAR applications for museum visitors are largely tailored to normal hearing visitors while the hearing-impaired (HI) visitors are not supported. The hearing impaired (HI) community account for over 5% of the world's populace which is about 360 million people. Thus, this paper explores the design elements of mobile augmented reality for engaging hearing impaired visitors at the museum site. The findings of this paper argues that there are eleven major elements of engagement of MAR needed for the design of an efficient museum MAR app for hearing impaired visitors. These eleven elements include Aesthetics, Curiosity, Usability, Interaction, Motivation, Satisfaction, Self-Efficacy, Perceived Control, Enjoyment, Focused Attention and Interest. This study pointed out that for an efficient and engaged MAR app for the HI community especially HI visitors to museum sites, these eleven elements are critical. This finding will help MAR designers and developers on how to design an efficient and engaged MAR app for the HI community at large and museum HI visitors specifically.

  12. Students with hearing impairment at a South African university: Self-identity and disclosure

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    Background A growing number of students with hearing loss are being granted access to higher education in South Africa due to the adoption of inclusive educational policies. However, available statistics indicate that participation by students with hearing impairments in higher education remains low and research suggests that support provisioning for those who do gain access is inadequate. Objectives This article aims to illustrate that the assumed self-identity of students with hearing impairment influences their choice to disclose their disability. The choice not to disclose their hearing loss prevents them from accessing the necessary reasonable accommodations and this in turn may affect their eventual educational success. Method Reported here is a qualitative descriptive case study at a South African university. Purposive sampling methods were employed. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews with seven students with hearing impairment ranging from moderate to profound, using spoken language. Constructivist grounded theory was used as an approach to the process of generating and transforming the data, as well as the construction of theory. Findings All the student participants identified as having a hearing rather than a D/deaf identity cultural paradigm and viewed themselves as ‘normal’. Linked to this was their unwillingness to disclose their hearing impairment and thus access support. Conclusion It is crucially important for academic, support and administrative staff to be aware of both the assumed ‘hearing’ identity and therefore subsequent non-disclosure practices of students with a hearing impairment using the oral method of communication. Universities need to put measures in place to encourage students to voluntarily disclose their hearing impairment in order to provide more targeted teaching and learning support. This could lead to improved educational outcomes for students. PMID:28730053

  13. The Perception and Decoding of Expressive Emotional Information by Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanders, Gina

    1985-01-01

    Hearing and hearing-impaired children between ages 4.5 to 15.5 years in England and Belgium were invited to abstract the concept of emotion from photographs and line drawings of facial expressions and body postures. A further experiment isloated the element of context in the task of decoding expression of emotion, resulting in comparatively…

  14. Rotatory and collic vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maes, Leen; De Kegel, Alexandra; Van Waelvelde, Hilde; Dhooge, Ingeborg

    2014-01-01

    Vertigo and imbalance are often underestimated in the pediatric population, due to limited communication abilities, atypical symptoms, and relatively quick adaptation and compensation in children. Moreover, examination and interpretation of vestibular tests are very challenging, because of difficulties with cooperation and maintenance of alertness, and because of the sometimes nauseatic reactions. Therefore, it is of great importance for each vestibular laboratory to implement a child-friendly test protocol with age-appropriate normative data. Because of the often masked appearance of vestibular problems in young children, the vestibular organ should be routinely examined in high-risk pediatric groups, such as children with a hearing impairment. Purposes of the present study were (1) to determine age-appropriate normative data for two child-friendly vestibular laboratory techniques (rotatory and collic vestibular evoked myogenic potential [cVEMP] test) in a group of children without auditory or vestibular complaints, and (2) to examine vestibular function in a group of children presenting with bilateral hearing impairment. Forty-eight typically developing children (mean age 8 years 0 months; range: 4 years 1 month to 12 years 11 months) without any auditory or vestibular complaints as well as 39 children (mean age 7 years 8 months; range: 3 years 8 months to 12 years 10 months) with a bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were included in this study. All children underwent three sinusoidal rotations (0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 Hz at 50 degrees/s) and bilateral cVEMP testing. No significant age differences were found for the rotatory test, whereas a significant increase of N1 latency and a significant threshold decrease was noticeable for the cVEMP, resulting in age-appropriate normative data. Hearing-impaired children demonstrated significantly lower gain values at the 0.01 Hz rotation and a larger percentage of absent cVEMP responses compared with normal-hearing children

  15. Effects of self-reported hearing or vision impairment on depressive symptoms: a population-based longitudinal study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, J H; Lee, H J; Jung, J; Park, E-C

    2018-02-08

    The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of either hearing, vision or dual sensory impairment on depressive symptoms and to identify subgroups that are vulnerable and significantly affected. Data from the 2006-2014 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) were used and a total of 5832 individuals were included in this study. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D10) scale. Sensory impairment was assessed according to the levels of self-reported hearing or vision, which were categorised as either good (excellent, very good or good) or poor (fair or poor). The changes in hearing or vision from records of previous survey were investigated. Changes from good to poor, which indicates new onset, were defined as hearing impairment or vision impairment. Interactions of changes in hearing and vision were considered in the analysis. Dual sensory impairment was indicated when hearing impairment and vision impairment both developed at the same time. Demographic, socioeconomic and health-related factors were considered as potential confounders and were adjusted for in the generalised estimating equation model. Individuals with hearing impairment demonstrated significantly more severe depressive symptoms [β = 0.434, standard errors (s.e.) = 0.097, p impairment also showed significantly elevated depressive symptoms (β = 0.253, s.e. = 0.058, p impairment showed significantly more severe depressive symptoms (β = 0.768, s.e. = 0.197, p impairment on depressive symptoms was significant in both sexes and across age groups, except for vision impairment in male participants. Hearing, vision and dual sensory impairment are significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Our results suggest that treatment or rehabilitation of either hearing or vision impairment would help prevent depression.

  16. The effect of hearing aid noise reduction on listening effort in hearing-impaired adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desjardins, Jamie L; Doherty, Karen A

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of a noise-reduction (NR) algorithm on the listening effort hearing-impaired participants expend on a speech in noise task. Twelve hearing-impaired listeners fitted with behind-the-ear hearing aids with a fast-acting modulation-based NR algorithm participated in this study. A dual-task paradigm was used to measure listening effort with and without the NR enabled in the hearing aid. The primary task was a sentence-in-noise task presented at fixed overall speech performance levels of 76% (moderate listening condition) and 50% (difficult listening condition) correct performance, and the secondary task was a visual-tracking test. Participants also completed measures of working memory (Reading Span test), and processing speed (Digit Symbol Substitution Test) ability. Participants' speech recognition in noise scores did not significantly change with the NR algorithm activated in the hearing aid in either listening condition. The NR algorithm significantly decreased listening effort, but only in the more difficult listening condition. Last, there was a tendency for participants with faster processing speeds to expend less listening effort with the NR algorithm when listening to speech in background noise in the difficult listening condition. The NR algorithm reduced the listening effort adults with hearing loss must expend to understand speech in noise.

  17. Health related quality of life in parents of children with speech and hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aras, Ivana; Stevanović, Ranko; Vlahović, Sanja; Stevanović, Siniša; Kolarić, Branko; Kondić, Ljiljana

    2014-02-01

    Hearing impairment and specific language disorder are two entities that seriously affect language acquisition in children and reduce their communication skills. These children require specific treatment and higher levels of care than healthy children. Their language abilities also strongly influence parent-child interactions. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of the parents of hearing-impaired children and the parents of children with speech difficulties (specific language disorder). Our study subjects included 349 parents (182 mothers and 167 fathers) of preschool-aged children with receptive expressive language disorder and 131 parents (71 mothers and 60 fathers) of children with severe hearing impairment. A control group was composed of 146 parents (82 mothers and 64 fathers) of healthy children of the same age. HRQOL was assessed using the SF-36 questionnaire. For all groups of parents, the mothers had poorer scores compared with the fathers, but large differences were apparent depending on the child's impairment. In the control group, the scores of the mothers were significantly lower than the fathers' scores in only two (of eight) health domains. In contrast, the scores were lower in three domains for the mothers of speech-impaired children and in six domains for the mothers of hearing-impaired children, representing the greatest difference between the parents. When compared with the control group, both the mothers and fathers of speech-impaired children scored significantly worse in five health domains. Fathers of hearing-impaired children scored significantly worse than controls in three health domains. The lowest scores, indicating the poorest HRQOL, were observed for mothers of hearing-impaired children, who obtained significantly lower scores than the control mothers in all health domains except the emotional role. The parents of preschool-aged speech-and hearing-impaired children experience poorer HRQOL

  18. Causes of permanent childhood hearing impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Korver, Anna M. H.; Admiraal, Ronald J. C.; Kant, Sarina G.; Dekker, Friedo W.; Wever, Capi C.; Kunst, Henricus P. M.; Frijns, Johan H. M.; Oudesluys-Murphy, Anne Marie; Oudesluys-Murphy, A. M.; Korver, A. M. H.; Frijns, J. H. M.; Wever, C. C.; Konings, S.; Beers, W.; Dekker, F. W.; de Vries, J. J. C.; Vossen, A. C. T. M.; Kant, S. G.; van den Akker-van Marle, M. E.; Rieffe, C.; Ens-Dokkum, M. H.; van Straaten, H. L. M.; Uilenburg, N. N.; Elvers, B.; Loeber, G.; Meuwese-Jongejeugd, J.; Maré, M. J.; Van Zanten, G. A.; Goedegebure, A.; Coster, F.; Goverts, S. T.; Admiraal, R. J. C.; Cremers, C. W. R. J.; Kunst, H. P. M.; de Leeuw, M.; Dijkhuizen, J.; Scharloo, M.; Hoeben, D.; Rijpma, G.; Graef, W.; Linschoten, D.; Kuijper, J.; Hof, N. J.; Pans, D.; Jorritsma, F.; van Beurden, M.; ter Huurne, C. T.; Brienesse, P.; Koldewijn, G. J.; Letourneur, K. G.

    2011-01-01

    The causes of Permanent Childhood Hearing Impairment (PCHI) are often quoted as being hereditary in 50%, acquired in 25%, and unknown in 25% of cases. Interest in the causes of PCHI has grown recently due to increasing diagnostic possibilities. We investigated the evidence for the reported

  19. Causes of permanent childhood hearing impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Korver, A.M.; Admiraal, R.J.C.; Kant, S.G.; Dekker, F.W.; Wever, C.; Kunst, H.P.M.; Frijns, J.H.; Oudesluys-Murphy, A.M.

    2011-01-01

    INTRODUCTION: The causes of Permanent Childhood Hearing Impairment (PCHI) are often quoted as being hereditary in 50%, acquired in 25%, and unknown in 25% of cases. Interest in the causes of PCHI has grown recently due to increasing diagnostic possibilities. We investigated the evidence for the

  20. The comparison of stress and marital satisfaction status of parents of hearing-impaired and normal children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karim Gharashi

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Stress is the source of many problems in human-kind lives and threatens people's life constantly. Having hearing-impaired child, not only causes stress in parents, but also affects their marital satisfaction. The purpose of this study was comparing the stress and marital satisfaction status between the normal and hearing-impaired children's parents.Methods: This was a causal-comparative study. Eighty parents of normal children and 80 parents of hearing-impaired children were chosen from rehabilitation centers and kindergartens in city of Tabriz, Iran by available and clustering sampling method. All parents were asked to complete the Friedrich's source of stress and Enrich marital satisfaction questionnaires.Results: Parents of hearing-impaired children endure more stress than the normal hearing ones (p<0.001. The marital satisfaction of hearing-impaired children's parents was lower than the parents of normal hearing children, too (p<0.001.Conclusion: Having a hearing-impaired child causes stress and threatens the levels of marital satisfaction. This requires much more attention and a distinct planning for parents of handicap children to reduce their stress.

  1. Childhood Hearing Impairment: How do Parents Feel about it?

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    DATONYE ALASIA

    burden of hearing impairment on the children and their ... The Nigerian Health Journal, Vol. 12, No 4 ... certain cultural misconception and. 9,10 ... school. Information collected included parents age, sex and questions related to the perception ... routine care needed to avoid hearing loss due to. 15 ... Mental health: New.

  2. Noise-Induced Hearing Impairment As An Occupational Risk Factor ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Noise pollution in workplaces poses serious health risks including that of cardiovascular disturbances and impairment of hearing. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of occupational noise on hearing among selected industrial workers in Benin City, Nigeria. Male and female workers (n=150) in sawmills, ...

  3. Group Communication Training for Young People with Combined Visual and Hearing Impairments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khokhlova A. Yu.

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the experience of the communication training for young people with visual and hearing impairments. Boys and girls aged 16–25 with simultaneous hearing and visual impairments of varying severity took part in the group trainings. The variety of means of communication used by them described, conditions of effective training work outlined. The results showed that young people with visual and hearing impairments demonstrate a fairly high level of possession of various means of communication without pronounced additional violations. Communicative needs and preferences in young people with visual and hearing impairments are age-appropriate. Communication training allows the following: to eliminate some of the objective communicative difficulties which are exists in deaf-blind people, to motivate participants to show initiative in communication, to learn new about each other. Also communicative training creates a positive experience of communication with a wider range of people. The most important result is the opportunity to talk about ones feelings in a supportive atmosphere.

  4. The communicative performance of a severely hearing-impaired adolescent

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ann Russel

    1981-11-01

    Full Text Available This study describes the communicative performance of a severely hearing-impaired adolescent.The experimenter taught the subject how to play Russian Backgammon. The subject conversed with, and afterwards taught his mother, speech therapist, and a peer how to play the game. Each dyad played the game once. Videotape recordings were made of each dyadic situation. The channels of communication, both verbal and nonverbal, used by each speaker, were determined. A relational communication coding scheme, involving the analysis of requests and subsequent responses, was applied to the data. Results indicate that the hearing-impaired adolescent, though not always able to hold a dominant position in a dyadic situation, was capable of expressing the same types of control as normal adults. Moreover, the types of control expressed varied as a function of each contextual setting. Whenever the subject did hold a dominant position, the combined verbal plus nonverbal channel was his predominant mode of  communication. These findings  suggest that a sociolinguistic approach provides important information regarding a hearing-impaired adolescent's communicative performance.

  5. Hearing impairment in genotyped Wolfram syndrome patients.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Plantinga, R.F.; Pennings, R.J.E.; Huygen, P.L.M.; Bruno, R.; Eller, P.; Barrett, T.G.; Vialettes, B.; Paquis-Fluklinger, V.; Lombardo, F.; Cremers, C.W.R.J.

    2008-01-01

    OBJECTIVES: Wolfram syndrome is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by the features "DIDMOAD" (diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, optic atrophy, and deafness). We sought to study the audiometric data of genotyped Wolfram syndrome patients with sensorineural hearing impairment.

  6. Personality and the subjective assessment of hearing aids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, R M; Alexander, G C; Gray, G

    1999-01-01

    Relatively little is known about the influence of patients' personality features on the responses they make to self-assessment items used to measure the outcome of a hearing aid fitting. If the personality of the hearing aid wearer has a significant influence on self-report outcome data, it would be important to explore the relevant personality variables and to be cognizant of their effects when using subjective outcome data to justify decisions about clinical services or other matters. This investigation explored the relationship between several personality attributes and responses to the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB). It found that more extroverted patients tend to report more hearing aid benefit in all speech communication situations. In addition, patients with a more external locus of control tend to have more negative reactions to loud environmental sounds, both with and without amplification. Anxiety also played a small additional role in determining APHAB responses. Although personality variables were found to explain a relatively small amount of the variance in APHAB responses (usually around 10%), these outcomes should alert practitioners and researchers to the potential effects of personality variables in all self-report data.

  7. Stress coping strategies in hearing-impaired students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bahman Akbari

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: The majority of people experience problems and stressors, such as job layoffs and illnesses during their lives. However, the way people cope with stress varies. According to previous research, use of effective coping strategies can significantly reduce stress and tension. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of stress coping strategies on hearing-impaired students.Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and control group. The sample consisted of 40 hearing-impaired male students of guidance and high schools of the city of Sari, Iran, in the years 2010 and 2011. They were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental and control groups (n=20. The data collection tool was the General Health Questionnaire-28. The experimental group was administered eight sessions of stress coping strategies based on cognitive-behavioral techniques two hours weekly. Data were analyzed using statistical indices including mean, standard deviation, and two-way analysis of variance.Results: There was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores in the subscales of somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, depression, and social function (p<0.05. Moreover, after the eight sessions the rate of general health of the experimental group was higher than the control group.Conclusion: Stress coping strategies based on cognitive-behavioral techniques increased the general health of hearing-impaired people. Therefore, stress management training should be developed and expanded as an appropriate intervention.

  8. Comparison of Reading Comprehension Skill of Students with Severe to Profound Hearing Impairment from Second up to Fifth Grade of Exceptional Schools with Normal Hearing Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maryam Jalalipour

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Reading is known as one of the most important learning tools. Research results consistently have shown that even a mild hearing impairment could affect the reading skills. Due to the reported differences in reading comprehension skills between hearing impaired students and their normal hearing peers, this research was conducted to compare the differences between the two groups. The other aim was to find any changes in the reading ability of hearing impaired group during elementary school. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional (descriptive–analytic one in which reading comprehension ability of 91 students with severe and profound hearing impairment (33 girls and 58 boys from 2nd up to 5th grade of exceptional schools were compared with 50 2nd grade normal hearing students in Ahvaz, Iran. The first section of Diagnostic Reading Test (Shirazi – Nilipour, 2004 was used in this study. Then the mean reading scores of hearing impaired students in each grade was compared with control group using SPSS 13 with Mann Whitney test. Results: There was a significant difference between average scores of hearing impaired students (boys and girls in 2nd to 5th grade with normal hearing students of 2nd grade (P<0.001. Reading comprehension scores of students with hearing impairment in higher grades had improved slightly, but it was still lower than that of the normal hearing students in the 2nd grade. Conclusion: It appears that reading comprehension skill of students with significant hearing impairment near the end of elementary school years becomes weaker than normal hearing students in the second grade. Therefore, it is essential to find and resolve the underlying reasons of this condition by all professionals who work in the field of education and rehabilitation of these students.

  9. Assessment of narrative writing by Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamani, P; Soleymani, Z; Mousavi, S M; Akbari, N

    2018-02-16

    Previous studies have highlighted that narrative skill is critical to the development of the literacy skills by children. Children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aids (HA) may have problems in narrative development compared to peers with healthy hearing (HH). There is no exact data about the narrative writing ability of Persian-speaking students who are hearing-impaired. This study was undertaken to compare the microstructure and macrostructure scores for narrative writing of Persian-speaking students who are hearing-impaired and peers with HH. This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study. The subjects were recruited from elementary schools in the city of Tehran. A total of 144 elementary school students were participated. The written narratives were elicited using a wordless pictorial storybook story. Three-way ANOVA with post hoc adjusted Bonferroni test was applied to determine the main effects and interactions of grounded variables on the microstructure and macrostructure components of narrative writing. No significant differences were observed in the macrostructure components of narrative writing between hearing-impaired and HH students. Factors analysis showed that the 4th grade HH students had significantly the highest scores, and the 3rd grade HA students had significantly the lowest scores in microstructure components of narrative writing. The findings revealed that hearing-impaired students similarly to their HH peers can transmit the main idea (macrostructure) of narrative writing, but show critical difficulties when using complete grammatical elements (microstructures) to form sentences to convey the idea in the narrative. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. [Examination of relationship between level of hearing and written language skills in 10-14-year-old hearing impaired children].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turğut, Nedim; Karlıdağ, Turgut; Başar, Figen; Yalçın, Şinasi; Kaygusuz, İrfan; Keleş, Erol; Birkent, Ömer Faruk

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to review the relationship between written language skills and factors which are thought to affect this skill such as mean hearing loss, duration of auditory deprivation, speech discrimination score, and pre-school education attendance and socioeconomic status of hearing impaired children who attend 4th-7th grades in primary school in inclusive environment. The study included 25 hearing impaired children (14 males, 11 females; mean age 11.4±1.4 years; range 10 to 14 years) (study group) and 20 children (9 males, 11 females; mean age 11.5±1.3 years; range 10 to 14 years) (control group) with normal hearing in the same age group and studying in the same class. Study group was separated into two subgroups as group 1a and group 1b since some of the children with hearing disability used hearing aid while some used cochlear implant. Intragroup comparisons and relational screening were performed for those who use hearing aids and cochlear implants. Intergroup comparisons were performed to evaluate the effect of the parameters on written language skills. Written expression skill level of children with hearing disability was significantly lower than their normal hearing peers (p=0.001). A significant relationship was detected between written language skills and mean hearing loss (p=0.048), duration of auditory deprivation (p=0.021), speech discrimination score (p=0.014), and preschool attendance (p=0.005), when it comes to socioeconomic status we were not able to find any significant relationship (p=0.636). It can be said that hearing loss affects written language skills negatively and hearing impaired individuals develop low-level written language skills compared to their normal hearing peers.

  11. Association between diabetes mellitus and hearing impairment in American and Korean populations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moon, Shinje; Park, Jung Hwan; Yu, Jae Myung; Choi, Moon-Ki; Yoo, Hyung Joon

    2018-04-20

    The aim of this study was to evaluate ethnic- and sex-specific associations between DM and hearing impairment. For this cross-sectional study using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the U.S. and Korea, the total number of eligible participants included was 7081 in the U.S. and 15,704 in Korea. Hearing impairment was defined as a pure tone threshold level ≥ 25 dB. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, body mass index, noise exposure, smoking, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. The association between DM and hearing impairment was found to be sex-specific. The multivariate adjusted ORs of high-frequency impairment were 0.843 (95% CI, 0.524-1.356) in American men, and 1.073 (95% CI, 0.835-1.379) in Korean men, while the ORs in women from U.S. and Korea were 1.911 (95% CI, 1.244-2.935) and 1.421 (95% CI, 1.103-1.830), respectively. A subgroup analysis of each race/ethnicity among the U.S. adults showed similar results. In contrast to high-frequency impairment, there was no significant association between low-frequency impairment and DM in both men and women. Our results suggest that DM is associated with hearing impairment in only women, irrespective of race/ethnicity groups. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  12. Processing Mechanisms in Hearing-Impaired Listeners: Evidence from Reaction Times and Sentence Interpretation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Rebecca; Uslar, Verena; Brand, Thomas; Ruigendijk, Esther

    The authors aimed to determine whether hearing impairment affects sentence comprehension beyond phoneme or word recognition (i.e., on the sentence level), and to distinguish grammatically induced processing difficulties in structurally complex sentences from perceptual difficulties associated with listening to degraded speech. Effects of hearing impairment or speech in noise were expected to reflect hearer-specific speech recognition difficulties. Any additional processing time caused by the sustained perceptual challenges across the sentence may either be independent of or interact with top-down processing mechanisms associated with grammatical sentence structure. Forty-nine participants listened to canonical subject-initial or noncanonical object-initial sentences that were presented either in quiet or in noise. Twenty-four participants had mild-to-moderate hearing impairment and received hearing-loss-specific amplification. Twenty-five participants were age-matched peers with normal hearing status. Reaction times were measured on-line at syntactically critical processing points as well as two control points to capture differences in processing mechanisms. An off-line comprehension task served as an additional indicator of sentence (mis)interpretation, and enforced syntactic processing. The authors found general effects of hearing impairment and speech in noise that negatively affected perceptual processing, and an effect of word order, where complex grammar locally caused processing difficulties for the noncanonical sentence structure. Listeners with hearing impairment were hardly affected by noise at the beginning of the sentence, but were affected markedly toward the end of the sentence, indicating a sustained perceptual effect of speech recognition. Comprehension of sentences with noncanonical word order was negatively affected by degraded signals even after sentence presentation. Hearing impairment adds perceptual processing load during sentence processing

  13. Analysis of Undergraduate Training Given to Students with Hearing Impairment in their Acquisition of Professional Competences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariona DALMAU MONTALÀ

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to understand how university graduates with a hearing impairment in Spain perceived their studies. The method used was quantitativequalitative and descriptive. The participating sample consisted of 84 Spanish university graduates with a hearing impairment. The results allow us to confirm that: university graduates with a hearing impairment, in general, are not provided with appropriate/ sufficient support at university to develop their professional competence; these graduates believe that employers consider good command of professional competences to be pivotal; professionalizing practices during university studies are an opportunity for the employment of graduates with hear impairment; finally, it is highlighted that university lecturers lack knowledge of the needs and difficulties of students with hearing impairment.

  14. "Non-Vocalization": A Phonological Error Process in the Speech of Severely and Profoundly Hearing Impaired Adults, from the Point of View of the Theory of Phonology as Human Behaviour

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halpern, Orly; Tobin, Yishai

    2008-01-01

    "Non-vocalization" (N-V) is a newly described phonological error process in hearing impaired speakers. In N-V the hearing impaired person actually articulates the phoneme but without producing a voice. The result is an error process looking as if it is produced but sounding as if it is omitted. N-V was discovered by video recording the speech of…

  15. Comparing Analog and Digital Hearing Aids in Reducing Hearing Disability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghassem Mohammad Khani

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Comparing analog and digital hearing aids reducing disability caused by hearing deficiency among moderate to severe sensorineural hearing-impaired persons. Method and Material: This descriptive-analytic study was carried out on two groups of subjects participated in this study in some audiology clinics of hearing aid since May 2002 to October 2003. Twenty subjects wore analog hearing aids and twenty one subjects wore digital hearing aids. In this study , no subject had previous middle ear or psychological problems. APHAB questionnaire was completed before using hearing aid and 2 months after to determine benefit of hearing aid use. Results: Total score mean of APHAB inventory before and after use of analoge hearing aids were 52.215+6.420 and 32.300+3.443 respectively. Also total score mean of APHAB inventory before and after use of digital hearing aids were 54.9252+9.028 and 26.321+10.916 respectively. There was no significant difference between total mean score of APHAB inventory before and after using analog and digital hearing aids (P=0.058.While there was significant difference between total mean score of APHAB questionnaire before and after use of analog hearing aids (P<0.001 and also before and after use of digital hearing aids (P<0.001. Moreover age, gender , litracy level , occupation , degree of hearing loss and manner of hearing aid usage did not have significant effect on APHAB results. Configuration of loss had siginficant effect on aversiveness subscale before and after use of analog hearing aids (P=0.008. Previous experience and duration of hearing aid usage had significant effect on aversiveness subscale before and after use of digital hearing aids (P=0.043 and (P=0.024, respectively , while all of these three items did not have significant effect on total mean score of APHAB inventory and also total mean scores of three subscales of ease of communication , reverberation and background noise. Conclusion: Comparing to

  16. Hearing impairment associated with oral terbinafine use

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Scholl, Joep; Van Grootheest, Kees; Van Puijenbroek, Eugene

    Background: The Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb received six reports of hearing impairment in association with oral terbinafine use. This study describes these cases and provides support for this association from the Lareb database of spontaneous ADR reporting and from Vigibase, the

  17. Association between dipstick proteinuria and hearing impairment in health check-ups among Japanese workers: a cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Umesawa, Mitsumasa; Hara, Mikako; Sairenchi, Toshimi; Haruyama, Yasuo; Nagao, Masanori; Matsushita, Munehiro; Kobashi, Gen

    2018-05-14

    Prevention of hearing impairment is important because it is difficult to recover from it. Epidemiological studies have examined the risk factors for hearing impairment; however, the association between dipstick proteinuria and hearing impairment has not been previously examined. This study aimed to clarify the association between dipstick proteinuria and hearing impairment. Cross-sectional study. Office and factory workers from all over Japan. The total number of subjects was 7005. All were employees of the same company. Of these, we recruited 6192 subjects who underwent dipstick urine test and hearing test by audiometry in annual health check-ups (mean age 44.9 years, men 88.3%). Hearing tests were performed at two frequencies (1 kHz, 4 kHz) as prescribed by law in Japan. We defined the inability of subjects to respond to 30 dB at 1 kHz and/or 40 dB at 4 kHz as overall moderate hearing impairment. In addition, we defined moderate hearing impairment at 1 kHz (4 kHz) as an abnormal finding at 1 kHz (4 kHz). We examined the associations between degree of dipstick proteinuria and hearing impairment after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, serum creatinine level and history of noisy work environment. Overall moderate hearing impairment was noted in 324 subjects (5.2%). Of these, 107 subjects (1.7%) had moderate hearing impairment at 1 kHz and 278 subjects (4.5%) at 4 kHz. Dipstick proteinuria was significantly associated with overall moderate hearing impairment, as well as moderate hearing impairment at both 1 kHz and 4 kHz. The prevalence of overall moderate hearing impairment among subjects with proteinuria ≥2+ was 23.5%, while that among subjects without proteinuria was 5.2% (pimpairment in Japanese workers. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  18. Achieving effective hearing aid fitting within one month after identification of childhood permanent hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bastanza, G; Gallus, R; De Carlini, M; Picciotti, P M; Muzzi, E; Ciciriello, E; Orzan, E; Conti, G

    2016-02-01

    Diagnosis of child permanent hearing impairment (PHI) can be made with extreme timeliness compared to the past thanks to improvements in PHI identification through newborn hearing screening programmes. It now becomes essential to provide an effective amplification as quickly as possible in order to restore auditory function and favour speech and language development. The early fitting of hearing aids and possible later cochlear implantation indeed prompts the development of central auditory pathways, connections with secondary sensory brain areas, as well as with motor and articulatory cortex. The aim of this paper is to report the results of a strategic analysis that involves identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the process of achieving early amplification in all cases of significant childhood PHI. The analysis is focused on the Italian situation and is part of the Italian Ministry of Health project CCM 2013 "Preventing Communication Disorders: a Regional Program for Early Identification, Intervention and Care of Hearing Impaired Children". © Copyright by Società Italiana di Otorinolaringologia e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale.

  19. Using Modality Replacement to Facilitate Communication between Visually and Hearing-Impaired People

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Moustakas, K.; Tzovaras, D.; Dybkjaer, L.

    2011-01-01

    Using sign language, speech, and haptics as communication modalities, a virtual treasure-hunting game serves as an entertainment and educational tool for visually-and hearing-impaired users.......Using sign language, speech, and haptics as communication modalities, a virtual treasure-hunting game serves as an entertainment and educational tool for visually-and hearing-impaired users....

  20. Investigation of Psychophysiological and Subjective Effects of Long Working Hours - Do Age and Hearing Impairment Matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner-Hartl, Verena; Kallus, K Wolfgang

    2017-01-01

    Following current prognosis, demographic development raises expectations of an aging of the working population. Therefore, keeping employees healthy and strengthening their ability to work, becomes more and more important. When employees become older, dealing with age-related impairments of sensory functions, such as hearing impairment, is a central issue. Recent evidence suggests that negative effects that are associated with reduced hearing can have a strong impact at work. Especially under exhausting working situations such as working overtime hours, age and hearing impairment might influence employees' well-being. Until now, neither the problem of aged workers and long working hours, nor the problem of hearing impairment and prolonged working time has been addressed explicitly. Therefore, a laboratory study was examined to answer the research question: Do age and hearing impairment have an impact on psychophysiological and subjective effects of long working hours. In total, 51 white-collar workers, aged between 24 and 63 years, participated in the laboratory study. The results show no significant effects for age and hearing impairment on the intensity of subjective consequences (perceived recovery and fatigue, subjective emotional well-being and physical symptoms) of long working hours. However, the psychophysiological response (the saliva cortisol level) to long working hours differs significantly between hearing impaired and normal hearing employees. Interestingly, the results suggest that from a psychophysiological point of view long working hours were more demanding for normal hearing employees.

  1. Self-Concept of Severely to Profoundly Hearing-Impaired Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warren, Charlotte; Hasenstab, Suzanne

    1986-01-01

    A study examined demographic, impairment-related, and parental variables that best predicted self-concept among 49 severely to profoundly hearing-impaired 5- to 11-year-olds. A strong relationship was observed between self-concept and parental indulgence, parental rejection, parental protection, parental discipline, and extent of language…

  2. The Recreational Activities of Hearing-impaired Children of a Young School Age

    OpenAIRE

    Šrámková, Markéta

    2007-01-01

    In my diploma work I would like to focus on theme of spending free time in school for hearing impaired children (age 6-12) . The work has two parts. In the first one - theoretical- literary - I will describe types of spending free time of deaf and hard of hearing children different enviroments : family, school, out of school. In the second one -practical research - I will focus on the profile of school for hearing impaired children. I would like to touch the problem of activities (during the ...

  3. Speech perception benefits of internet versus conventional telephony for hearing-impaired individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mantokoudis, Georgios; Dubach, Patrick; Pfiffner, Flurin; Kompis, Martin; Caversaccio, Marco; Senn, Pascal

    2012-07-16

    Telephone communication is a challenge for many hearing-impaired individuals. One important technical reason for this difficulty is the restricted frequency range (0.3-3.4 kHz) of conventional landline telephones. Internet telephony (voice over Internet protocol [VoIP]) is transmitted with a larger frequency range (0.1-8 kHz) and therefore includes more frequencies relevant to speech perception. According to a recently published, laboratory-based study, the theoretical advantage of ideal VoIP conditions over conventional telephone quality has translated into improved speech perception by hearing-impaired individuals. However, the speech perception benefits of nonideal VoIP network conditions, which may occur in daily life, have not been explored. VoIP use cannot be recommended to hearing-impaired individuals before its potential under more realistic conditions has been examined. To compare realistic VoIP network conditions, under which digital data packets may be lost, with ideal conventional telephone quality with respect to their impact on speech perception by hearing-impaired individuals. We assessed speech perception using standardized test material presented under simulated VoIP conditions with increasing digital data packet loss (from 0% to 20%) and compared with simulated ideal conventional telephone quality. We monaurally tested 10 adult users of cochlear implants, 10 adult users of hearing aids, and 10 normal-hearing adults in the free sound field, both in quiet and with background noise. Across all participant groups, mean speech perception scores using VoIP with 0%, 5%, and 10% packet loss were 15.2% (range 0%-53%), 10.6% (4%-46%), and 8.8% (7%-33%) higher, respectively, than with ideal conventional telephone quality. Speech perception did not differ between VoIP with 20% packet loss and conventional telephone quality. The maximum benefits were observed under ideal VoIP conditions without packet loss and were 36% (P = .001) for cochlear implant users, 18

  4. Audiometric Characteristics of a Dutch DFNA10 Family With Mid-Frequency Hearing Impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beelen, E. van; Oonk, A.M.M.; Leijendeckers, J.M.; Hoefsloot, E.H.; Pennings, R.J.E.; Feenstra, I.; Dieker, H.J.; Huygen, P.L.M.; Snik, A.F.M.; Kremer, H.; Kunst, H.P.M.

    2016-01-01

    OBJECTIVES: Mutations in EYA4 can cause nonsyndromic autosomal dominant sensorineural hearing impairment (DFNA10) or a syndromic variant with hearing impairment and dilated cardiomyopathy. A mutation in EYA4 was found in a Dutch family, causing DFNA10. This study is focused on characterizing the

  5. Noonan Syndrome: An Underestimated Cause of Severe to Profound Sensorineural Hearing Impairment. Which Clues to Suspect the Diagnosis?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziegler, Alban; Loundon, Natalie; Jonard, Laurence; Cavé, Hélène; Baujat, Geneviève; Gherbi, Souad; Couloigner, Vincent; Marlin, Sandrine

    2017-09-01

    To highlight Noonan syndrome as a clinically recognizable cause of severe to profound sensorineural hearing impairment. New clinical cases and review. Patients evaluated for etiological diagnosis by a medical geneticist in a reference center for hearing impairment. Five patients presenting with confirmed Noonan syndrome and profound sensorineural hearing impairment. Diagnostic and review of the literature. Five patients presented with profound sensorineural hearing impairment and molecularly confirmed Noonan syndrome. Sensorineural hearing impairment has been progressive for three patients. Cardiac echography identified pulmonary stenosis in two patients and was normal for the three other patients. Short stature was found in two patients. Mild intellectual disability was found in one patient. Inconspicuous clinical features as facial dysmorphism, cryptorchidism, or easy bruising were of peculiar interest to reach the diagnosis of Noonan syndrome. Profound sensorineural hearing impairment can be the main feature of Noonan syndrome. Associated features are highly variable; thus, detailed medical history and careful physical examination are mandatory to consider the diagnosis in case of a sensorineural hearing impairment.

  6. Effect of Cigarette Smoking and Passive Smoking on Hearing Impairment: Data from a Population–Based Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Jiwon; Ryou, Namhyung; Jun, Hyung Jin; Hwang, Soon Young; Song, Jae-Jun; Chae, Sung Won

    2016-01-01

    Objectives In the present study, we aimed to determine the effect of both active and passive smoking on the prevalence of the hearing impairment and the hearing thresholds in different age groups through the analysis of data collected from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Study Design Cross-sectional epidemiological study. Methods The KNHANES is an ongoing population study that started in 1998. We included a total of 12,935 participants aged ≥19 years in the KNHANES, from 2010 to 2012, in the present study. Pure-tone audiometric (PTA) testing was conducted and the frequencies tested were 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 kHz. Smoking status was categorized into three groups; current smoking group, passive smoking group and non-smoking group. Results In the current smoking group, the prevalence of speech-frequency bilateral hearing impairment was increased in ages of 40−69, and the rate of high frequency bilateral hearing impairment was elevated in ages of 30−79. When we investigated the impact of smoking on hearing thresholds, we found that the current smoking group had significantly increased hearing thresholds compared to the passive smoking group and non-smoking groups, across all ages in both speech-relevant and high frequencies. The passive smoking group did not have an elevated prevalence of either speech-frequency bilateral hearing impairment or high frequency bilateral hearing impairment, except in ages of 40s. However, the passive smoking group had higher hearing thresholds than the non-smoking group in the 30s and 40s age groups. Conclusion Current smoking was associated with hearing impairment in both speech-relevant frequency and high frequency across all ages. However, except in the ages of 40s, passive smoking was not related to hearing impairment in either speech-relevant or high frequencies. PMID:26756932

  7. Cigarette smoking causes hearing impairment among Bangladeshi population.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmed Faisal Sumit

    Full Text Available Lifestyle including smoking, noise exposure with MP3 player and drinking alcohol are considered as risk factors for affecting hearing synergistically. However, little is known about the association of cigarette smoking with hearing impairment among subjects who carry a lifestyle without using MP3 player and drinking alcohol. We showed here the influence of smoking on hearing among Bangladeshi subjects who maintain a lifestyle devoid of using MP3 player and drinking alcohol. A total of 184 subjects (smokers: 90; non-smokers: 94 were included considering their duration and frequency of smoking for conducting this study. The mean hearing thresholds of non-smoker subjects at 1, 4, 8 and 12 kHz frequencies were 5.63 ± 2.10, 8.56±5.75, 21.06 ± 11.06, 40.79 ± 20.36 decibel (dB, respectively and that of the smokers were 7 ± 3.8, 13.27 ± 8.4, 30.66 ± 12.50 and 56.88 ± 21.58 dB, respectively. The hearing thresholds of the smokers at 4, 8 and 12 kHz frequencies were significantly (p5 years showed higher level of auditory threshold (62.16 ± 19.87 dB at 12 kHz frequency compared with that (41.52 ± 19.21 dB of the subjects smoked for 1-5 years and the difference in auditory thresholds was statistically significant (p<0.0002. In this study, the Brinkman Index (BI of smokers was from 6 to 440 and the adjusted odds ratio showed a positive correlation between hearing loss and smoking when adjusted for age and body mass index (BMI. In addition, age, but not BMI, also played positive role on hearing impairment at all frequencies. Thus, these findings suggested that cigarette smoking affects hearing level at all the frequencies tested but most significantly at extra higher frequencies.

  8. A framework for communication between visually impaired, hearing impaired and speech impaired using arduino

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sujatha, R.; Khandelwa, Prakhar; Gupta, Anusha; Anand, Nayan

    2017-11-01

    A long time ago our society accepted the notion of treating people with disabilities not as unviable and disabled but as differently-abled, recognizing their skills beyond their disabilities. The next step has to be taken by our scientific community, that is, to normalize lives of the people with disabilities and make it so as if they are no different to us. The primary step in this direction would be to normalize communication between people. People with an impaired speech or impaired vision or impaired hearing face difficulties while having a casual conversation with others. Any form of communication feels so strenuous that the impaired end up communicating just the important information and avoid a casual conversation. To normalize conversation between the impaired we need a simple and compact device which facilitates the conversation by providing the information in the desired form.

  9. Prevalence and causes of hearing impairment in Fundong Health District, North-West Cameroon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrite, Silvia; Mactaggart, Islay; Kuper, Hannah; Oye, Joseph; Polack, Sarah

    2017-04-01

    To estimate the prevalence and causes of hearing impairment in Fundong Health District, North-West Cameroon. We selected 51 clusters of 80 people (all ages) through probability proportionate to size sampling. Initial hearing screening was undertaken through an otoacoustic emission (OAE) test. Participants aged 4+ years who failed this test in both ears or for whom an OAE reading could not be taken underwent a manual pure-tone audiometry (PTA) screening. Cases of hearing impairment were defined as those with pure-tone average ≥41 dBHL in adults and ≥35 dBHL in children in the better ear, or children under age 4 who failed the OAE test in both ears. Each case with hearing loss was examined by an ear, nose and throat nurse who indicated the main likely cause. We examined 3567 (86.9%) of 4104 eligible people. The overall prevalence of hearing impairment was 3.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.8-4.6). The prevalence was low in people aged 0-17 (1.1%, 0.7-1.8%) and 18-49 (1.1%, 0.5-2.6%) and then rose sharply in people aged 50+ (14.8%, 11.7-19.1%). Among cases, the majority were classified as moderate (76%), followed by severe (15%) and profound (9%). More than one-third of cases of hearing impairment were classified as unknown (37%) or conductive (37%) causes, while sensorineural causes were less common (26%). Prevalence of hearing impairment in North-West Cameroon is in line with the WHO estimate for sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of cases with known causes are treatable, with impacted wax playing a major role. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. The benefit of gestures during communication: evidence from hearing and hearing-impaired individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obermeier, Christian; Dolk, Thomas; Gunter, Thomas C

    2012-07-01

    There is no doubt that gestures are communicative and can be integrated online with speech. Little is known, however, about the nature of this process, for example, its automaticity and how our own communicative abilities and also our environment influence the integration of gesture and speech. In two Event Related Potential (ERP) experiments, the effects of gestures during speech comprehension were explored. In both experiments, participants performed a shallow task thereby avoiding explicit gesture-speech integration. In the first experiment, participants with normal hearing viewed videos in which a gesturing actress uttered sentences which were either embedded in multi-speaker babble noise or not. The sentences contained a homonym which was disambiguated by the information in a gesture, which was presented asynchronous to speech (1000 msec earlier). Downstream, the sentence contained a target word that was either related to the dominant or subordinate meaning of the homonym and was used to indicate the success of the disambiguation. Both the homonym and the target word position showed clear ERP evidence of gesture-speech integration and disambiguation only under babble noise. Thus, during noise, gestures were taken into account as an important communicative cue. In Experiment 2, the same asynchronous stimuli were presented to a group of hearing-impaired students and age-matched controls. Only the hearing-impaired individuals showed significant speech-gesture integration and successful disambiguation at the target word. The age-matched controls did not show any effect. Thus, individuals who chronically experience suboptimal communicative situations in daily life automatically take gestures into account. The data from both experiments indicate that gestures are beneficial in countering difficult communication conditions independent of whether the difficulties are due to external (babble noise) or internal (hearing impairment) factors. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier

  11. Progress and Prospects in Human Genetic Research into Age-Related Hearing Impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasue Uchida

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI is a complex, multifactorial disorder that is attributable to confounding intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The degree of impairment shows substantial variation between individuals, as is also observed in the senescence of other functions. This individual variation would seem to refute the stereotypical view that hearing deterioration with age is inevitable and may indicate that there is ample scope for preventive intervention. Genetic predisposition could account for a sizable proportion of interindividual variation. Over the past decade or so, tremendous progress has been made through research into the genetics of various forms of hearing impairment, including ARHI and our knowledge of the complex mechanisms of auditory function has increased substantially. Here, we give an overview of recent investigations aimed at identifying the genetic risk factors involved in ARHI and of what we currently know about its pathophysiology. This review is divided into the following sections: (i genes causing monogenic hearing impairment with phenotypic similarities to ARHI; (ii genes involved in oxidative stress, biologic stress responses, and mitochondrial dysfunction; and (iii candidate genes for senescence, other geriatric diseases, and neurodegeneration. Progress and prospects in genetic research are discussed.

  12. Item Response Theory Applied to Factors Affecting the Patient Journey Towards Hearing Rehabilitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chenault, Michelene; Berger, Martijn; Kremer, Bernd; Anteunis, Lucien

    2016-01-01

    To develop a tool for use in hearing screening and to evaluate the patient journey towards hearing rehabilitation, responses to the hearing aid rehabilitation questionnaire scales aid stigma, pressure, and aid unwanted addressing respectively hearing aid stigma, experienced pressure from others; perceived hearing aid benefit were evaluated with item response theory. The sample was comprised of 212 persons aged 55 years or more; 63 were hearing aid users, 64 with and 85 persons without hearing impairment according to guidelines for hearing aid reimbursement in the Netherlands. Bias was investigated relative to hearing aid use and hearing impairment within the differential test functioning framework. Items compromising model fit or demonstrating differential item functioning were dropped. The aid stigma scale was reduced from 6 to 4, the pressure scale from 7 to 4, and the aid unwanted scale from 5 to 4 items. This procedure resulted in bias-free scales ready for screening purposes and application to further understand the help-seeking process of the hearing impaired. PMID:28028428

  13. Investigation of Psychophysiological and Subjective Effects of Long Working Hours – Do Age and Hearing Impairment Matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner-Hartl, Verena; Kallus, K. Wolfgang

    2018-01-01

    Following current prognosis, demographic development raises expectations of an aging of the working population. Therefore, keeping employees healthy and strengthening their ability to work, becomes more and more important. When employees become older, dealing with age-related impairments of sensory functions, such as hearing impairment, is a central issue. Recent evidence suggests that negative effects that are associated with reduced hearing can have a strong impact at work. Especially under exhausting working situations such as working overtime hours, age and hearing impairment might influence employees’ well-being. Until now, neither the problem of aged workers and long working hours, nor the problem of hearing impairment and prolonged working time has been addressed explicitly. Therefore, a laboratory study was examined to answer the research question: Do age and hearing impairment have an impact on psychophysiological and subjective effects of long working hours. In total, 51 white-collar workers, aged between 24 and 63 years, participated in the laboratory study. The results show no significant effects for age and hearing impairment on the intensity of subjective consequences (perceived recovery and fatigue, subjective emotional well-being and physical symptoms) of long working hours. However, the psychophysiological response (the saliva cortisol level) to long working hours differs significantly between hearing impaired and normal hearing employees. Interestingly, the results suggest that from a psychophysiological point of view long working hours were more demanding for normal hearing employees. PMID:29379452

  14. Investigation of Psychophysiological and Subjective Effects of Long Working Hours – Do Age and Hearing Impairment Matter?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Verena Wagner-Hartl

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Following current prognosis, demographic development raises expectations of an aging of the working population. Therefore, keeping employees healthy and strengthening their ability to work, becomes more and more important. When employees become older, dealing with age-related impairments of sensory functions, such as hearing impairment, is a central issue. Recent evidence suggests that negative effects that are associated with reduced hearing can have a strong impact at work. Especially under exhausting working situations such as working overtime hours, age and hearing impairment might influence employees’ well-being. Until now, neither the problem of aged workers and long working hours, nor the problem of hearing impairment and prolonged working time has been addressed explicitly. Therefore, a laboratory study was examined to answer the research question: Do age and hearing impairment have an impact on psychophysiological and subjective effects of long working hours. In total, 51 white-collar workers, aged between 24 and 63 years, participated in the laboratory study. The results show no significant effects for age and hearing impairment on the intensity of subjective consequences (perceived recovery and fatigue, subjective emotional well-being and physical symptoms of long working hours. However, the psychophysiological response (the saliva cortisol level to long working hours differs significantly between hearing impaired and normal hearing employees. Interestingly, the results suggest that from a psychophysiological point of view long working hours were more demanding for normal hearing employees.

  15. A Review of literature on the clinical psychological study on the hearing impaired in Japan

    OpenAIRE

    Fujitomo, Masakazu

    2002-01-01

    The purpose of this paper was to review literatures about past clinical psychological studies on the hearing impaired in japan, in order to get suggestions about subjects on psychological supports and clinical psychological studies for the hearing impaired in Japan. First, in the topic of the history and subjects on the clinical psychological study and psycological supports for the hearing impaired, it was showed that the pathological viewpoint was taken place for the cultural viewpoint in th...

  16. Hearing Impaired Education of the Department of Education in Region X, Philippines: Its Approaches and Implication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Mirabeau B. Undalok

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available One way to attain improvement of the educational programs of the hearing impaired is by conducting survey and assessment of the status of the hearing impaired education of the Department of Education in Region X, Philippines. The Special Education (SpEd teachers play a vital role for the pupils of the hearing impaired children as they are viewed as linchpins in the learning process of the children. This cannot be attained without the different approaches on hearing impaired education. Survey -questionnaires were used to gather information needed. Data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics such as weighted mean and standard deviation. The ANOVA test was used to determine the significance of the hearing impaired education of the Department of Education in Region X. Anchored on the findings, the following conclusions are made about different educational approaches should be given priority by the SPED teachers is further enhance the lifelong learning skills of the pupils. It helps them for their learning process and acquiring language skills. There should be an advocacy on the hearing impaired education program to the public and stakeholders.

  17. Screening an elderly hearing impaired population for mild cognitive impairment using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Magdalene Yeok Leng; Loo, Jenny Hooi Yin

    2018-07-01

    To determine if there is an association between hearing loss and poorer cognitive scores on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and to determine if poor hearing acuity affects scoring on the cognitive screening tests of MMSE and MoCA. One hundred fourteen elderly patients (Singapore residents) aged between 55 and 86 years were sampled. Participants completed a brief history questionnaire, pure tone audiometry, and 2 cognitive screening tests-the MMSE and MoCA. Average hearing thresholds of the better ear in the frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz were used for data analysis. Hearing loss was significantly associated with poorer cognitive scores in Poisson regression models adjusted for age. Mini-Mental State Examination scores were shown to decrease by 2.8% (P = .029), and MoCA scores by 3.5% (P = .013) for every 10 dB of hearing loss. Analysis of hearing-sensitive components of "Registration" and "Recall" in MMSE and MoCA using chi-square tests showed significantly poorer performance in the hearing loss group as compared to the normal hearing group. Phonetic analysis of target words with high error rates shows that the poor performance was likely contributed by decreased hearing acuity, on top of a possible true deficit in cognition in the hearing impaired. Hearing loss is associated with poorer cognitive scores on MMSE and MoCA, and cognitive scoring is likely confounded by poor hearing ability. This highlights an important, often overlooked aspect of sensory impairment during cognitive screening. Provisions should be made when testing for cognition in the hearing-impaired population to avoid over-referral and subsequent misdiagnoses of cognitive impairment. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  18. Difficulty understanding speech in noise by the hearing impaired: underlying causes and technological solutions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Healy, Eric W; Yoho, Sarah E

    2016-08-01

    A primary complaint of hearing-impaired individuals involves poor speech understanding when background noise is present. Hearing aids and cochlear implants often allow good speech understanding in quiet backgrounds. But hearing-impaired individuals are highly noise intolerant, and existing devices are not very effective at combating background noise. As a result, speech understanding in noise is often quite poor. In accord with the significance of the problem, considerable effort has been expended toward understanding and remedying this issue. Fortunately, our understanding of the underlying issues is reasonably good. In sharp contrast, effective solutions have remained elusive. One solution that seems promising involves a single-microphone machine-learning algorithm to extract speech from background noise. Data from our group indicate that the algorithm is capable of producing vast increases in speech understanding by hearing-impaired individuals. This paper will first provide an overview of the speech-in-noise problem and outline why hearing-impaired individuals are so noise intolerant. An overview of our approach to solving this problem will follow.

  19. An Estimation of the Whole-of-Life Noise Exposure of Adolescent and Young Adult Australians with Hearing Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, Lyndal; Black, Deborah; Bundy, Anita; Williams, Warwick

    2016-10-01

    Since amplified music gained widespread popularity, there has been community concern that leisure-noise exposure may cause hearing loss in adolescents and young adults who would otherwise be free from hearing impairment. Repeated exposure to personal stereo players and music events (e.g., nightclubbing, rock concerts, and music festivals) are of particular concern. The same attention has not been paid to leisure-noise exposure risks for young people with hearing impairment (either present from birth or acquired before adulthood). This article reports on the analysis of a subset of data (leisure participation measures) collected during a large, two-phase study of the hearing health, attitudes, and behaviors of 11- to 35-yr-old Australians conducted by the National Acoustic Laboratories (n = 1,667 hearing threshold level datasets analyzed). The overall aim of the two-phase study was to determine whether a relationship between leisure-noise exposure and hearing loss exists. In the current study, the leisure activity profiles and accumulated ("whole-of-life") noise exposures of young people with (1) hearing impairment and (2) with normal hearing were compared. Cross-sectional cohort study. Hearing impaired (HI) group, n = 125; normal (nonimpaired) hearing (NH) group, n = 296, analyzed in two age-based subsets: adolescents (13- to 17-yr-olds) and young adults (18- to 24-yr-olds). Participant survey. The χ² test was used to identify systematic differences between the leisure profiles and exposure estimates of the HI and NH groups. Whole-of-life noise exposure was estimated by adapting techniques described in ISO 1999. For adolescents, leisure profiles were similar for the two groups and few individuals exceeded the stated risk criterion. For young adults, participation was significantly lower for the HI group for 7 out of 18 leisure activities surveyed. Activity diversity and whole-of-life exposure were also significantly lower for the HI group young adults. A

  20. Speech Perception Benefits of Internet Versus Conventional Telephony for Hearing-Impaired Individuals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dubach, Patrick; Pfiffner, Flurin; Kompis, Martin; Caversaccio, Marco

    2012-01-01

    Background Telephone communication is a challenge for many hearing-impaired individuals. One important technical reason for this difficulty is the restricted frequency range (0.3–3.4 kHz) of conventional landline telephones. Internet telephony (voice over Internet protocol [VoIP]) is transmitted with a larger frequency range (0.1–8 kHz) and therefore includes more frequencies relevant to speech perception. According to a recently published, laboratory-based study, the theoretical advantage of ideal VoIP conditions over conventional telephone quality has translated into improved speech perception by hearing-impaired individuals. However, the speech perception benefits of nonideal VoIP network conditions, which may occur in daily life, have not been explored. VoIP use cannot be recommended to hearing-impaired individuals before its potential under more realistic conditions has been examined. Objective To compare realistic VoIP network conditions, under which digital data packets may be lost, with ideal conventional telephone quality with respect to their impact on speech perception by hearing-impaired individuals. Methods We assessed speech perception using standardized test material presented under simulated VoIP conditions with increasing digital data packet loss (from 0% to 20%) and compared with simulated ideal conventional telephone quality. We monaurally tested 10 adult users of cochlear implants, 10 adult users of hearing aids, and 10 normal-hearing adults in the free sound field, both in quiet and with background noise. Results Across all participant groups, mean speech perception scores using VoIP with 0%, 5%, and 10% packet loss were 15.2% (range 0%–53%), 10.6% (4%–46%), and 8.8% (7%–33%) higher, respectively, than with ideal conventional telephone quality. Speech perception did not differ between VoIP with 20% packet loss and conventional telephone quality. The maximum benefits were observed under ideal VoIP conditions without packet loss and

  1. Parasympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction, as Identified by Pupil Light Reflex, and Its Possible Connection to Hearing Impairment.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Wang

    Full Text Available Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown.To 1 review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive method to evaluate parasympathetic dysfunction, 2 review the evidence relating hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity and 3 seek evidence of possible connections between hearing impairment and the pupil light reflex.Literature searches were performed in five electronic databases. All selected articles were categorized into three sections: pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction, hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity, pupil light reflex and hearing impairment.Thirty-eight articles were included in this review. Among them, 36 articles addressed the pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction. We summarized the information in these data according to different types of parasympathetic-related diseases. Most of the studies showed a difference on at least one pupil light reflex parameter between patients and healthy controls. Two articles discussed the relationship between hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity. Both studies reported a reduced parasympathetic activity in the hearing impaired groups. The searches identified no results for pupil light reflex and hearing impairment.As the first systematic review of the evidence, our findings suggest that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive tool to assess the presence of parasympathetic dysfunction. Maximum constriction velocity and relative constriction amplitude appear to be the most sensitive parameters. There are only two studies investigating the relationship between parasympathetic activity and hearing

  2. Parasympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction, as Identified by Pupil Light Reflex, and Its Possible Connection to Hearing Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yang; Zekveld, Adriana A; Naylor, Graham; Ohlenforst, Barbara; Jansma, Elise P; Lorens, Artur; Lunner, Thomas; Kramer, Sophia E

    2016-01-01

    Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown. To 1) review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive method to evaluate parasympathetic dysfunction, 2) review the evidence relating hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity and 3) seek evidence of possible connections between hearing impairment and the pupil light reflex. Literature searches were performed in five electronic databases. All selected articles were categorized into three sections: pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction, hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity, pupil light reflex and hearing impairment. Thirty-eight articles were included in this review. Among them, 36 articles addressed the pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction. We summarized the information in these data according to different types of parasympathetic-related diseases. Most of the studies showed a difference on at least one pupil light reflex parameter between patients and healthy controls. Two articles discussed the relationship between hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity. Both studies reported a reduced parasympathetic activity in the hearing impaired groups. The searches identified no results for pupil light reflex and hearing impairment. As the first systematic review of the evidence, our findings suggest that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive tool to assess the presence of parasympathetic dysfunction. Maximum constriction velocity and relative constriction amplitude appear to be the most sensitive parameters. There are only two studies investigating the relationship between parasympathetic activity and hearing impairment

  3. Understanding Basic Temporal Relations in Primary School Pupils with Hearing Impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dulcić, Adinda; Bakota, Koraljka; Saler, Zrinka

    2015-09-01

    Time can be observed as a subjective, as well as an objective phenomenon which is a component of our life, and due to its communicational needs, it is standardized by temporal signs and symbols. The aim of this study was to determine the understanding of basic temporal relations of pupils with hearing impairments. We assumed that the knowledge of basic time relations is a precondition for the acquisition of knowledge that is connected with the understanding of the syllabus in regular school programs. Three groups of pupils have been examined: pupils with hearing impairments who attend the primary school of SUVAG Polyclinic under special condition, integrated hearing impaired pupils with minor additional difficulties who attend regular primary schools in Zagreb with a prolonged expert procedure and pupils of the control group. The subjects have been examined with a measuring instrument constructed by the expert team of the Polyclinic Suvag. Twenty nine subjects have been questioned, chronologically aged between 10 and 12.

  4. Does the introduction of newborn hearing screening improve vocabulary development in hearing-impaired children? A population-based study in Japan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohmori, Shuhei; Sugaya, Akiko; Toida, Naomi; Suzuki, Etsuji; Izutsu, Masato; Tsutsui, Tomoko; Kataoka, Yuko; Maeda, Yukihide; Fukushima, Kunihiro; Nishizaki, Kazunori

    2015-02-01

    Permanent hearing impairment has a life-long impact on children and its early identification is important for language development. A newborn hearing screening (NHS) program has started in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, in 1999 to detect hearing impairment immediately after birth. We aim to examine the effect of this screening program on vocabulary development in pre-school children in a before and after comparative study design. A total of 107 5-year-old children who graduated from Okayama Kanariya Gakuen (an auditory center for hearing-impaired children) between 1998 and 2011 were enrolled in this study. The pre-NHS group (n=40) was defined as those who graduated between 1998 and 2003, while the post-NHS group (n=67) was defined as those who graduated between 2004 and 2011. The primary outcome was receptive vocabulary, which was assessed by the Picture Vocabulary Test [score vocabulary, or the number of productive words, which was assessed by an original checklist [vocabulary development and compared both groups. The adjusted Picture Vocabulary Test score and number of productive words were significantly higher (pvocabulary and 4.17 (95% confidence interval: 1.69-10.29) for productive vocabulary. The introduction of NHS in Okayama Prefecture significantly improved both receptive and productive vocabulary development in hearing-impaired children. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Speech intelligibility for normal hearing and hearing-impaired listeners in simulated room acoustic conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris; Dau, Torsten; Poulsen, Torben

    Speech intelligibility depends on many factors such as room acoustics, the acoustical properties and location of the signal and the interferers, and the ability of the (normal and impaired) auditory system to process monaural and binaural sounds. In the present study, the effect of reverberation...... on spatial release from masking was investigated in normal hearing and hearing impaired listeners using three types of interferers: speech shaped noise, an interfering female talker and speech-modulated noise. Speech reception thresholds (SRT) were obtained in three simulated environments: a listening room......, a classroom and a church. The data from the study provide constraints for existing models of speech intelligibility prediction (based on the speech intelligibility index, SII, or the speech transmission index, STI) which have shortcomings when reverberation and/or fluctuating noise affect speech...

  6. Static and Dynamic Balance in Congenital Severe to Profound Hearing-Impaired Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farideh HajiHeydari

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Research conducted since the early 1900s has consistently identified differences between deaf and hearing children on performance of a wide variety of motor tasks, most notably balance. Our study was performed to test static and dynamic balance skills in congenital severe to profound hearing impaired children in comparison with normal age-matched children.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 30 severe to profound hearing impaired and 40 normal children with age 6 to 10 years old. Bruininks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency 2, balance subset with 9 parts was used for evaluation of balance skills.Results: Hearing-impaired children showed 16.7 to 100% fail results in 7 parts of the balance subset. In normal children fail result was revealed just in 3 parts of the balance subset from 2.5 to 57.5%, and differences between two groups were significant (p<0.0001. There was a significant difference between two groups in two static balance skills of standing on one leg on a line and standing on one leg on a balance beam with eyes closed (p<0.0001.conclusion: It seems that development of static balance skills are longer than dynamic ones. Because severe to profound hearing-impaired children showed more weakness than normal children in both static and dynamic balance abilities, functional tests of balance proficiency can help to identify balance disorders in these children.

  7. Development of a voice database to aid children with hearing impairments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuzman, M G; Agüero, P D; Tulli, J C; Gonzalez, E L; Cervellini, M P; Uriz, A J

    2011-01-01

    In the development of software for voice analysis or training, for people with hearing impairments, a database having sounds of properly pronounced words is of paramount importance. This paper shows the advantage that will be obtained from getting an own voice database, rather than using those coming from other countries, even having the same language, in the development of speech training software aimed to people with hearing impairments. This database will be used by software developers at the School of Engineering of Mar del Plata National University.

  8. Can parenting practices predict externalizing behavior problems among children with hearing impairment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pino, María J; Castillo, Rosa A; Raya, Antonio; Herruzo, Javier

    2017-11-09

    To identify possible differences in the level of externalizing behavior problems among children with and without hearing impairment and determine whether any relationship exists between this type of problem and parenting practices. The Behavior Assessment System for Children was used to evaluate externalizing variables in a sample of 118 boys and girls divided into two matched groups: 59 with hearing disorders and 59 normal-hearing controls. Significant between-group differences were found in hyperactivity, behavioral problems, and externalizing problems, but not in aggression. Significant differences were also found in various aspects of parenting styles. A model for predicting externalizing behavior problems was constructed, achieving a predicted explained variance of 50%. Significant differences do exist between adaptation levels in children with and without hearing impairment. Parenting style also plays an important role.

  9. GRM7 variants confer susceptibility to age-related hearing impairment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Friedman, Rick A; Van Laer, Lut; Huentelman, Matthew J

    2009-01-01

    Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI), or presbycusis, is the most prevalent sensory impairment in the elderly. ARHI is a complex disease caused by an interaction between environmental and genetic factors. Here we describe the results of the first whole genome association study for ARHI. The stud...

  10. Impact of Age and Hearing Impairment on Work Performance during Long Working Hours

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Verena Wagner-Hartl

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on demographic prognoses, it must be assumed that a greater number of older workers will be found in the future labor market. How to deal with their possible age-related impairments of sensory functions, like hearing impairment and work performance during extended working time, has not been addressed explicitly until now. The study addresses this interplay. The study was performed on two consecutive days after normal working hours. The 55 participants had to “work” in the study at least three additional hours to simulate a situation of long working hours. The tested measures for (job performance were: general attention, long-term selective attention, concentration, and reaction time. All of the investigated variables were taken at both days of the study (2 × 2 × 2 repeated measurement design. The results show effects for age, the interaction of hearing impairment and time of measurement, and effects of the measurement time. Older participants reacted slower than younger participants did. Furthermore, younger participants reacted more frequently in a correct way. Hearing impairment seems to have a negative impact especially on measures of false reactions, and therefore especially on measurement time 1. The results can be interpreted in a way that hearing-impaired participants are able to compensate their deficits over time.

  11. Impact of Age and Hearing Impairment on Work Performance during Long Working Hours.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner-Hartl, Verena; Grossi, Nina R; Kallus, K Wolfgang

    2018-01-09

    Based on demographic prognoses, it must be assumed that a greater number of older workers will be found in the future labor market. How to deal with their possible age-related impairments of sensory functions, like hearing impairment and work performance during extended working time, has not been addressed explicitly until now. The study addresses this interplay. The study was performed on two consecutive days after normal working hours. The 55 participants had to "work" in the study at least three additional hours to simulate a situation of long working hours. The tested measures for (job) performance were: general attention, long-term selective attention, concentration, and reaction time. All of the investigated variables were taken at both days of the study (2 × 2 × 2 repeated measurement design). The results show effects for age, the interaction of hearing impairment and time of measurement, and effects of the measurement time. Older participants reacted slower than younger participants did. Furthermore, younger participants reacted more frequently in a correct way. Hearing impairment seems to have a negative impact especially on measures of false reactions, and therefore especially on measurement time 1. The results can be interpreted in a way that hearing-impaired participants are able to compensate their deficits over time.

  12. Rapid word-learning in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children: effects of age, receptive vocabulary, and high-frequency amplification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pittman, A L; Lewis, D E; Hoover, B M; Stelmachowicz, P G

    2005-12-01

    This study examined rapid word-learning in 5- to 14-year-old children with normal and impaired hearing. The effects of age and receptive vocabulary were examined as well as those of high-frequency amplification. Novel words were low-pass filtered at 4 kHz (typical of current amplification devices) and at 9 kHz. It was hypothesized that (1) the children with normal hearing would learn more words than the children with hearing loss, (2) word-learning would increase with age and receptive vocabulary for both groups, and (3) both groups would benefit from a broader frequency bandwidth. Sixty children with normal hearing and 37 children with moderate sensorineural hearing losses participated in this study. Each child viewed a 4-minute animated slideshow containing 8 nonsense words created using the 24 English consonant phonemes (3 consonants per word). Each word was repeated 3 times. Half of the 8 words were low-pass filtered at 4 kHz and half were filtered at 9 kHz. After viewing the story twice, each child was asked to identify the words from among pictures in the slide show. Before testing, a measure of current receptive vocabulary was obtained using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III). The PPVT-III scores of the hearing-impaired children were consistently poorer than those of the normal-hearing children across the age range tested. A similar pattern of results was observed for word-learning in that the performance of the hearing-impaired children was significantly poorer than that of the normal-hearing children. Further analysis of the PPVT and word-learning scores suggested that although word-learning was reduced in the hearing-impaired children, their performance was consistent with their receptive vocabularies. Additionally, no correlation was found between overall performance and the age of identification, age of amplification, or years of amplification in the children with hearing loss. Results also revealed a small increase in performance for both

  13. Language ability in children with permanent hearing impairment: the influence of early management and family participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watkin, Peter; McCann, Donna; Law, Catherine; Mullee, Mark; Petrou, Stavros; Stevenson, Jim; Worsfold, Sarah; Yuen, Ho Ming; Kennedy, Colin

    2007-09-01

    The goal was to examine the relationships between management after confirmation, family participation, and speech and language outcomes in the same group of children with permanent childhood hearing impairment. Speech, oral language, and nonverbal abilities, expressed as z scores and adjusted in a regression model, and Family Participation Rating Scale scores were assessed at a mean age of 7.9 years for 120 children with bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment from a 1992-1997 United Kingdom birth cohort. Ages at institution of management and hearing aid fitting were obtained retrospectively from case notes. Compared with children managed later (> 9 months), those managed early (early did not have significantly higher scores for these outcomes. Family Participation Rating Scale scores showed significant positive correlations with language and speech intelligibility scores only for those with confirmation after 9 months and were highest for those with late confirmed, severe/profound, permanent childhood hearing impairment. Early management of permanent childhood hearing impairment results in improved language. Family participation is also an important factor in cases that are confirmed late, especially for children with severe or profound permanent childhood hearing impairment.

  14. Hearing impairment related to age in Usher syndrome types 1B and 2A.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagenaar, M; van Aarem, A; Huygen, P; Pieke-Dahl, S; Kimberling, W; Cremers, C

    1999-04-01

    To evaluate hearing impairment in 2 common genetic subtypes of Usher syndrome, USH1B and USH2A. Cross-sectional analysis of hearing threshold related to age in patients with genotypes determined by linkage and mutation analysis. Otolaryngology department, university referral center. Nineteen patients with USH1B and 27 with USH2A were examined. All participants were living in the Netherlands and Belgium. Pure tone audiometry of the best ear at last visit. The patients with USH1B had residual hearing without age dependence, with minimum thresholds of 80, 95, and 120 dB at 0.25, 0.5, and 1 to 2 kHz, respectively. Mean thresholds of patients with USH2A were about 45 to 55 dB better than these minimum values. Distinctive audiographic features of patients with USH2A were maximum hearing thresholds of 70, 80, and 100 dB at 0.25, 0.5, and 1 kHz, respectively, only at younger than 40 years. Progression of hearing impairment in USH2A was 0.7 dB/y on average for 0.25 to 4 kHz and could not be explained by presbyacusis alone. The USH1B and USH2A can be easily distinguished by hearing impairment at younger than 40 years at the low frequencies. Hearing impairment in our patients with USH2A could be characterized as progressive.

  15. Item response theory applied to factors affecting the patient journey towards hearing rehabilitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michelene Chenault

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available To develop a tool for use in hearing screening and to evaluate the patient journey towards hearing rehabilitation, responses to the hearing aid rehabilitation questionnaire scales aid stigma, pressure, and aid unwanted addressing respectively hearing aid stigma, experienced pressure from others; perceived hearing aid benefit were evaluated with item response theory. The sample was comprised of 212 persons aged 55 years or more; 63 were hearing aid users, 64 with and 85 persons without hearing impairment according to guidelines for hearing aid reimbursement in the Netherlands. Bias was investigated relative to hearing aid use and hearing impairment within the differential test functioning framework. Items compromising model fit or demonstrating differential item functioning were dropped. The aid stigma scale was reduced from 6 to 4, the pressure scale from 7 to 4, and the aid unwanted scale from 5 to 4 items. This procedure resulted in bias-free scales ready for screening purposes and application to further understand the help-seeking process of the hearing impaired.

  16. Attitude of Regular and Itinerant Teachers Towards the Inclusion of Hearing Impairment Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamal Parhoon

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Inclusive education is a process of enabling all children to learn and participate effectively within mainstream school systems. It does not segregate children who have different abilities or needs. This article explores the attitudes of regular and itinerant teachers about inclusion of hearing impairment children in their schools in general education. Methods: In a descriptive Survey research design, the sample included 100 teachers (50 regular and 50 itinerant who were selected randomly, according to a multistage sampling method. Data was collected by using questionnaire with 32 questions regarding their attitudes. One-way Analysis of Variance and t-test were performed to obtain between- group comparisons. Results: The results indicated that the teacher's positive attitudes towards inclusive educational system of students with hearing impairment. Significant difference in attitudes was observed, based on the teaching experience, gender, level of teaching. The results also indicate that most teachers are agreeable to the inclusion of students with hearing impairment in their classrooms. Discussion: successful inclusion for hearing impairment children in regular classrooms entails the positive attitudes of Regular and itinerant teachers through a systematic programming within the classroom.

  17. Can parenting practices predict externalizing behavior problems among children with hearing impairment?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María J. Pino

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To identify possible differences in the level of externalizing behavior problems among children with and without hearing impairment and determine whether any relationship exists between this type of problem and parenting practices. Methods: The Behavior Assessment System for Children was used to evaluate externalizing variables in a sample of 118 boys and girls divided into two matched groups: 59 with hearing disorders and 59 normal-hearing controls. Results: Significant between-group differences were found in hyperactivity, behavioral problems, and externalizing problems, but not in aggression. Significant differences were also found in various aspects of parenting styles. A model for predicting externalizing behavior problems was constructed, achieving a predicted explained variance of 50%. Conclusion: Significant differences do exist between adaptation levels in children with and without hearing impairment. Parenting style also plays an important role.

  18. Siblings of the Hearing Impaired: Perspectives for Parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkins, Dale V.

    1987-01-01

    The author describes the concerns and needs of siblings of hearing-impaired children, offering practical suggestions for parents, educators, and mental health and community service workers. Examples of successful programs for siblings that provide emotional support, training and information about their siblings' disability, and effective…

  19. Selective attention in normal and impaired hearing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara G; Best, Virginia

    2008-12-01

    A common complaint among listeners with hearing loss (HL) is that they have difficulty communicating in common social settings. This article reviews how normal-hearing listeners cope in such settings, especially how they focus attention on a source of interest. Results of experiments with normal-hearing listeners suggest that the ability to selectively attend depends on the ability to analyze the acoustic scene and to form perceptual auditory objects properly. Unfortunately, sound features important for auditory object formation may not be robustly encoded in the auditory periphery of HL listeners. In turn, impaired auditory object formation may interfere with the ability to filter out competing sound sources. Peripheral degradations are also likely to reduce the salience of higher-order auditory cues such as location, pitch, and timbre, which enable normal-hearing listeners to select a desired sound source out of a sound mixture. Degraded peripheral processing is also likely to increase the time required to form auditory objects and focus selective attention so that listeners with HL lose the ability to switch attention rapidly (a skill that is particularly important when trying to participate in a lively conversation). Finally, peripheral deficits may interfere with strategies that normal-hearing listeners employ in complex acoustic settings, including the use of memory to fill in bits of the conversation that are missed. Thus, peripheral hearing deficits are likely to cause a number of interrelated problems that challenge the ability of HL listeners to communicate in social settings requiring selective attention.

  20. Masker phase effects in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners: evidence for peripheral compression at low signal frequencies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Oxenham, Andrew J.; Dau, Torsten

    2004-01-01

    curvature. Results from 12 listeners with sensorineural hearing loss showed reduced masker phase effects, when compared with data from normal-hearing listeners, at both 250- and 1000-Hz signal frequencies. The effects of hearing impairment on phase-related masking differences were not well simulated...... are affected by a common underlying mechanism, presumably related to cochlear outer hair cell function. The results also suggest that normal peripheral compression remains strong even at 250 Hz....

  1. Perception of Quality of Life for Adults with Hearing Impairment in the LGBT Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly-Campbell, Rebecca J.; Atcherson, Samuel R.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of the this study was to examine the perception of both generic and disease-specific quality of life (QoL) in adults with hearing impairment who are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Eighty-three adults who self-identified as having hearing impairment and as being members of the LGBT community and…

  2. French-Canadian translation and validation of four questionnaires assessing hearing impairment and handicap.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vincent, Claude; Gagné, Jean-Pierre; Leroux, Tony; Clothier, Audrey; Larivière, Marianne; Dumont, Frédéric S; Gendron, Martine

    2017-04-01

    Questionnaires evaluating hearing impairment are available in English but there is a need for French standardised questionnaires for researchers as well as for audiologists and other clinicians. The objective of this study is to describe the translation and validation of four questionnaires that assess different aspects of hearing impairment and handicap among elders with hearing loss, by comparing the main score and psychometric evaluation of original and French-Canadian (FC) versions of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale II (WHO-DAS II), the Screening Test for Hearing Problems (STHP), the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) and the Measure of Audiologic Rehabilitation Self-Efficacy for Hearing Aids (MARS-HA). Vallerand method: translation and back-translation by two translators, revision by a committee of experts and pre-tested with five bilingual older participants. Participants (n = 29) were 65 years of age or older including 21 with hearing aids. The psychometric properties (internal consistency, temporal stability after four weeks) indicate good reliability for most of the translated questionnaires and their subscales, especially the WHO-DAS II. The translations in FC of two hearing loss and two hearing aid questionnaires were validated. It is recommended to pursue the demonstration for temporal stability for the STHP.

  3. The economics of screening infants at risk of hearing impairment: an international analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, Martyn J; Shenton, Ruth C; Taylor, Matthew J

    2012-02-01

    Hearing impairment in children across the world constitutes a particularly serious obstacle to their optimal development and education, including language acquisition. Around 0.5-6 in every 1000 neonates and infants have congenital or early childhood onset sensorineural deafness or severe-to-profound hearing impairment, with significant consequences. Therefore, early detection is a vitally important element in providing appropriate support for deaf and hearing-impaired babies that will help them enjoy equal opportunities in society alongside all other children. This analysis estimates the costs and effectiveness of various interventions to screen infants at risk of hearing impairment. The economic analysis used a decision tree approach to determine the cost-effectiveness of newborn hearing screening strategies. Two unique models were built to capture different strategic screening decisions. Firstly, the cost-effectiveness of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) was compared to selective screening of newborns with risk factors. Secondly, the cost-effectiveness of providing a one-stage screening process vs. a two-stage screening process was investigated. Two countries, the United Kingdom and India, were used as case studies to illustrate the likely cost outcomes associated with the various strategies to diagnose hearing loss in infants. In the UK, the universal strategy incurs a further cost of approximately £2.3 million but detected an extra 63 cases. An incremental cost per case detected of £36,181 was estimated. The estimated economic burden was substantially higher in India when adopting a universal strategy due to the higher baseline prevalence of hearing loss. The one-stage screening strategy accumulated an additional 13,480 and 13,432 extra cases of false-positives, in the UK and India respectively when compared to a two-stage screening strategy. This represented increased costs by approximately £1.3 million and INR 34.6 million. The cost

  4. The Effectiveness of a Group Counseling Program on the Mental Health of Parents of Hearing Impaired Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Mahshid Foroughan

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Most of the studies indicates that the parents of the hearing impaired children show many mental health problems after the diagnosis of their children's hearing impairment. Counselling with the parents of the hearing impaired children is one of the most important goals of any early intervention program. This paper describes a study to determine the effectiveness of a group counselling programme for parents of hearing impaired children. Materials and Method: It was a semi-experimental study with a single group pretest-post test design. The participants were all the parents of hearing impaired children attending in an early intervention center. First the parents' mental health were assessed.Then the group counselling program was implemented. Program has involved six weekly 1.5 hour sessions. The format of each session included both lecture presentation and group discussion using cognitive behavioral procedure. Subjects were assessed before and immediately after group therapy by means of General Health Questionnaire(GHQ and Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90 questionnaires. Resuts: The first part of the project had shown that over the half of the parents had considerable psychosocial morbidity. Comparisons showed a significant reduction from pretreatment to posttreatment in depression, anxiety and most of other psychological problems. Conclusion: The study supports the effectiveness of group therapy programs in the treatment of parents of hearing impaired children. Concerning the progress of early detection programs for the children's hearing impairment more studies should be done in the field of counseling with their parents.

  5. The influence of Pilates exercises on body balance in the standing position of hearing impaired people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walowska, Jagoda; Bolach, Bartosz; Bolach, Eugeniusz

    2017-11-13

    Hearing impairment may affect the body posture maintenance. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of modified Pilates exercise program on the body posture maintenance in hearing impaired people. Eighty students (aged 13-24) were enrolled and randomly allocated into two groups: test group (n = 41) which attended an original program based on modified Pilates exercises and control group (n = 39) which attended standard physical education classes. Stabilographic tests were conducted at baseline and after 6-week training program. Both groups showed improved control of body balance in a standing position manifested in reductions of the length of path, surface area, and speed of deflection. Modified Pilates program was significantly more effective in improving body balance control in relaxed posture and with feet together than standard physical education classes. The greater efficiency of the modified Pilates program was expressed in a significant improvement in balance control parameters, i.e., path length, surface area, and speed of deflection. The modified Pilates program was more effective in improving body balance control in the hearing impaired people than standard physical education classes. Modification of physical activity recommendations for hearing impaired students may be considered; however, further research is required. Implications for Rehabilitation Hearing impairment impacts the mental, social and, physical spheres of life as well as deteriorates equivalent reactions and the way body posture is maintained. In hearing impaired people, control of body balance and muscle coordination is often disturbed, thus more attention should be paid to exercises associated with balance which may improve the ability to learn and develop motor skills. Modified Pilates program was significantly more effective in improving body balance control than standard physical education classes in hearing impaired people.

  6. Temporal Fine-Structure Coding and Lateralized Speech Perception in Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Locsei, Gusztav; Pedersen, Julie Hefting; Laugesen, Søren

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship between speech perception performance in spatially complex, lateralized listening scenarios and temporal fine-structure (TFS) coding at low frequencies. Young normal-hearing (NH) and two groups of elderly hearing-impaired (HI) listeners with mild or moderate...... hearing loss above 1.5 kHz participated in the study. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were estimated in the presence of either speech-shaped noise, two-, four-, or eight-talker babble played reversed, or a nonreversed two-talker masker. Target audibility was ensured by applying individualized linear...... threshold nor the interaural phase difference threshold tasks showed a correlation with the SRTs or with the amount of masking release due to binaural unmasking, respectively. The results suggest that, although HI listeners with normal hearing thresholds below 1.5 kHz experienced difficulties with speech...

  7. The Relationship between Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement of Girls with Hearing Impairments in Secondary Schools for the Deaf in Kenya

    Science.gov (United States)

    Awori, Beatrice Bunyasi; Mugo, John K.; Orodho, John A.; Karugu, G. K.

    2010-01-01

    Several factors had been cited as contributing to the perpetually dismal academic achievement of girls with hearing impairment in Kenya. Personal esteem factors had not been adequately explored. The study used Carl Roger's client-centered theory and an Expost facto design. Rosenberg self-esteem scale was used to measure self-esteem dimensions.…

  8. Hearing impairment and deafness among HIV infected children and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Hearing impairment and deafness among HIV infected children and adolescents in Harare, Zimbabwe. C Chidziva, J Matsekete, T Bandason, S Shamu, T Dzongodza, N Matinhira, HA Mujuru, C Kunzekwenyika, M Wellington, R Luthy, C Prescott, RA Ferrand ...

  9. A portable digital speech-rate converter for hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nejime, Y; Aritsuka, T; Imamura, T; Ifukube, T; Matsushima, J

    1996-06-01

    A real-time hand-sized portable device that slows speech speed without changing the pitch is proposed for hearing impairment. By using this device, people can listen to fast speech at a comfortable speed. A combination of solid-state memory recording and real-time digital signal processing with a single chip processor enables this unique function. A simplified pitchsynchronous, time-scale-modification algorithm is proposed to minimize the complexity of the DSP operation. Unlike the traditional algorithm, this dynamic-processing algorithm reduces distortion even when the expansion rate is only just above 1. Seven out of 10 elderly hearing-impaired listeners showed improvement in a sentence recognition test when using speech-rate conversion with the largest expansion rate, although no improvement was observed in a word recognition test. Some subjects who showed large improvement had limited auditory temporal resolution, but the correlation was not significant. The results suggest that, unlike conventional hearing aids, this device can be used to overcome the deterioration of auditory ability by improving the transfer of information from short-term (echoic) memory into a more stable memory trace in the human auditory system.

  10. Use of nouns and verbs in the oral narrative of individuals with hearing impairment and normal hearing between 5 and 11 years of age

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erica Endo Amemiya

    Full Text Available CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Nouns and verbs indicate actions in oral communication. However, hearing impairment can compromise the acquisition of oral language to such an extent that appropriate use of these can be challenging. The objective of this study was to compare the use of nouns and verbs in the oral narrative of hearing-impaired and hearing children. DESIGN AND SETTING: Analytical cross-sectional study at the Department of Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo. METHODS: Twenty-one children with moderate to profound bilateral neurosensory hearing impairment and twenty-one with normal hearing (controls were matched according to sex, school year and school type. A board showing pictures was presented to each child, to elicit a narrative and measure their performance in producing nouns and verbs. RESULTS: Twenty-two (52.4% of the subjects were males. The mean age was 8 years (standard deviation, SD = 1.5. Comparing averages between the groups of boys and girls, we did not find any significant difference in their use of nouns, but among verbs, there was a significant difference regarding use of the imperative (P = 0.041: more frequent among boys (mean = 2.91. There was no significant difference in the use of nouns and verbs between deaf children and hearers, in relation to school type. Regarding use of the indicative, there was a nearly significant trend (P = 0.058. CONCLUSION: Among oralized hearing-impaired children who underwent speech therapy, their performance regarding verbs and noun use was similar to that of their hearing counterparts.

  11. Hearing Aids and Personal Sound Amplifiers: Know the Difference

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Products For Consumers Home For Consumers Consumer Updates Hearing Aids and Personal Sound Amplifiers: Know the Difference ... that FDA launched today. Signs of Loss of Hearing Mann says that consumers who suspect they suffer ...

  12. Processing of Binaural Pitch Stimuli in Hearing-Impaired Listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Santurette, Sébastien; Dau, Torsten

    2009-01-01

    Binaural pitch is a tonal sensation produced by introducing a frequency-dependent interaural phase shift in binaurally presented white noise. As no spectral cues are present in the physical stimulus, binaural pitch perception is assumed to rely on accurate temporal fine structure coding and intact...... binaural integration mechanisms. This study investigated to what extent basic auditory measures of binaural processing as well as cognitive abilities are correlated with the ability of hearing-impaired listeners to perceive binaural pitch. Subjects from three groups (1: normal-hearing; 2: cochlear...... hearingloss; 3: retro-cochlear impairment) were asked to identify the pitch contour of series of five notes of equal duration, ranging from 523 to 784 Hz, played either with Huggins’ binaural pitch stimuli (BP) or perceptually similar, but monaurally detectable, pitches (MP). All subjects from groups 1 and 2...

  13. Career Education of Hearing-Impaired Students: A Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bullis, Michael, Ed.; Watson, Douglas, Ed.

    This monograph reviews the many efforts that have been made in the fields of education and vocational rehabilitation to develop and refine career preparation services for hearing-impaired individuals. The following papers are included in the volume: "Career Education: A Literature Review," by Charlene Dwyer; "A Current Profile of Career Education…

  14. Effect of simultaneous exposure to occupational noise and cigarette smoke on binaural hearing impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saber Mohammadi

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, it has been postulated that cigarette smoking can aggravate noise-induced hearing loss. In this study, we aimed to assess the effect of concurrent exposure to cigarette smoke and occupational noise on binaural hearing impairment (BHI. In an analytic study on the workers of a large wagon manufacturing company in 2007, 622 male workers (252 smokers and 370 non-smokers, matched for other variables participated and their BHI was compared. BHI was significantly higher in smokers than in non-smokers (odds ratio= 5.6, P < 0.001, 95% CI =3.4-9.4. Logistic regression confirmed this significant difference as well, and showed a direct relationship between the amount of BHI and pack/years of smoking. Cigarette smoking accompanied by exposure to workplace noise may play a role in causing binaural hearing impairment, so giving up or decreasing the amount of smoking may prevent or at least delay binaural hearing impairment, and eventually reduce its compensation costs.

  15. Acoustics and sociolinguistics: Patterns of communication in hearing impairing classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKellin, William; Shahin, Kimary; Jamieson, Janet; Hodgson, Murray; Pichora-Fuller, Kathleen

    2005-04-01

    In elementary school classes, noise during student led activities is often taken as evidence of successful interaction and learning. In this complex social environment of elementary school classrooms, acquisition of complex language and social skills-the focus of activities in early education-is expected to take place in hearing-hostile environments. Communication and language processing in these contexts requires interactive strategies, discourse forms, and syntactic structures different from the educationally desired forms used in acoustically advantageous environments. Recordings were made of the interaction of groups of students in grades 1-3, 5, and 7 during collaborative group work in their regular classrooms. Each student wore microphones at the ear level and head-mounted video cameras. Each group as a whole was also audio- and videotaped and noise level readings were recorded. Analysis of the acoustical and phonological properties of language heard by each student has demonstrated that the language variety used in these noisy and reverberant settings is similar to that of individuals with hearing impairments. This paper reports similarities between the syntactic structures and pragmatic strategies used by hearing impaired children and normally hearing children in noisy contexts. [Work supported by Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia.

  16. Hearing Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Ear Hears Think about how you can feel speakers vibrate on your sound system or feel your throat vibrate when you speak. Sound, which is made up of invisible waves of energy, causes these vibrations. Hearing begins when sound waves that travel through ...

  17. Protein energy malnutrition associates with different types of hearing impairments in toddlers: Anemia increases cochlear dysfunction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamel, Terez Boshra; Deraz, Tharwat Ezzat; Elkabarity, Rasha H; Ahmed, Rasha K

    2016-06-01

    This work aimed to highlight a challenging asymptomatic problem which is early detection of hearing impairment in toddlers with protein energy malnutrition (PEM) as a neuro-cognitive effect of PEM on developing brain in relation to hemoglobin level. 100 toddlers, aged 6-24 months, fifty with moderate/severe PEM and fifty healthy children, were included in study. Both TEOAEs and ABR testing were used to assess auditory function. Study reported an association between malnutrition and hearing impairment, 26% of cases had conductive deafness secondary to otitis media with effusion using tympanometry; 84.6% showed type B and 15.4% type C which may suggest developing or resolving otitis media. Their ABR showed 46% mild and 53% moderate impairment. 32% of PEM cases had sensory neural hearing loss and with type (A) tympanometry. Those were assessed using ABR; 58% had mild, 34% moderate and 8% profound impairment. 10% of PEM cases had mixed hearing loss with 50% type B and 50% type C tympanometry and their ABR showed moderate to profound impairment. TEOAEs latencies at different frequencies correlate negatively with hemoglobin level. Toddlers with moderate/severe PEM had hearing impairments of different types and degrees. Neuro-physiological methods could be early and safe detectors of auditory disorders especially in high-risk toddlers. Anemia increases risk for auditory dysfunction. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Students with hearing impairment at a South African university: Self-identity and disclosure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diane Bell

    2016-09-01

    Conclusion: It is crucially important for academic, support and administrative staff to be aware of both the assumed ‘hearing’ identity and therefore subsequent non-disclosure practices of students with a hearing impairment using the oral method of communication. Universities need to put measures in place to encourage students to voluntarily disclose their hearing impairment in order to provide more targeted teaching and learning support. This could lead to improved educational outcomes for students.

  19. CE: Original Research: Understanding the Hospital Experience of Older Adults with Hearing Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Funk, Amy; Garcia, Christina; Mullen, Tiara

    2018-06-01

    : Background: Older hospitalized adults with hearing impairment are vulnerable to adverse outcomes. These patients are at risk for being labeled confused, experiencing a loss of control, experiencing heightened fear and anxiety, and misunderstanding the plan of care. This qualitative study sought to assess the hospital experience of older adults with hearing impairment in order to formulate suggestions for improving nursing care. Open-ended interviews were conducted with eight participants, ages 70 to 95 years, who were identified as having a hearing impairment and were admitted as inpatients to a midwestern medical center. Through data analysis, three common themes emerged: health care communication difficulties, passivity and vulnerability, and frustration with family. Nurses will benefit from having a deeper understanding of the hospital experience of this vulnerable population. Efforts to address their needs can be accomplished through the following nursing actions: assess, accommodate, educate, empower, and advocate.

  20. Hearing symptoms personal stereos.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Luz, Tiara Santos; Borja, Ana Lúcia Vieira de Freitas

    2012-04-01

     Practical and portable the personal stereos if had become almost indispensable accessories in the day the day. Studies disclose that the portable players of music can cause auditory damages in the long run for who hear music in high volume for a drawn out time.  to verify the prevalence of auditory symptoms in users of amplified players and to know its habits of use  Observational prospective study of transversal cut carried through in three institutions of education of the city of Salvador BA, being two of public net and one of the private net. 400 students had answered to the questionnaire, of both the sex, between 14 and 30 years that had related the habit to use personal stereos.  The symptoms most prevalent had been hyperacusis (43.5%), auricular fullness (30.5%) and humming (27.5), being that the humming is the symptom most present in the population youngest. How much to the daily habits: 62.3% frequent use, 57% in raised intensities, 34% in drawn out periods. An inverse relation between exposition time was verified and the band of age (p = 0,000) and direct with the prevalence of the humming.  Although to admit to have knowledge on the damages that the exposition the sound of high intensity can cause the hearing, the daily habits of the young evidence the inadequate use of the portable stereos characterized by long periods of exposition, raised intensities, frequent use and preference for the insertion phones. The high prevalence of symptoms after the use suggests a bigger risk for the hearing of these young.

  1. Hearing symptoms personal stereos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tiara Santos da Luz1

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Practical and portable the personal stereos if had become almost indispensable accessories in the day the day. Studies disclose that the portable players of music can cause auditory damages in the long run for who hear music in high volume for a drawn out time. Objective: to verify the prevalence of auditory symptoms in users of amplified players and to know its habits of use. Method: Observational prospective study of transversal cut carried through in three institutions of education of the city of Salvador BA, being two of public net and one of the private net. 400 students had answered to the questionnaire, of both the sex, between 14 and 30 years that had related the habit to use personal stereos. Results: The symptoms most prevalent had been hyperacusis (43.5%, auricular fullness (30.5% and humming (27.5, being that the humming is the symptom most present in the population youngest. How much to the daily habits: 62.3% frequent use, 57% in raised intensities, 34% in drawn out periods. An inverse relation between exposition time was verified and the band of age (p=0,000 and direct with the prevalence of the humming. Conclusion: Although to admit to have knowledge on the damages that the exposition the sound of high intensity can cause the hearing, the daily habits of the young evidence the inadequate use of the portable stereos characterized by long periods of exposition, raised intensities, frequent use and preference for the insertion phones. The high prevalence of symptoms after the use suggests a bigger risk for the hearing of these young.

  2. Perception of a Sung Vowel as a Function of Frequency-Modulation Rate and Excursion in Listeners with Normal Hearing and Hearing Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vatti, Marianna; Santurette, Sébastien; Pontoppidan, Niels Henrik; Dau, Torsten

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Frequency fluctuations in human voices can usually be described as coherent frequency modulation (FM). As listeners with hearing impairment (HI listeners) are typically less sensitive to FM than listeners with normal hearing (NH listeners), this study investigated whether hearing loss affects the perception of a sung vowel based on FM…

  3. A new nonsyndromic X-linked sensorineural hearing impairment linked to Xp21.2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lalwani, A.K.; Brister, J.R.; Fex, J.; Grundfast, K.M.; Pikus, A.T.; Ploplis, B.; San Agustin, T.; Skarka, H.; Wilcox, E.R. [National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (United States)

    1994-10-01

    X-linked deafness is a rare cause of hereditary hearing impairment. We have identified a family with X-linked dominant sensorineural hearing impairment, characterized by incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity in carrier females, that is linked to the Xp21.2, which contains the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) locus. The auditory impairment in affected males was congenital, bilateral, profound, sensorineural, affecting all frequencies, and without evidence of radiographic abnormality of the temporal bone. Adult carrier females manifested bilateral, mild-to-moderate high-frequency sensorineural hearing impairment of delayed onset during adulthood. Eighteen commercially available polymorphic markers from the X chromosome, generating a 10-15-cM map, were initially used for identification of a candidate region. DXS997, located within the DMD gene, generated a two-point LOD score of 2.91 at {theta} = 0, with every carrier mother heterozygous at this locus. Recombination events at DXS992 (located within the DMD locus, 3{prime} to exon 50 of the dystrophin gene) and at DXS1068 (5{prime} to the brain promoter of the dystrophin gene) were observed. No recombination events were noted with the following markers within the DMD locus: 5{prime}DYS II, intron 44, DXS997, and intron 50. There was no clinical evidence of Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy in any family member. It is likely that this family represents a new locus on the X chromosome, which when mutated results in nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss and is distinct from the heterogeneous group of X-linked hearing losses that have been previously described. 57 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

  4. The Efficacy of Group Play Therapy on the Social Skills of Pre-School Hearing-Impaired Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gita Movallali

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate of the efficacy of group play therapy on the social skills of pre-school hearing-impaired children. Materials & Methods: The present research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The participants were 30 male hearing-impaired children from pre-schools centers in Varamin and Gharchak provinces using an available method. Subjects were randomly divided into experimental and control groups, each group consisting of 15 children. The experimental group received 12 sessions of group play therapy and the control group did not. The instruments were done using the Raven coloure progressive matrices test and social skills rating scale. The data were recorded and statistically analyzed using MANCOVA. Results: The results of MANCOVA showed that group play therapy had a significant effect on the social skills of hearing-impaired children (P<0.001. The results also revealed that group play therapy had a positive and significant effect on all subscales of social skills in these children: cooperation, self-assertiveness and self-control (P<0.001. Conclusion: Group play therapy can improve the social skills of hearing-impaired children. It is recommended that planning play therapy for hearing-impaired children receives serious attention .

  5. Cognitive skills and the effect of noise on perceived effort in employees with aided hearing impairment and normal hearing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Håkan Hua

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the following study was to examine the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC, executive functions (EFs and perceived effort (PE after completing a work-related task in quiet and in noise in employees with aided hearing impairment (HI and normal hearing. The study sample consisted of 20 hearing-impaired and 20 normally hearing participants. Measures of hearing ability, WMC and EFs were tested prior to performing a work-related task in quiet and in simulated traffic noise. PE of the work-related task was also measured. Analysis of variance was used to analyze within- and between-group differences in cognitive skills, performance on the work-related task and PE. The presence of noise yielded a significantly higher PE for both groups. However, no significant group differences were observed in WMC, EFs, PE and performance in the work-related task. Interestingly, significant negative correlations were only found between PE in the noise condition and the ability to update information for both groups. In summary, noise generates a significantly higher PE and brings explicit processing capacity into play, irrespective of hearing. This suggest that increased PE involves other factors such as type of task that is to be performed, performance in the cognitive skill required solving the task at hand and whether noise is present. We therefore suggest that special consideration in hearing care should be made to the individual′s prerequisites on these factors in the labor market.

  6. Fine-structure processing, frequency selectivity and speech perception in hearing-impaired listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Strelcyk, Olaf; Dau, Torsten

    2008-01-01

    Hearing-impaired people often experience great difficulty with speech communication when background noise is present, even if reduced audibility has been compensated for. Other impairment factors must be involved. In order to minimize confounding effects, the subjects participating in this study...... consisted of groups with homogeneous, symmetric audiograms. The perceptual listening experiments assessed the intelligibility of full-spectrum as well as low-pass filtered speech in the presence of stationary and fluctuating interferers, the individual's frequency selectivity and the integrity of temporal...... modulation were obtained. In addition, these binaural and monaural thresholds were measured in a stationary background noise in order to assess the persistence of the fine-structure processing to interfering noise. Apart from elevated speech reception thresholds, the hearing impaired listeners showed poorer...

  7. The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status for Hearing Impaired Individuals (RBANS-H) before and after Cochlear Implantation: A Protocol for a Prospective, Longitudinal Cohort Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Claes, Annes J; Mertens, Griet; Gilles, Annick; Hofkens-Van den Brandt, Anouk; Fransen, Erik; Van Rompaey, Vincent; Van de Heyning, Paul

    2016-01-01

    Background: Currently, an independent relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline in older adults is suggested by large prospective studies. In general, cochlear implants improve hearing and the quality of life in severely to profoundly hearing impaired older persons. However, little is known about the effects of cochlear implantation on the cognitive evolution in this population. Aim of the study: The primary goal of this prospective, longitudinal cohort study is to explore the cognitive profile of severely to profoundly postlingually hearing impaired subjects before and after cochlear implantation. In addition, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between the cognitive function, audiometric performances, quality of life, and self-reliance in these patients. Methods: Twenty-five patients aged 55 or older, scheduled for cochlear implantation, will be enrolled in the study. They will be examined prior to implantation, at 6 and 12 months after implantation and annually thereafter. The test battery consists of (1) a cognitive examination, using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status adapted for Hearing impaired persons (RBANS-H), (2) an audiological examination, including unaided and aided pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry in quiet and speech audiometry in noise, (3) the administration of four questionnaires evaluating quality of life and subjective hearing benefit and (4) a semi-structured interview about the self-reliance of the participant. Discussion: Up until now only one study has been conducted on this topic, focusing on the short-term effects of cochlear implantation on cognition in older adults. The present study is the first study to apply a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment adapted for severely to profoundly hearing impaired subjects in order to investigate the cognitive capabilities before and after cochlear implantation. Trial registration: The present protocol is

  8. The effectiveness of mental rehabilitation based on positive thinking skills training on increasing happiness in hearing impaired adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Rostami

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Hearing impairment can have an impact on adolescents’ quality of life and can lead to their isolation and depression. The main purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of a mental rehabilitation program based on positive thinking skills training on increasing happiness in a group of hearing impaired girls and boys.Methods: In this experimental study, pre- and post-test plan with a control group was used. All of the hearing impaired students (girls and boys in all high schools of southern parts of Tehran, Iran, in year 2012-13 were our statistical research community. 48 hearing impaired girls and boys were selected by multistage sampling including stratified, purposive, and random sampling. They were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. Each group consists of 12 boys and 12 girls. Positive thinking skills were trained to experimental groups during eight 45-minutes sessions, twice a week. We used the Oxford happiness questionnaire to assess the level of happiness.Results: Using analysis of covariance showed that positive thinking skills training had meaningful and positive effect on increasing happiness of hearing impaired boys and girls in the experimental groups (p<0.01. Also, the mean happiness scores of boys and girls were meaningfully different (p<0.01.Conclusion: Positive thinking skills training increases the happiness scores of hearing impaired adolescents. So, the approach taken in this study can be considered as an appropriate method for psychological-education interventions, counseling and treatment in hearing impaired adolescent.

  9. Writing Skills of Hearing-Impaired Students Who Benefit from Support Services at Public Schools in Turkey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karasu, H. Pelin

    2017-01-01

    Support services provide an essential role for hearing-impaired students attending public schools, in terms of improving their language and academic skills. In this study, the writing skills of hearing-impaired students enrolled in public schools were evaluated, and the relationship between the writing scores, audiological variables and…

  10. Recent concepts and challenges in hearing research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dau, Torsten

    In everyday life, the speech we listen to is often mixed with many other sound sources as well as reverberation. In such a situation, normal-hearing listeners are able to effortlessly segregate a single voice out of the background, which is commonly known as the 'cocktail party effect'. Conversely......, hearing-impaired people have great difficulty understanding speech when more than one person is talking, even when reduced audibility has been fully compensated for by a hearing aid. As with the hearing impaired, the performance of automatic speech recognition systems deteriorates dramatically...... with additional sound sources. The reasons for these difficulties are not well understood. Only by obtaining a clearer understanding of the auditory system’s coding strategies will it be possible to design intelligent compensation algorithms for hearing devices. This presentation highlights recent concepts...

  11. Mismatch between aspects of hearing impairment and hearing disability/handicap in adult/elderly Cantonese speakers: some hypotheses concerning cultural and linguistic influences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doyle, J; Wong, L L

    1996-12-01

    This paper addresses the observation that some Cantonese-speaking adults do not perceive a hearing problem even when hearing screening identifies hearing loss. A sample of 49 Cantonese speakers was surveyed about their self-perceptions of hearing prior to a 25 dB HTL pure-tone screening test. All 49 persons failed the screening test, yet 34 (69.4%) reported that they had no problems hearing during conversations. Persons who admitted hearing difficulties tended to have mean hearing levels in excess of 45 dB HTL. A number of hypotheses concerning cultural and linguistic influences are proposed as explanations for the apparent lack of significance of auditory sensitivity loss for some Cantonese speakers. Ways in which these hypotheses might be tested are suggested.

  12. Optimizing Hearing Loss Prevention and Treatment, Rehabilitation and Re - Integration of Soldiers with Hearing Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-10-01

    Magneto Encephalography MEMS Multi-scale Electro-Mechanical Simulation MP3 MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 (personal music player) MRI Magnetic Resonance...hearing and poor hearing cohort’s utilization of pharmaceutical patterns for anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medications, or other services, may show...Resonance Imaging Magnetic Resonance Imaging ( MRI ) will only be performed if clinically indicated. 3.4 REFERENCES [1] Bisitz T. 2012. Automated

  13. Binaural speech discrimination under noise in hearing-impaired listeners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, K. V.; Rao, A. B.

    1988-01-01

    This paper presents the results of an assessment of speech discrimination by hearing-impaired listeners (sensori-neural, conductive, and mixed groups) under binaural free-field listening in the presence of background noise. Subjects with pure-tone thresholds greater than 20 dB in 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 kHz were presented with a version of the W-22 list of phonetically balanced words under three conditions: (1) 'quiet', with the chamber noise below 28 dB and speech at 60 dB; (2) at a constant S/N ratio of +10 dB, and with a background white noise at 70 dB; and (3) same as condition (2), but with the background noise at 80 dB. The mean speech discrimination scores decreased significantly with noise in all groups. However, the decrease in binaural speech discrimination scores with an increase in hearing impairment was less for material presented under the noise conditions than for the material presented in quiet.

  14. Problems among childrens with impaired hearing. The impact of noise on the work of teachers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ewelina Karolina Kucharska

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Introduction and Aim In the life of every human senses, including the sense of hearing, they play an important role in the harmonious development. Each hearing loss in childhood influences, depending on the depth, nature and time of its inception, in a negative way on the development of many mental activities, intellectual, behavior, cognitive, causing significant impairment in the child's position the hearing impaired, deaf and especially in the world of the hearing. The aim of this study is to assess the parents' awareness of hearing loss in children with hearing loss as a result of a survey of parents of children from the first classes of primary schools in the Lublin province. Material and Methods Analysis was performed on 31 results of parents of children with hearing impairment made in children aged 6 and 7 years, pupils and primary schools in the Lublin province. Parents were asked the question: 'Do you think your child has hearing problems?' The analysis indicated the assessment of awareness of parents of children with hearing disorders.   Results In the study group, as many as 77% of parents stated that the child does not have problems with hearing, only 3% of parents noted the problem, while 20% of parents did not answer the question. Conclusions Based on the research it can be stated with a high percentage of parents still do not notice hearing loss in their children. Early notice of the problem, the correct procedure and the cooperation with the parent group of specialists are often the way to success. It is crucial to support the child in difficult situations, which often is exposed to contact with all sorts of obstacles. An important issue is the numerous health programs, shaping the attitude of parents and society as a whole.

  15. Modeling auditory processing and speech perception in hearing-impaired listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jepsen, Morten Løve

    in a diagnostic rhyme test. The framework was constructed such that discrimination errors originating from the front-end and the back-end were separated. The front-end was fitted to individual listeners with cochlear hearing loss according to non-speech data, and speech data were obtained in the same listeners......A better understanding of how the human auditory system represents and analyzes sounds and how hearing impairment affects such processing is of great interest for researchers in the fields of auditory neuroscience, audiology, and speech communication as well as for applications in hearing......-instrument and speech technology. In this thesis, the primary focus was on the development and evaluation of a computational model of human auditory signal-processing and perception. The model was initially designed to simulate the normal-hearing auditory system with particular focus on the nonlinear processing...

  16. A Neurodevelopmental Profile of the Rural Hearing-Impaired Child in the QwaQwa Region, South Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bothma, Jó-Marié v. d. M.; Dunn, Munita; Kokot, Shirley

    2015-01-01

    Being hearing impaired does not only affect a child's academic performance, but can also influence a child's overall development and ability to succeed academically. Children with hearing impairment often experience delays in other areas of their development and an understanding of the inter-relatedness of these delays are important in order to…

  17. Benefit of Analog, Programmable and Digital Hearing Aids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jamileh Fatahi

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aims: As the hearing aid technology progressively promotes toward replacing analog hearing aids with digital and programmable ones, comparison of the patient satisfaction of those kinds of hearing aids by means of a valuable tool seems so necessary. So, the aim of this study was to compare self-reported benefit of analog, digitally controlled programmable and digital hearing aids for reducing disability caused by hearing impairment in mild to severe sensorineural hearing impaired persons. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 90 persons with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss dividing into three groups: 43 subjects were fitted with digital, 15 with programmable, 32 with analog hearing aids. After pure tone audiometry, Abbreviated profile of hearing aid benefit (APHAB was completed before and one month after using hearing aids to determine the benefit of them. Results: Global APHAB mean scores for digital, programmable and analog hearing aids were 49.05, 33.19 and 39.53, respectively. Ease of Communication subscale mean scores were 53.46 for digitals, 37.66 for programmables and 39.09 for analogs. Background noise subscale mean scores for digital programmable and analog hearing aids were 46.36, 25.53 and 35.31, respectively. Global and also both subscale mean scores showed significant difference between digital hearing aids and programmable and analog ones. There was no significant difference between reverberation subscale mean scores of three groups. Conclusion: It seems digital hearing aids may be more beneficial to reduce disability caused by hearing loss than analog and programmable hearing aids are.

  18. 'Non-vocalization': a phonological error process in the speech of severely and profoundly hearing impaired adults, from the point of view of the theory of phonology as human behaviour.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halpern, Orly; Tobin, Yishai

    2008-01-01

    'Non-vocalization' (N-V) is a newly described phonological error process in hearing impaired speakers. In N-V the hearing impaired person actually articulates the phoneme but without producing a voice. The result is an error process looking as if it is produced but sounding as if it is omitted. N-V was discovered by video recording the speech of two groups, profoundly and severely hearing impaired adults in four elicitation tasks of varying difficulty, and analysing 2065 phonological error processes (substitutions, omissions, and N-V) according to 24 criteria resulting in 49,560 data points. Results, which are discussed in view of the theory 'Phonology as Human Behaviour' (PHB), indicate that: (a) The more communicative the error process was; the more effort was made for its production and the more frequent its distribution; (b) The easier the elicitation task was, the more frequent the use of communicative error processes; c) The more difficult the elicitation task was, the more frequent the use of the relatively less communicative and easier to produce error processes; and d) The process of N-V functioned like a communicative error process for the group of profoundly hearing impaired adults.

  19. Phrasing in the speech and reading of the hearing impaired.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gregory, J F

    1986-08-01

    The study reported here explored a partial explanation for the fourth-grade "bottleneck" in literacy advancement by hearing-impaired students. Speech samples from 21 deaf subjects were rated for degree of evident phrasal quality. Likewise, reading comprehension scores for each student were obtained under four reading conditions: reading in whole sentences, in phrases, in fragmented word groups, and in single words. Degree of rated speech phrasality was found to relate significantly and positively to correct recall answers to questions based upon silent reading of passages typed in meaningful word groups (but not when the passages were typed in whole sentences, fragmented word groups, or in single words). The results were taken to suggest that--whereas staccato-speaking deaf students may lack a sense of the phrase altogether--phrasal-speaking deaf youngsters fail to independently apply their phrase sense in the normal reading situation. Thus, both types of deaf youngsters have difficulty affecting the transition to phrase reading that is common for hearing students at or about the fourth-grade level. Finally, I argue that this phrase sense can be instilled in hearing-impaired students and that they can be trained to use it in reading.

  20. The Learning Disabled, Hearing Impaired Students: Reality, Myth, or Overextension?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laughton, Joan

    1989-01-01

    This paper focuses on definitions, incidence, and characteristics of the multihandicapping condition known as "learning disabled, hearing impaired," in order to provide a means of identifying these children and determining whether or not they require different teaching strategies. (JDD)

  1. The lexical development of children with hearing impairment and associated factors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penna, Leticia Macedo; Lemos, Stela Maris Aguiar; Alves, Cláudia Regina Lindgren

    2014-01-01

    This study aimed at analyzing the association between the lexical development of children with hearing impairment and their psychosocial and socioeconomic characteristics and medical history. An analytic transversal study was conducted in an Auditive Health Attention Service. One hundred and ten children from 6 to 10 years old using hearing aids and presenting hearing loss that ranged from light to deep levels were evaluated. All children were subjected to oral, written language and auditory perception tests. Parents answered a structured questionnaire to collect data from their medical history and socioeconomic status, and questionnaires about the features of the family environment and psychosocial characteristics. Multivariate analysis was performed by logistic regression, being the initial model composed by variables with panalysis. In the final model, we adopted a significance level of 5%. The final model of the multivariate analysis showed an association between the performance on the vocabulary test and the results of phonemic discrimination test (OR=0.81; 95%CI 0.73-0.89). The results show the importance of stimulating the auditory processing, particularly the phonemic discrimination skill, throughout the rehabilitation process of children with hearing impairment. This stimulation can enhance lexical development and minimize the metalanguage and learning difficulties often observed in these children.

  2. Auditory stream segregation with multi-tonal complexes in hearing-impaired listeners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, Deanna S.; Lentz, Jennifer J.

    2004-05-01

    The ability to segregate sounds into different streams was investigated in normally hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. Fusion and fission boundaries were measured using 6-tone complexes with tones equally spaced in log frequency. An ABA-ABA- sequence was used in which A represents a multitone complex ranging from either 250-1000 Hz (low-frequency region) or 1000-4000 Hz (high-frequency region). B also represents a multitone complex with same log spacing as A. Multitonal complexes were 100 ms in duration with 20-ms ramps, and- represents a silent interval of 100 ms. To measure the fusion boundary, the first tone of the B stimulus was either 375 Hz (low) or 1500 Hz (high) and shifted downward in frequency with each progressive ABA triplet until the listener pressed a button indicating that a ``galloping'' rhythm was heard. When measuring the fusion boundary, the first tone of the B stimulus was 252 or 1030 Hz and shifted upward with each triplet. Listeners then pressed a button when the ``galloping rhythm ended.'' Data suggest that hearing-impaired subjects have different fission and fusion boundaries than normal-hearing listeners. These data will be discussed in terms of both peripheral and central factors.

  3. Screening tools for the identification of dementia for adults with age-related acquired hearing or vision impairment: a scoping review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pye, Annie; Charalambous, Anna Pavlina; Leroi, Iracema; Thodi, Chrysoulla; Dawes, Piers

    2017-11-01

    Cognitive screening tests frequently rely on items being correctly heard or seen. We aimed to identify, describe, and evaluate the adaptation, validity, and availability of cognitive screening and assessment tools for dementia which have been developed or adapted for adults with acquired hearing and/or vision impairment. Electronic databases were searched using subject terms "hearing disorders" OR "vision disorders" AND "cognitive assessment," supplemented by exploring reference lists of included papers and via consultation with health professionals to identify additional literature. 1,551 papers were identified, of which 13 met inclusion criteria. Four papers related to tests adapted for hearing impairment; 11 papers related to tests adapted for vision impairment. Frequently adapted tests were the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA). Adaptations for hearing impairment involved deleting or creating written versions for hearing-dependent items. Adaptations for vision impairment involved deleting vision-dependent items or spoken/tactile versions of visual tasks. No study reported validity of the test in relation to detection of dementia in people with hearing/vision impairment. Item deletion had a negative impact on the psychometric properties of the test. While attempts have been made to adapt cognitive tests for people with acquired hearing and/or vision impairment, the primary limitation of these adaptations is that their validity in accurately detecting dementia among those with acquired hearing or vision impairment is yet to be established. It is likely that the sensitivity and specificity of the adapted versions are poorer than the original, especially if the adaptation involved item deletion. One solution would involve item substitution in an alternative sensory modality followed by re-validation of the adapted test.

  4. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE LEARNING MODULE FOR CHILDRENT WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Marzuqi

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available There are the absence of teaching materials in accordance with the characteristics and conditions of a hearing impairment children in terms of learning, especially science subjects. The characteristics of hearing impairment children is poor in their vocabularies, so that, the teaching materials emphasizing the visual aspect is necessary. This study used a Research and Development (R & D adapted by the Sugiyono model in order to produce teaching materials in the form of pictorial modules and to test their effectiveness. The result of the research showed that it was a very valid criteria with a score of 97% of the materials experts, 85% of media experts, and 93% of skilled practitioners. The score of the effectiveness of the modules was 75% with the effective criteria.

  5. Speech Production and Speech Discrimination by Hearing-Impaired Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novelli-Olmstead, Tina; Ling, Daniel

    1984-01-01

    Seven hearing impaired children (five to seven years old) assigned to the Speakers group made highly significant gains in speech production and auditory discrimination of speech, while Listeners made only slight speech production gains and no gains in auditory discrimination. Combined speech and auditory training was more effective than auditory…

  6. Hearing-impaired children in the United Kingdom, III : cochlear implantation and the economic costs incurred by families

    OpenAIRE

    Barton, GR; Fortnum, HM; Stacey, PC; Summerfield, AQ

    2006-01-01

    Objectives: This article addresses two questions. First, are there differences in the economic costs incurred by families of hearing-impaired children depending on whether or not children have cochlear implants? Second, are these differences important when assessed from the perspective of society? Methods: In a cross-sectional survey, parents of a representative sample of hearing-impaired children provided data about annual resources used by the family because of their child’s hearing impairm...

  7. Visual impairment, but not hearing impairment, is independently associated with lower subjective well-being among individuals over 95 years of age: A population-based study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zuyun; Wu, Di; Huang, Jiapin; Qian, Degui; Chen, Fei; Xu, Jun; Li, Shilin; Jin, Li; Wang, Xiaofeng

    2016-01-01

    Sensory impairment affects an increasing number of elderly adults, with a negative psychological impact. Our objective was to examine the associations of visual and hearing impairment with subjective well-being (SWB), an important psychological concept defined by life satisfaction [LS], positive affect [PA], negative affect [NA], and affect balance [AB] among long-lived individuals (LLIs) over 95 years of age. Data on 442 LLIs from the Rugao longevity cohort, a population-based study in Rugao, China, were analyzed. Graded classifications of visual and hearing impairment (none, mild, moderate, and severe) were constructed from self-reported items. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed to test the associations. Approximately 66.1% and 87.3% of the subjects reported varying degrees of visual and hearing impairment. Following the degree of vision impairment, LS, PA, and AB decreased linearly, whereas NA increased linearly (all p for trendimpairment with LS, NA, and AB, while diminished, still existed. Visual impairment, but not hearing impairment, was independently associated with low SWB among LLIs, and functional ability may play a mediating role in the observed relationship. The findings indicate that rehabilitation targeted for those with reduced vision and functioning in long-lived populations may be important for promoting well-being and quality of life. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIMEDIA-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL OF NATURAL SCIENCE IN SOLAR SYSTEM MATERIAL IN THE GRADE IX FOR HEARING IMPAIRMENT STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nurvita Dwi Andriani

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Hearing impairment students have limitation in obtaining information. Hearing impairment students needs a multimedia-based instructional to visualize a subject matter as a learning experience. This study was aimed at producing a theoretically and empirically valid multimedia-based instructional of Natural Science in Solar System material which is reviewed by experts and could be implemented in Segment B of SMPLB (Hearing impairment students. This study employed a research and development (R&D model by William W. Lee and Diana L. Owens. Overall, the multimedia-based instructional of Natural Science in Solar System material for Segment B of SMPLB (Hearing impairment students was valid

  9. Stress coping strategies in hearing-impaired students

    OpenAIRE

    Bahman Akbari; Zohreh Teymori; Shahnam Abolghasemi; Hamidreza Khorshidiyan

    2013-01-01

    Background and Aim: The majority of people experience problems and stressors, such as job layoffs and illnesses during their lives. However, the way people cope with stress varies. According to previous research, use of effective coping strategies can significantly reduce stress and tension. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of stress coping strategies on hearing-impaired students.Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and control...

  10. [Assistive Services in the Workplace of People with Hearing Impairment in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, A; Menzel, F; Weber, U; Niehaus, M; Kaul, T; Schlenker-Schulte, C

    2015-09-01

    Assistive services in the workplace are an important aspect of the participation of people with hearing impairment in working life. This article presents the results of the GINKO study and an survey conducted by the University of Cologne on behalf of the MAIS in order to provide a comprehensive examination of the employment situation of hearing impaired people in North Rhine-Westphalia. The GINKO study examines the impact of laws on the integration of hard-of-hearing and deaf people as well as people who have become deaf as adults, focusing on communication and organizations; this project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS). In the GINKO study, conducted in cooperation with the German Association of the Hard of Hearing and the German Association of the Deaf, a standardised questionnaire with questions about the workplace was administered to employed people with hearing impairments. The questionnaire was administered on paper and was also available online accompanied by sign language videos. The University of Cologne study in North Rhine-Westphalia examined the service situation of hard-of-hearing, deaf and deaf-blind people through face-to-face interviews and government statistics. The results of the nationwide GINKO study show that hearing-impaired people in North Rhine-Westphalia draw on assistive services in employment more often than hearing-impaired people in the rest of Germany. The study found statistically significant differences in the categories of "maintenance and development of professional knowledge and skills" and "psychosocial support in conflict situations resulting from disability". One reason for the more positive evaluations of the participants in North Rhine-Westphalia as compared to other regions in Germany could be the particular network of support services in that state. However, the overall positive results from North Rhine-Westphalia should not obscure the fact that a majority of participants in

  11. Adaptation of the Fresenius PD+ Cycler for a hearing-impaired patient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kushner, A

    2000-01-01

    Continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis (CCPD) uses a cycler to perform dialysis exchanges and requires the patient to respond to an audible alarm signifying an interruption in the therapy. Consequently, an unassisted hearing-impaired patient could not use the system. By converting the standard alarm to a vibrating signal, the cycler was successfully adapted to accommodate the special needs of our hearing-impaired patient. The items required for the modification were the Sonic Alert Wake Up Alarm (Model SA-WA300: Sonic Alert, Troy, MI, U.S.A.) and the Sonic Alert Super Shaker Bed Vibrator (Model SA-SS120V: Sonic Alert). The patient can place the vibrator under either the pillow or the mattress. When the cycler alarm is activated, vibration wakens the patient. The equipment was purchased from Harris Communications (Eden Prairie, MN, U.S.A.) through a referral by the Easter Seal Society. Three days were needed to complete training compared to an average of one or two days for patients previously trained for continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). The patient remained on cycler therapy for approximately four months when the unrelated development of an abdominal hernia required termination of peritoneal dialysis and subsequent transfer to hemodialysis. In conclusion, a modified cycler can provide a safe and efficient renal replacement therapy option for a hearing-impaired patient.

  12. [The occupational risk of hearing impairment associated with cardiovascular pathologies in the subjects engaged in 'noisy' industries].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pankova, V B; Preobrazhenskaya, E A; Fedina, I N

    The objective of the present study was to analyze the structure of concomitant somatic pathology in the subjects experiencing the occupational hearing problems. The study demonstrated the increase in the frequency of concomitant chronic diseases and the prevalence of polynosological conditions with the increasing severity of hearing impairment. It was shown that cardiovascular pathologies tend to enhance the risk of hearing loss in the employees engaged in «noisy» occupations. The cause-and-effect relationships were elucidated as the contribution of the "vascular" factor to the formation of occupational pathology of the organs of hearing. The clinical audilogical features of co-morbid occupational hearing impairment associated with vascular pathology were characterized by the accelerated development and progression of the hearing disorders with the gradual disappearance of the audiological signs characteristic of noise-induced lesions.

  13. Hearing impairment, social support, and depressive symptoms among U.S. adults: A test of the stress process paradigm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    West, Jessica S

    2017-11-01

    Hearing impairment is a growing physical disability affecting older adults and is an important physical health stressor, but few studies have examined it in relation to mental health outcomes and even fewer have considered the role of social support in buffering this relationship. The current study builds on the stress process framework and uses longitudinal data from three waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2006, 2010, 2014) to examine the relationship between hearing impairment and depressive symptoms among U.S. adults aged 50 and older (n = 6075). The analysis uses fixed-effects models to assess this relationship and examine the extent to which social support mediates (buffers) or moderates (interaction) the association. The results found that worse self-rated hearing was associated with a significant increase in depressive symptoms, even after controlling for sociodemographic factors. Social support did not buffer this relationship. Instead, social support interacted with hearing impairment: low levels of social support were associated with more depressive symptoms but only among people with poor self-rated hearing. Among those with excellent self-rated hearing, low levels of social support did not increase depressive symptoms. Moreover, high levels of social support reduced depressive symptoms for those with poor hearing. These findings suggest that hearing impairment is a chronic stressor in individuals' lives, and that responses to this stressor vary by the availability of social resources. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Otitis Media and Children with Hearing Impairments: A Sequela.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beattie, R. G. John L.

    1991-01-01

    This review of research on otitis media in children with existing hearing impairments concludes that the incidence of otitis media is probably higher than in the general population. The possible reasons for higher incidence, effects of otitis media on children with known losses, and the role of the classroom teacher are discussed. (Author/DB)

  15. Older Adults With a Combination of Vision and Hearing Impairment Experience Higher Rates of Cognitive Impairment, Functional Dependence, and Worse Outcomes Across a Set of Quality Indicators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, Jacob G S; Guthrie, Dawn M

    2017-08-01

    Hearing and vision impairment were examined across several health-related outcomes and across a set of quality indicators (QIs) in home care clients with both vision and hearing loss (or dual sensory impairment [DSI]). Data collected using the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC) were analyzed in a sample of older home care clients. The QIs represent the proportion of clients experiencing negative outcomes (e.g., falls, social isolation). The average age of clients was 82.8 years ( SD = 7.9), 20.5% had DSI and 8.5% had a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Clients with DSI were more likely to have a diagnosis of dementia (not AD), have functional impairments, report loneliness, and have higher rates across 20 of the 22 QIs, including communication difficulty and cognitive decline. Clients with highly impaired hearing, and any visual impairment, had the highest QI rates. Individuals with DSI experience higher rates of adverse events across many health-related outcomes and QIs. Understanding the unique contribution of hearing and vision in this group can promote optimal quality of care.

  16. Hearing acuity as a predictor of walking difficulties in older women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viljanen, Anne; Kaprio, Jaakko; Pyykkö, Ilmari; Sorri, Martti; Koskenvuo, Markku; Rantanen, Taina

    2009-12-01

    To examine whether hearing acuity correlates with walking ability and whether impaired hearing at baseline predicts new self-reported walking difficulties after 3 years. Prospective follow-up. Research laboratory and community. Four hundred thirty-four women aged 63 to 76. Hearing was measured using clinical audiometry. A person was defined as having a hearing impairment if a pure-tone average of thresholds at 0.5 to 4 kHz in the better ear was 21 dB or greater. Maximal walking speed was measured over 10 m (m/s), walking endurance as the distance (m), covered in 6 minutes and difficulties in walking 2 km according to self-report. At baseline, women with hearing impairment (n=179) had slower maximal walking speed (1.7 +/- 0.3 m/s vs 1.8 +/- 0.3 m/s, P=.007), lower walking endurance (520 +/- 75 m vs 536 +/- 75 m, P=.08), and more selfreported major difficulties in walking 2 km (12.8% vs 5.5%, P=.02) than those without hearing impairment. During follow-up, major walking difficulties developed for 33 participants. Women with hearing impairment at baseline had a twice the age-adjusted risk for new walking difficulties as those without hearing impairment (odds ratio=2.04, 95% confidence interval=0.96-4.33). Hearing acuity correlated with mobility, which may be explained by the association between impaired hearing and poor balance and greater risk for falls, both of which underlie decline in mobility. Prevention of hearing loss is not only important for the ability to communicate, but may also have more wide-ranging influences on functional ability.

  17. Treatment Efficacy: Hearing Aids in the Management of Hearing Loss in Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinstein, Barbara E.

    1996-01-01

    This article reviews the efficacy of hearing aids in adults with hearing impairments. Information is provided on the prevalence of hearing impairments; the daily effects of a hearing impairment; and the role of the audiologist. The effectiveness and benefits of hearing aids are reviewed, and a case study is provided. (CR)

  18. Clinical measurement of various aspects of hearing impairment and their relation to auditory functioning: the development of an Auditory Profile

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Esch, T.E.M.

    2013-01-01

    In terms of disability and handicap, problems in auditory function involve much more than a reduced sensitivity to soft sounds, the most commonly used measure of hearing impairment. In daily life, many hearing-impaired (HI) listeners suffer more from impaired processing of audible sounds, than from

  19. Developmental dysgraphia with profound hearing impairment: intervention by auditory methods enabled by cochlear implant.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukushima, Kunihiro; Kawasaki, Akihiro; Nagayasu, Rie; Kunisue, Kazuya; Maeda, Yukihide; Kariya, Shin; Kataoka, Yuko; Nishizaki, Kazunori

    2008-06-01

    Learning disability combined with hearing impairment (LDHI) is a poor prognostic factor for the language development of hearing impaired children after educational intervention. A typical example of a child with LDHI and effective interventions provided by cochlear implants are presented in this report. A case of congenital cytomegaloviral infection that showed dysgraphia as well as profound deafness was reported and an underlying visual processing problem diagnosed in the present case caused the patient's dysgraphia. The dysgraphia could be circumvented by the use of auditory memory fairly established by a cochlear implant.

  20. iPads Enhance Social Interaction Skills among Hearing-Impaired Children of Low Income Families in Saudi Arabia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahatheg, Raja Omar

    2015-01-01

    This research tries to investigate the technical contribution on improving the social interaction of hearing-impaired children from low income families in Saudi Arabia. It compares the social interaction skills of hearing-impaired children who do and do not have access to iPads. To achieve the goals of the study; seventeen children aged five years…

  1. Hearing impairment caused by mutations in two different genes responsible for nonsyndromic and syndromic hearing loss within a single family.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niepokój, Katarzyna; Rygiel, Agnieszka M; Jurczak, Piotr; Kujko, Aleksandra A; Śniegórska, Dominika; Sawicka, Justyna; Grabarczyk, Alicja; Bal, Jerzy; Wertheim-Tysarowska, Katarzyna

    2018-02-01

    Usher syndrome is rare genetic disorder impairing two human senses, hearing and vision, with the characteristic late onset of vision loss. This syndrome is divided into three types. In all cases, the vision loss is postlingual, while loss of hearing is usually prelingual. The vestibular functions may also be disturbed in Usher type 1 and sometimes in type 3. Vestibular areflexia is helpful in making a proper diagnosis of the syndrome, but, often, the syndrome is misdiagnosed as a nonsyndromic hearing loss. Here, we present a Polish family with hearing loss, which was clinically classified as nonsyndromic. After excluding mutations in the DFNB1 locus, we implemented the next-generation sequencing method and revealed that hearing loss was syndromic and mutations in the USH2A gene indicate Usher syndrome. This research highlights the importance of molecular analysis in establishing a clinical diagnosis of congenital hearing loss.

  2. Does extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy cause hearing impairment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuncer, Murat; Erdogan, Banu A; Yazici, Ozgur; Sahin, Cahit; Altin, Gokhan; Faydaci, Gokhan; Eryildirim, Bilal; Sarica, Kemal

    2014-07-01

    To evaluate the possible effects of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) on the hearing status of the patients in this prospective controlled study. A total of 40 patients with normal hearing function were included to the study. We had 20 patients each in the study group and control group. The treatment parameters were standardized in all 3 sessions in which a total of 3000 shock waves with a rate of 90/min along with a total energy value of 126 J at the fourth energy level have been applied (Dornier Compact Sigma, Medtech, Germany). In addition to the testing of hearing functions and possible cochlear impairment by Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions test at 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, and 4.0 kHz frequencies, complications such as ear pain, tinnitus, and hearing loss have been well evaluated in each patient before the procedure and 2 hours and 1 month after the completion of the third session of ESWL in the study group. The same evaluation procedures were performed before the study and after 7-weeks in the control group. Regarding Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions data obtained in study group and control group patients, there was no significant alteration in values obtained after ESWL when compared with the values before the procedure. A well-planned ESWL procedure is a safe and effective treatment in urinary stones and causes no detectable harmful effect on the hearing function of treated patients. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Sign-Lingo : Feasibility of a Serious Game for Involving Parents in the Language Development of their Deaf or Hearing Impaired Child

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schalk, I van der; Spruit, M.

    2017-01-01

    Family involvement plays a critical factor in the language development of a deaf or hearing impaired child. Hearing parents often have major difficulties in communicating with their child when it is deaf or hearing impaired. These difficulties often lead to issues in the language development of the

  4. Impact of cognitive and linguistic ability on gaze behavior in children with hearing impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olof eSandgren

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available In order to explore verbal-nonverbal integration, we investigated the influence of cognitive and linguistic ability on gaze behavior during spoken language conversation between children with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment (HI and normal-hearing (NH peers. Ten HI-NH and ten NH-NH dyads performed a referential communication task requiring description of faces. During task performance, eye movements and speech were tracked. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to model associations between performance on cognitive and linguistic tasks and the probability of gaze to the conversational partner’s face. Analyses compare the listeners in each dyad (HI: n = 10, mean age = 12;6 years, SD = 2;0, mean better ear pure-tone average 33.0 dB HL, SD = 7.8; NH: n = 10, mean age = 13;7 years, SD = 1;11. Group differences in gaze behavior – with HI gazing more to the conversational partner than NH – remained significant despite adjustment for ability on receptive grammar, expressive vocabulary, and complex working memory. Adjustment for phonological short term memory, as measured by nonword repetition, removed group differences, revealing an interaction between group membership and nonword repetition ability. Stratified analysis showed a twofold increase of the probability of gaze-to-partner for HI with low phonological short term memory capacity, and a decreased probability for HI with high capacity, as compared to NH peers. The results revealed differences in gaze behavior attributable to performance on a phonological short term memory task. Participants with hearing impairment and low phonological short term memory capacity showed a doubled probability of gaze to the conversational partner, indicative of a visual bias. The results stress the need to look beyond the hearing impairment in diagnostics and intervention. Acknowledgment of the finding requires clinical assessment of children with hearing impairment to be supported by tasks tapping

  5. The standpoint of persons with hearing loss on work disparities and workplace accommodations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaw, Lynn; Tetlaff, Britta; Jennings, Mary Beth; Southall, Kenneth E

    2013-01-01

    The perspectives of persons who live and work with hearing loss were sought to examine workplace accommodation challenges and strategies. A convenience sample of seven older adults with hearing loss participated in in-depth interviews. A systematic grounded theory approach informed the study design and analysis. Categories of facilitators and challenges in the data were identified through axial coding and clustering. Core categories of social processes emerged through constant comparison and theoretical sampling of the data to reveal the actions and interactions used to negotiate or implement adaptations or workplace accommodations. Persons with hearing loss use a realm of strategies to live and work with a hearing loss. Social processes used to navigate the challenges to working with hearing loss and to manage optimal work performance included: self-accommodation, self-advocacy, self-management of hearing loss, and lobbying. Success in overcoming work disparities for persons with hearing loss requires individuals to take control of identifying their needs within the workplace and at home, and to negotiate for specific accommodations. These strategies and processes draw attention to the need for a repository on contextualized workplace accommodation strategies for improving communication and hearing in the workplace. Further to this a best practice guide for use by workers, employers, and work rehabilitation and health care workers is indicated.

  6. The role of social frailty in explaining the association between hearing problems and mild cognitive impairment in older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bae, Seongryu; Lee, Sangyoon; Lee, Sungchul; Jung, Songee; Makino, Keitaro; Park, Hyuntae; Shimada, Hiroyuki

    2018-06-01

    We examined the role of social frailty in the association between hearing problems and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and investigated which cognitive impairment domains are most strongly involved. Participants were 4251 older adults (mean age 72.5 ± 5.2 years, 46.1% male) who met the study inclusion criteria. Hearing problems were measured using the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly. Social frailty was identified using responses to five questions. Participants were divided into four groups depending on the presence of social frailty and hearing problems: control, social frailty, hearing problem, and co-occurrence. We assessed memory, attention, executive function, and processing speed using the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology-Functional Assessment Tool. Participants were categorized into normal cognition, single- and multiple-domain MCI, depending on the number of impaired cognitive domains. Participants with multiple-domain MCI exhibited the highest odds ratios (OR) of the co-occurrence group (OR: 3.89, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.96-7.72), followed by the social frailty (OR: 2.65, 95% CI: 1.49-4.67), and hearing problem (OR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.08-3.34) groups, compared with the control group. However, single-domain MCI was not significantly associated with any group. Cognitive domain analysis revealed that impaired executive function and processing speed were associated with the co-occurrence, hearing problem, and social frailty groups, respectively. Social frailty and hearing problems were independently associated with multiple-domain MCI. Comorbid conditions were more strongly associated with multiple-domain MCI. Longitudinal studies are needed to elucidate the causal role of social frailty in the association between hearing impairment and MCI. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Negotiating hearing disability and hearing disabled identities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lykke Hindhede, Anette

    2012-01-01

        Using disability theory as a framework and social science theories of identity to strengthen the arguments, this paper explores empirically how working-age adults confront the medical diagnosis of hearing impairment. For most participants hearing impairment threatens the stability of social...... interaction and the construction of hearing disabled identities is seen as shaped in the interaction with the hearing impaired person‟s surroundings. In order to overcome the potential stigmatisation the „passing‟ as normal becomes predominant. For many the diagnosis provokes radical redefinitions of the self....... The discursively produced categorisation and subjectivity of senescence mean that rehabilitation technologies such as hearing aids identify a particular life-style (disabled) which determines their social significance. Thus wearing a hearing aid works against the contemporary attempt to create socially ideal...

  8. Getting in and Getting On? The Experiences of Young People with Visual Impairments and Hearing Impairments in Third-Level Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byrne, Bronagh

    2014-01-01

    Young disabled people continue to be under-represented throughout further and higher education settings. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's social theory of habitus, capital and field, this paper explores the practices of domination and oppression that have made it difficult for young people with visual impairments and hearing impairments to participate…

  9. Age-related changes in auditory and cognitive abilities in elderly persons with hearing aids fitted at the initial stages of hearing loss

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Obuchi

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we investigated the relation between the use of hearing aids at the initial stages of hearing loss and age-related changes in the auditory and cognitive abilities of elderly persons. 12 healthy elderly persons participated in an annual auditory and cognitive longitudinal examination for three years. According to their hearing level, they were divided into 3 subgroups - the normal hearing group, the hearing loss without hearing aids group, and the hearing loss with hearing aids group. All the subjects underwent 4 tests: pure-tone audiometry, syllable intelligibility test, dichotic listening test (DLT, and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R Short Forms. Comparison between the 3 groups revealed that the hearing loss without hearing aids group showed the lowest scores for the performance tasks, in contrast to the hearing level and intelligibility results. The other groups showed no significant difference in the WAIS-R subtests. This result indicates that prescription of a hearing aid during the early stages of hearing loss is related to the retention of cognitive abilities in such elderly people. However, there were no statistical significant correlations between the auditory and cognitive tasks.

  10. Oral communication in individuals with hearing impairment – considerations regarding attentional, cognitive and social resources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ulrike eLemke

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Traditionally, audiology research has focused primarily on hearing and related disorders. In recent years, however, growing interest and insight has developed into the interaction of hearing and cognition. This applies to a person’s listening and speech comprehension ability and the neural realization thereof. The present perspective extends this view to oral communication, when two or more people interact in social context. Specifically, the impact of hearing impairment and cognitive changes with age is discussed.In focus are executive functions, a group of top-down processes that guide attention, thought and action according to goals and intentions. The strategic allocation of the limited cognitive processing capacity among concurrent tasks is often effortful, especially under adverse communication conditions and in old age. Working memory, a sub-function extensively discussed in cognitive hearing science, is here put into the context of other executive and cognitive functions required for oral communication and speech comprehension. Finally, taking an ecological view on hearing impairment, activity limitations and participation restrictions are discussed regarding their psycho-social impact and third-party disability.

  11. The effect of ice skating on psychological well-being and sleep quality of children with visual or hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dursun, Onur Burak; Erhan, Süleyman Erim; Ibiş, Esra Özhan; Esin, Ibrahim Selcuk; Keleş, Sadullah; Şirinkan, Ahmet; Yörük, Özgür; Acar, Ethem; Beyhun, Nazim Ercument

    2015-01-01

    Physical exercise and sports have a key role in preventing physical and psychiatric problems in children. However, children with a disability often experience difficulty participating in physical activity due to a lack of suitable opportunities. Participation in an accessible sport is particularly important for these children, but studies examining which sports are beneficial for which disability groups are rare. In this study, we assessed the effects of ice skating on the psychological well-being, self-concept, and sleep quality of children with hearing or visual impairment. Forty students (20 visually impaired and 20 hearing impaired) aged 8-16 were included in a regular ice skating programme for three months. We examined the sleep quality, self-concept, and behavioural and emotional states of the children before and after participating in the programme. There was a significant improvement in self-concept, behavioural and emotional problems, and sleep quality (p sleep quality (p = 0.019) and emotional problem scores (p = 0.000) of the visually impaired children improved; self-concept, peer relations and hyperactivity scores of these children worsened (p sport alternatives that gives children the opportunity to exercise and have fun together. The results of this study revealed that regular ice skating programmes may have positive effects on the psychological well-being of children with hearing impairment. Despite some positive effects, caution must be use when including visually impaired children in ice skating programmes. Generalization of the study's outcomes is limited as the study group were residential students enrolled in special education institutions for children who are blind or deaf. Ice skating is a community-based sport and a popular leisure activity that can also have benefits for people with disabilities. Ice skating and children with hearing impairment: Self-concept, behavioural and emotional problems, and sleep quality of the children

  12. Study of the Ability of Articulation Index (Al for Predicting the Unaided and Aided Speech Recognition Performance of 25 to 65 Years Old Hearing-Impaired Adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghasem Mohammad Khani

    2001-05-01

    Full Text Available Background: In recent years there has been increased interest in the use of Al for assessing hearing handicap and for measuring the potential effectiveness of amplification system. AI is an expression of proportion of average speech signal that is audible to a given patient, and it can vary between 0.0 to 1.0. Method and Materials: This cross-sectional analytical study was carried out in department of audiology, rehabilitation, faculty, IUMS form 31 Oct 98 to 7 March 1999, on 40 normal hearing persons (80 ears; 19 males and 21 females and 40 hearing impaired persons (61 ears; 36 males and 25 females, 25-65 years old with moderate to moderately severe SNI-IL The pavlovic procedure (1988 for calculating Al, open set taped standard mono syllabic word lists, and the real -ear probe- tube microphone system to measure insertion gain were used, through test-retest. Results: 1/A significant correlation was shown between the Al scores and the speech recognition scores of normal hearing and hearing-impaired group with and without the hearing aid (P<0.05 2/ There was no significant differences in age group & sex: also 3 In test-retest measures of the insertion gain in each test and 4/No significant in test-retest of speech recognition test score. Conclusion: According to these results the Al can predict the unaided and aided monosyllabic recognition test scores very well, and age and sex variables have no effect on its ability. Therefore with respect to high reliability of the Al results and its simplicity, easy -to- use, cost effective, and little time consuming for calculation, its recommended the wide use of the Al, especially in clinical situation.

  13. [The prevalence of hearing impairment in transport workers and peculiarities of management of occupational loss of hearing (as exemplified by the situation in the air and railway transport)].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pankova, V B; Skryabina, L Yu; Kas'kov, Yu N

    2016-01-01

    This article presents data on the prevalence of hearing impairment among the workers engaged in the main means of transportation(air and railway transport). They show that the relative frequency of occupational loss of hearing in the cockpit members of commercial aviation amounts to one third of all cases of analogous diseases in this country. The main professional groups of transport works suffering from hearing impairment are constituted by the representatives of the so-called elite specialities, such as flying crew personnel, locomotive engineers, and their assistants. This fact constitutes an important aspect (not only of medical but also of socio-economic significance) of the problem under consideration. The high prevalence of professional hearing impairment among the transport workers is attributable to the high noise level in the cabins of locomotives and aircraft cockpits as well as to the inadequate expert and diagnostic work or imperfection of the regulatory documentation.

  14. Pain in cognitively impaired older persons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parmelee, P A

    1996-08-01

    To summarize, there has been shamefully little empirical research directly examining the prevalence and correlates of pain among cognitively impaired older people. Even less is known about techniques for assessing and managing pain in this group. Existing evidence suggests that cognitively impaired older persons may voice fewer complaints about pain, but there is no reason to believe that they are in fact at less risk of pain than their cognitively intact age-mates. Rather, for whatever reason, persons with cognitively deficits appear to be less inclined to report pain than are intact elders of similar health status. This reporting difference may account at least in part for the fact that pain is less likely to be treated aggressively among cognitively impaired individuals. Unfortunately, knowing the reason for this state of affairs does not mitigate its implication: cognitive deficits place frail older persons at risk of unnecessary pain simply because it is not properly identified. Data reviewed in this chapter suggest that accurate assessment of pain in cognitively impaired older persons, far from being impossible, may actually be only slightly more demanding than it is in intact individuals. Even among markedly impaired elders, self-reports should certainly be taken as valid indicators; early evidence suggests promising avenues for developing reliable, clear-cut guidelines for the nonverbal assessment of pain in very severely demented individuals. As the nation grows older and medical care advances, a growing proportion of individuals can expect to live well into their eighth and even ninth decades. Unfortunately, with this extended life span comes increased likelihood of both cognitive impairment and pain. Thus, expansion of our repertoire of techniques for assessing and managing pain among cognitively impaired older persons must be a central priority for research on pain in late life.

  15. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIFE BUILDING SKILLS AND SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel O. ADENIYI

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction Hearing impairment contributes greatly to social and psychological deficits of the affected individuals, which can affect their interpersonal relation. The inability to hear and communicate effectively results in adjustment problem that leads to social isolation. Objectives: The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between life building skills and social adjustment of students with hearing impairment. Methods: The study employed descriptive survey research design. The samples consisted of 150 students with hearing impairment purposively selected from two inclusive schools in Lagos state, Nigeria. The samples comprised of 65 boys and 85 girls with age range between 15 and 18 years in the Senior Secondary School. The instruments used for data collection were Life building skills inventory (adapted with reliability of 0.80 and Social adjustment scale (Self developed. The instruments consisted of two sections namely: A&B. Section A of Life building skills contained bio- data of the respondents, while B contained 3 subscales: Self-efficacy inventory adapted from Schwarzer and Jerusalem 1995 with reliability of 0.85, Decision-making inventory adapted from Rowe 1997 with reliability of 0.75, Assertiveness inventory adapted from Aberti and Emmons 1995 with reliability of 0.80. The self-constructed Social Adjustment scale contained 10 items probing questions with reliability of 0.69. Data collected was analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression. Results: The results revealed relative contributions of some life building skills to social adjustment of students with hearing impairment. There were joint contributions of the independent variables to dependent variable, while decision-making contributed mostly. Conclusion: This study examined relationship between life building skills and social adjustment of students with hearing impairment with a bid to provide adequate counseling services. It was

  16. The effect of positive parenting program on parenting stress of mothers with impaired hearing children

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    Mahnaz Aliakbari Dehkordi

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Research indicates that impaired hearing is one of the most stressful disabilities. The parenting stress involved could lead to family malfunction and improper parenting. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of positive parenting programs on the parenting stress of mothers with impaired hearing children.Methods: The statistical population comprised mothers of all 7-12-year-old impaired hearing children in Tehran city. Thereafter, using the random sampling method, 24 individuals were shortlisted as research participants and were randomly assigned to two groups: control and experimental. The experimental group was trained with a positive parenting program based on the Sanders program (1993 over eight sessions. The measurement instrument was the Abidin parenting stress questionnaire.Results: The mean score for grades in the experimental groups’ parent and child domains at the pre- and post-test stages had reduced more than that in the control group. In addition, the results of a multivariate covariance analysis indicated that positive parenting training was effective in the reduction of parenting stress scores, reinforcement, and child mood components in the child domain, and in the feelings of competence, relationships with the spouse, and role limitation components (p<0.05 in the parent domain.Conclusion : Considering the benefits of training parents for the reduction of parenting stress of mothers with impaired hearing children, this method is recommended in all learning centers for the deaf.

  17. Intellectual Estimates of Hearing-Impaired Children: A Comparison of Three Measures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ritter, David R.

    1976-01-01

    The Arthur Adaptation of the Leiter International Performance Scale, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Performance Section were administered to 31 children with mild to moderate hearing impairments. A comparison of test results indicated moderate convergent validity among the measures. (Author)

  18. Hearing Impairment and Undiagnosed Disease: The Potential Role of Clinical Recommendations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marlow, Nicole M.; Malaty, John; Jo, Ara; Tanner, Rebecca J.; Beau de Rochars, Valery M.; Carek, Peter J.; Mainous, Arch G., III

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: The objective of this study was to use cross-sectional, nationally representative data to examine the relationship between self-reported hearing impairment and undetected diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and chronic kidney disease. Method: We analyzed the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the years…

  19. Ira as a pioneer in audiology: His contributions to the clinical measurement of hearing and hearing impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Formby, C.; Gagne, J. P.

    2002-05-01

    Ira Hirsh's contributions to clinical science and research are diverse and significant. In fact, approximately one-third of the 100+ publications that Ira lists in his curriculum vitae (CV) are clinical in nature, dealing with various aspects of audiology, deafness, hearing aids, aural rehabilitation, and speech and language pathology. The majority of these citations, fully one-quarter of his publication list, addresses problems specific to the clinical measurement of hearing and hearing impairment. Undoubtedly, the most influential of these published works appears in his CV under the citation ``The Measurement of Hearing.'' The forward for this publication, his only textbook, was penned in June, 1952 (now precisely half a century past at the time of this session). The aims of this presentation are to (1) provide perspective on the fundamental importance of his virtually timeless text in shaping the fledgling discipline of audiology, and (2) celebrate Ira's many contributions to the profession and practice of audiology. [Preparation for this presentation was supported, in part, by a K24 career development award from NIDCD.

  20. In hospital with a hearing impaired child - How parents experience communication between nurses and their child

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, Seraina; Eckerli-Wäspi, Irene; Händler Schuster, Daniela

    2018-04-01

    Background: In daily communication, children with hearing impairment are restricted and dependent on their parents’ help. In case of a hospitalisation, the risk of insufficient information and resulting traumatisation for those children is high. The aim of this study is the investigation of the communicative needs of the children concerned in order to avoid negative consequences of a hospitalisation and of inappropriate communication by nursing staff. Aim: This study explores how parents of a child with hearing impairment experience the communication between the nursing staff and their hospitalised child. Method: The study was conducted together with an advisory centre for hearing-impaired children, where most of the parents could be recruited. Narrative, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The transcribed interviews were analysed according to the method of interpretative phenomenology. Results: The parents expressed their wish for affectionate verbal and nonverbal love and care for their child. They often experienced the nursing staff having little time, that there was no continuity and that the communicative needs of the child were not recognised. Since the parents did not think the nursing staff were capable of communicating with the child and because they wanted to protect him or her, they adopted a mediating role. Conclusions: Besides the sensitisation of the nursing staff, time resources, continuity, professional knowledge and benevolence in the nursing care of a child with hearing impairment play a fundamental role.

  1. Methods of technical and tactical training basketball players with hearing impairments using innovative technologies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zh.L Kozina

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: to develop information technology for technical and tactical training of skilled basketball players with hearing impairments. Material : the study involved 24 women's national team athletes Ukrainian Basketball hearing impaired (age - 25-30 years. Technical protocols were processed 12 games from the World Cup and Europe, XXII Summer Deaflympics. Fixed number of shots and hit free throws, steals, rebounds and on its offensive rebounds, fouls and errors. Results : the developed system of tactical training basketball players with hearing impairments. Accentuation was made of the prevalence of method visibility while developing tactical interactions. The main result was the development of the author's method of video tutorials with animated illustrations. Also, use the lamp LS Line-3-65-12-C to control the training process athletes. Conclusions : there was a significant improvement in competitive activity athletes. Athletes performed significantly more hits from the foul line and successful shots from long range compared to main rivals. Also increased the number of interceptions in games. Application of information technology had an impact on the competitive result: basketball team of Ukraine took the second place in the Deaflympics in Sofia in 2013.

  2. Children's and Adolescents' Moral Emotion Attributions and Judgements about Exclusion of Peers with Hearing Impairments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chilver-Stainer, Jennifer; Gasser, Luciano; Perrig-Chiello, Pasqualina

    2014-01-01

    Children and adolescents with hearing impairments are at risk of being excluded from activities with hearing peers. Moral emotion attributions may represent important indicators for children's identification with the moral norm not to exclude peers based on disability. Against this background, we investigated how 10-, 12- and 15-year-olds…

  3. The preparation for the year main competition teams in basketball with hearing impairments with innovative technologies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I.N. Sobko

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Purpose : develop and prove experimentally comprehensive training program on the Ukrainian national team basketball with hearing impairment in the annual cycle for the major competitions. Material : The study involved 12 basketball hearing impaired 20-25 years old - female players team of Ukraine on basketball. Also analyzed the test results and competitive activity 12 basketball players with hearing impairments - Lithuanian team players. Results : We showed the need for a qualitative change in the training process through the development and application of innovative technologies. This allows a greater level of communication between the coach and athletes to intensify training process. Developed and experimentally substantiated comprehensive training program for the Ukrainian national team. In technical training device used light. This increased mobility, agility, activity and intensity workouts. In tactical training improved situational and planned change tactical drawing game using copyright protection of video tutorials with animated illustrations. Conclusions : A positive impact of the developed system for basketball training result in major competitions.

  4. Etiology and prevalence rate of bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment in children born in Kobe city over a 10 year period

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshioka, Mieko; Naito, Yashushi

    2008-01-01

    The study was carried out on children born over a 10 year period from 1997 to 2006 in Kobe city and referred to our center for specialist audiological assessment. A total of 107 cases had a bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment averaging 25 dB or over in the better hearing ear during the study period. To ascertain causes of sensorineural hearing impairment, full medical histories were obtained with detailed family history relevant to hearing impairment and perinatal course for adverse etiological factors. The children were investigated for possible congenital infection and chromosomal anomalies. Children with positive family history of deafness in parents or siblings constituted 11.2% of cases (genetic group). Other etiological groups showed the following distribution: syndromal group 5.6%; inner ear anomalies 5.6%; perinatal group 13.1%; congenital infection 11.2%; chromosomal anomalies 16.8%; multiple congenital anomalies 5.6%; causes unknown 30.9%. The high incidence of causes unknown indicates that steps should be taken to yield a diagnosis. The total number of children born in Kobe city was 117,896 during the period from 1997 to 2005, which gave a prevalence rate of hearing impairment of 0.87/1,000 births. Newborn hearing screening identified many children earlier and also provide the opportunity to finetune the evaluation. (author)

  5. Empirical estimation of the grades of hearing impairment among industrial workers based on new artificial neural networks and classical regression methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farhadian, Maryam; Aliabadi, Mohsen; Darvishi, Ebrahim

    2015-01-01

    Prediction models are used in a variety of medical domains, and they are frequently built from experience which constitutes data acquired from actual cases. This study aimed to analyze the potential of artificial neural networks and logistic regression techniques for estimation of hearing impairment among industrial workers. A total of 210 workers employed in a steel factory (in West of Iran) were selected, and their occupational exposure histories were analyzed. The hearing loss thresholds of the studied workers were determined using a calibrated audiometer. The personal noise exposures were also measured using a noise dosimeter in the workstations. Data obtained from five variables, which can influence the hearing loss, were used as input features, and the hearing loss thresholds were considered as target feature of the prediction methods. Multilayer feedforward neural networks and logistic regression were developed using MATLAB R2011a software. Based on the World Health Organization classification for the grades of hearing loss, 74.2% of the studied workers have normal hearing thresholds, 23.4% have slight hearing loss, and 2.4% have moderate hearing loss. The accuracy and kappa coefficient of the best developed neural networks for prediction of the grades of hearing loss were 88.6 and 66.30, respectively. The accuracy and kappa coefficient of the logistic regression were also 84.28 and 51.30, respectively. Neural networks could provide more accurate predictions of the hearing loss than logistic regression. The prediction method can provide reliable and comprehensible information for occupational health and medicine experts.

  6. Relations between psychophysical data and speech perception for hearing-impaired subjects. II

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dreschler, W. A.; Plomp, R.

    1985-01-01

    Twenty-one sensorineurally hearing-impaired adolescents were studied with an extensive battery of tone-perception, phoneme-perception, and speech-perception tests. Tests on loudness perception, frequency selectivity, and temporal resolution at the test frequencies of 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz were

  7. [Prevalence of hearing loss in Northern and Southern Germany. German version].

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Gablenz, P; Hoffmann, E; Holube, I

    2017-08-01

    The HÖRSTAT study conducted in Northwest Germany yielded hearing impairment in approximately 16% of adults according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criterion. However, the robustness of extrapolations on a national level might be questioned, as the epidemiological data were collected on a regional level. Independently from HÖRSTAT, the "Hearing in Germany" study examined adult hearing in Aalen, a town located in Southwest Germany. Both cross-sectional studies were based on stratified random samples from the general population. Pure-tone average at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz (PTA4), the prevalence of hearing impairment (WHO criterion: PTA4 in the better ear >25 dB HL), and hearing aid provision were compared. Data from the Aalen study and HÖRSTAT were pooled (n = 3105) to extrapolate the prevalence and degree of hearing impairment for the years 2015, 2020, and 2025. Both studies show very similar results for PTA4. Weighted for official population statistics, the prevalence of hearing impairment according to the WHO criterion is 16.2% among adults, affecting 11.1 million persons in Germany. Due to demographic changes, the prevalence is expected to increase in the medium term by around 1% per 5‑year period. With a similar degree of hearing loss, hearing aid provision differs from place to place. Adjusted for gender and age to the European Standard Population (ESP), the prevalence of hearing impairment observed both in HÖRSTAT and the Aalen sample is considerably lower than reported for international studies. Since the analysis refers to cross-sectional data only, possible cohort effects are not considered in the prevalence projection.

  8. Hearing Status in Pediatric Renal Transplant Recipients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gulleroglu, Kaan; Baskin, Esra; Aydin, Erdinc; Ozluoglu, Levent; Moray, Gokhan; Haberal, Mehmet

    2015-08-01

    Renal transplant provides a long-term survival. Hearing impairment is a major factor in subjective health status. Status of hearing and the cause of hearing impairment in the pediatric renal transplant group have not been evaluated. Here, we studied to evaluate hearing status in pediatric renal transplant patients and to determine the factors that cause hearing impairment. Twenty-seven pediatric renal transplant recipients were investigated. All patients underwent audiologic assessment by means of pure-tone audiometry. The factors on hearing impairment were performed. Sensorineural hearing impairment was found in 17 patients. There was marked hearing impairment for the higher frequencies between 4000 and 8000 Hz. Sudden hearing loss developed in 2 patients, 1 of them had tinnitus. Decrease of speech understanding was found in 8 patients. The cyclosporine level was significantly high in patients with hearing impairment compared with group without hearing impairment. Cyclosporine levels also were found to be statistically significantly high when compared with the group with decrease of speech understanding and the group without decrease of speech understanding. Similar relations cannot be found between tacrolimus levels and hearing impairment and speech understanding. Sensorineural hearing impairment prevalence was high in pediatric renal transplant recipients when compared with the general population of children. Cyclosporine may be responsible for causing hearing impairment after renal transplant. We suggest that this effect is a dose-dependent toxicity.

  9. Screening for Vision Problems, Including Usher's Syndrome, among Hearing Impaired Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fillman, Robyn D.; And Others

    1987-01-01

    A screening program for vision problems and Usher's Syndrome (a common cause of deaf-blindness) among 210 hearing-impaired students found 44 percent had significant vision problems and 1 percent had Usher's Syndrome. The program involved an interagency network of school, health care, and support personnel and utilized a dilated ophathalmological…

  10. Teaching Hearing-Impaired Children in Iraq Using a New Teaching Method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, N. D. C.; Mustafa, N.

    1986-01-01

    Describes a field test and results of a new didactic teaching method involving resource-based learning to teach various aspects of mathematics and science (fractions, magnetism, planets) to elementary aged hearing impaired student in Iraq. The dramatic improvements in language for learners is described and implications of the methods are…

  11. Stress in Mothers of Hearing Impaired Children Compared to Mothers of Normal and Other Disabled Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahnaz Aliakbari Dehkordi

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Stress is associated with life satisfaction and also development of some physical diseases. Birth of a disabled child with mental or physical disability (especially deaf or blind children, impose an enormous load of stress on their parents especially the mothers. This study compared stress levels of mothers with hearing impaired children and mothers of normal children or with other disabilities.Methods: In this study, cluster random sampling was performed in Karaj city. 120 mothers in four groups of having a child with mental retardation, low vision, hearing impairment and with normal children were included. Family inventory of life events (FILE of Mc Cubbin et al. was used to determine stress level in four groups of mothers.Results: The results of this research indicated a significant difference (p<0.05 between stress levels of mothers with hearing impaired children and mothers of other disabled and normal children in subscales of intra-family stress, finance and business strains, stress of job transitions, stress of illness and family care and family members "in and out''. There was no difference between compared groups in other subscales.Conclusion: Since deafness is a hidden inability, the child with hearing impairment has a set of social and educational problems causing great stress for parents, especially to mother. In order to decrease mother’s stress, it is suggested to provide more family consultation, adequate social support and to run educational classes for parents to practice stress coping strategies.

  12. Detection threshold for sound distortion resulting from noise reduction in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brons, Inge; Dreschler, Wouter A; Houben, Rolph

    2014-09-01

    Hearing-aid noise reduction should reduce background noise, but not disturb the target speech. This objective is difficult because noise reduction suffers from a trade-off between the amount of noise removed and signal distortion. It is unknown if this important trade-off differs between normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. This study separated the negative effect of noise reduction (distortion) from the positive effect (reduction of noise) to allow the measurement of the detection threshold for noise-reduction (NR) distortion. Twelve NH subjects and 12 subjects with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss participated in this study. The detection thresholds for distortion were determined using an adaptive procedure with a three-interval, two-alternative forced-choice paradigm. Different levels of distortion were obtained by changing the maximum amount of noise reduction. Participants were also asked to indicate their preferred NR strength. The detection threshold for overall distortion was higher for HI subjects than for NH subjects, suggesting that stronger noise reduction can be applied for HI listeners without affecting the perceived sound quality. However, the preferred NR strength of HI listeners was closer to their individual detection threshold for distortion than in NH listeners. This implies that HI listeners tolerate fewer audible distortions than NH listeners.

  13. Computer-Assisted Learning for the Hearing Impaired: An Interactive Written Language Enviroment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, R. D.; Rostron, A. B.

    1983-01-01

    To help hearing-impaired children develop their linguistic competence, a computer system that can process sentences and give feedback about their acceptability was developed. Suggestions are made of ways to use the system as an environment for interactive written communication. (Author/CL)

  14. A potential source of hearing impairment; headphones

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tabraiz, S.; Asif, M.B.; Iftekhar, S.; Ishtiaq, T.

    2014-01-01

    Technological expansions have been observed in recent years for portable devices with hi-fi audio playback capability such as MP4 players, multimedia phones and hand-held game consoles. Usually these devices are used with headphones; therefore the noise levels of different headphones are of particular relevance. Despite of its several benefits, noise levels can be quite high and may cause hearing impairment. In this research, different headphones were selected to check noise levels at varying volumes. It was found in majority of cases that noise levels ranged from 75dB to 85 dB; surpassing the NEQ's and OSHA standard values. (author)

  15. Hearing damage by personal stereo

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hammershøi, Dorte; Ordoñez, Rodrigo Pizarro; Reuter, Karen

    2006-01-01

    The technological development within personal stereo systems, such as MP3 players, iPods etc., has changed music listening habits from home entertainment to everyday and everywhere use. The technology has developed considerably, since the introduction of CD walkmen, and high-level low-distortion ......The technological development within personal stereo systems, such as MP3 players, iPods etc., has changed music listening habits from home entertainment to everyday and everywhere use. The technology has developed considerably, since the introduction of CD walkmen, and high-level low......-distortion music is produced by minimal devices. In this paper, the existing literature on effects of personal stereo systems is reviewed, incl. studies of exposure levels, and effects on hearing. Generally, it is found that the levels being used is of concern, which in one study [Acustica?Acta Acustica, 82 (1996......) 885?894] is demonstrated to relate to the specific use in situations with high levels of background noise. Another study [Med. J. Austr., 1998; 169: 588-592], demonstrates that the effect of personal stereo is comparable to that of being exposed to noise in industry. The results are discussed in view...

  16. A Taxonomy of Fatigue Concepts and Their Relation to Hearing Loss

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hornsby, Benjamin W. Y.; Naylor, Graham; Bess, Fred H.

    2016-01-01

    Fatigue is common in individuals with a variety of chronic health conditions and can have significant negative effects on quality of life. Although limited in scope, recent work suggests persons with hearing loss may be at increased risk for fatigue, in part due to effortful listening that is exacerbated by their hearing impairment. However, the…

  17. Oral Communication Development in Severe to Profound Hearing Impaired Children After Receiving Aural Habilitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soleimani Farin

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Communication, cognition, language, and speech are interrelated and develop together. It should come as no surprise to us that the key to intervention with deaf children is to establish, as early as possible, a functional communication system for the child and the parents. Early intervention programs need to be multidisciplinary, technologically sound and most important, it should take cognizance of the specific context (community, country in which the child and family function. The main aim of this study was to obtain oral communication development regarding current status of the intervention (aural habilitation and speech therapyfor children with severe to profound hearing impairment in Iran. A prospective longitudinal study was undertaken on a consecutive group of children with severe to profound deafness. Nine severe to profound hearing-impaired children out of the primer 42 cases, who were detected below two years old, had been selected in the previous study to receive aural habilitation. The average of their speech intelligibility scores was near 70% at age 6, which was accounted as poor oral communication and only two of them were able to communicate by spoken language. An integrated intervention services continued again for one year and their oral communication skill was assessed by their speech intelligibility. The intelligibility test of children was recorded on audio-tape, when they read 10 questions such as where is your home. This can be answered only in one word. Each tape was presented to10 normal hearing listeners, and their task was to write down, the answers in Persian orthography. At the beginning (at age 6 the average speech intelligibility score of these children was 72% and only two of them had score of 90% and 100%. At age 7, all of the severe groups were over 90%, and only two profound ones achieved the score of 48% and 62%. All of severe groups develop oral communication, but profound ones had a semi-intelligible speech

  18. Adaptive psychological structure in childhood hearing impairment: audiological correlations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serra, A; Spinato, G; Cocuzza, S; Licciardello, L; Pavone, P; Maiolino, L

    2017-06-01

    . On the contrary, in normal hearing children, the emotion 'fear' is the most difficult to identify. Deaf children seem to be more susceptible to recognition of visual emotions. Furthermore, deaf children present significant problem-solving skills and emotional recognition skills, possibly as a result of their hearing impairment. © Copyright by Società Italiana di Otorinolaringologia e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale, Rome, Italy.

  19. Self-Esteem in Hearing-Impaired Children: The Influence of Communication, Education, and Audiological Characteristics

    OpenAIRE

    Theunissen, Stephanie C. P. M.; Rieffe, Carolien; Netten, Anouk P.; Briaire, Jeroen J.; Soede, Wim; Kouwenberg, Maartje; Frijns, Johan H. M.

    2014-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: Sufficient self-esteem is extremely important for psychosocial functioning. It is hypothesized that hearing-impaired (HI) children have lower levels of self-esteem, because, among other things, they frequently experience lower language and communication skills. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare HI children's self-esteem across different domains with those of normal hearing (NH) children and to investigate the influence of communication, type of education, and audiolog...

  20. Encouraging Reading through an Enactive Method: Strategies for Hearing Impaired Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winzer, M. A.

    The paper describes the enactive method, an alternative approach to introducing and teaching reading to young hearing impaired children. The method actively involves the child as a processor of the material rather than as a passive consumer. The approach is established for a short period of time each day until the student outgrows its original…

  1. Evaluation of Audiometric Test Results to Determine Hearing Impairment in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Analysis of Data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyemin Jeong

    Full Text Available This study aimed to evaluate the association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA and hearing impairment in the Korean adult population. Audiometric and laboratory test data from the 2010-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES were used for analysis. The relationship between RA and hearing impairment was analyzed, adjusting for various known risk factors associated with hearing impairment. RA was defined in the questionnaire as "RA diagnosed by a physician (yes/no through a standardized interview." We defined hearing impairment according to 2 categories of frequency (low/mid and high as follows (average values in kHz: low/mid frequency, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0, and high frequency, 3.0, 4.0, and 6.0. Of the subjects, 15,158 (weighted n = 32,035,996 completed the audiometric tests. The overall weighted prevalence of RA was 1.5%. The prevalence of hearing impairment was higher in the subjects with RA than in those without RA, in both, the low/mid- and high-frequency categories (21.1% vs 7.5%, p < 0.001 and 43.3% vs. 26.2%, p < 0.001, respectively. In the multivariable logistic analysis, RA (odds ratios [OR] 1.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05-2.06, p = 0.025 was an independent risk factor of low/mid-frequency hearing impairment along with age (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.12-1.13, p < 0.001, current smoking (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.03-1.56, p = 0.026, and college graduation (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.39-0.72, p < 0.001. In the multivariable analysis of high-frequency hearing impairment, RA did not show any association with hearing impairment. This study suggests that RA is associated with low/mid-frequency hearing impairment after adjustment for various known risk factors. Further study is needed to verify the hearing impairment in RA.

  2. Study of the knowledge of Pediatricians and Senior Residents Relating to the Importance of Hearing Impairment and Deafness Screening Among Newborns in Isfahan city in 2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehrdad Rogha

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Newborn hearing screening leads to the early detection of hearing impairment. The aim of screening is to decrease or remove the effect of hearing impairment on development of speech and language by timely diagnosis and effective treatment. A number of risk factors lead to delayed start of decreased hearing ability including: 1. Congenital infection with cytomegalovirus  (CMV virus, 2. Meningitis, 3. Mumps, 4. Positive family history, 5. Head trauma, 6. Chemotherapy, 7. Syndrome pertaining to delayed start of decreased hearing. Unfortunately, lack of attention to early diagnosis of hearing impairment is becoming a general health problem. No research has yet been carried out relating to the knowledge of pediatricians on this issue, particularly the importance of hearing impairment and hearing screening. The aim of this study was to determine the attitude to newborn hearing screening among pediatricians.   Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study was conducted in Isfahan in 2012 among 300 pediatricians and final-year pediatric residents. An adjusted 22-question version of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI questionnaire was used to collect data. The validity and reliability of the EHDI questionnaire was previously demonstrated by Boys Town National Research Hospital and its Farsi translated version was validated by the EDC Center at the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.   Results: In our study, 83% of pediatricians agreed on the importance of hearing impairment screening for all infants. However 65% were not aware of special needs for hearing-impaired patients.   Conclusion:  Newborn hearing impairment and deafness screening is important, irrespective of the costs, and lack of timely diagnosis results in both individual and social consequences. The majority of physicians use textbooks to gain information about hearing screening, but recognize that this is insufficient. Although

  3. Effect of Auditory Training on Reading Comprehension of Children with Hearing Impairment in Enugu State

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ugwuanyi, L. T.; Adaka, T. A.

    2015-01-01

    The paper focused on the effect of auditory training on reading comprehension of children with hearing impairment in Enugu State. A total of 33 children with conductive, sensory neural and mixed hearing loss were sampled for the study in the two schools for the Deaf in Enugu State. The design employed for the study was a quasi experiment (pre-test…

  4. Comprehensive molecular etiology analysis of nonsyndromic hearing impairment from typical areas in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kang Dongyang

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Every year, 30,000 babies are born with congenital hearing impairment in China. The molecular etiology of hearing impairment in the Chinese population has not been investigated thoroughly. To provide appropriate genetic testing and counseling to families, we performed a comprehensive investigation of the molecular etiology of nonsyndromic deafness in two typical areas from northern and southern China. Methods A total of 284 unrelated school children with hearing loss who attended special education schools in China were enrolled in this study, 134 from Chifeng City in Inner Mongolia and the remaining 150 from Nangtong City in JiangSu Province. Screening was performed for GJB2, GJB3, GJB6, SLC26A4, 12S rRNA, and tRNAser(UCN genes in this population. All patients with SLC26A4 mutations or variants were subjected to high-resolution temporal bone CT scan to verify the enlarged vestibular aqueduct. Results Mutations in the GJB2 gene accounted for 18.31% of the patients with nonsyndromic hearing loss, 1555A>G mutation in mitochondrial DNA accounted for 1.76%, and SLC26A4 mutations accounted for 13.73%. Almost 50% of the patients with nonsyndromic hearing loss in these typical Chinese areas carried GJB2 or SLC26A4 mutations. No significant differences in mutation spectrum or prevalence of GJB2 and SLC26A4 were found between the two areas. Conclusion In this Chinese population, 54.93% of cases with hearing loss were related to genetic factors. The GJB2 gene accounted for the etiology in about 18.31% of the patients with hearing loss, SLC26A4 accounted for about 13.73%, and mtDNA 1555A>G mutation accounted for 1.76%. Mutations in GJB3, GJB6, and mtDNA tRNAser(UCN were not common in this Chinese cohort. Conventionally, screening is performed for GJB2, SLC26A4, and mitochondrial 12S rRNA in the Chinese deaf population.

  5. A Deficit in Movement-Derived Sentences in German-Speaking Hearing-Impaired Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esther Ruigendijk

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Children with hearing impairment (HI show disorders in syntax and morphology. The question is whether and how these disorders are connected to problems in the auditory domain. The aim of this paper is to examine whether moderate to severe hearing loss at a young age affects the ability of German-speaking orally trained children to understand and produce sentences. We focused on sentence structures that are derived by syntactic movement, which have been identified as a sensitive marker for syntactic impairment in other languages and in other populations with syntactic impairment. Therefore, our study tested subject and object relatives, subject and object Wh-questions, passive sentences, and topicalized sentences, as well as sentences with verb movement to second sentential position. We tested 19 HI children aged 9;5–13;6 and compared their performance with hearing children using comprehension tasks of sentence-picture matching and sentence repetition tasks. For the comprehension tasks, we included HI children who passed an auditory discrimination task; for the sentence repetition tasks, we selected children who passed a screening task of simple sentence repetition without lip-reading; this made sure that they could perceive the words in the tests, so that we could test their grammatical abilities. The results clearly showed that most of the participants with HI had considerable difficulties in the comprehension and repetition of sentences with syntactic movement: they had significant difficulties understanding object relatives, Wh-questions, and topicalized sentences, and in the repetition of object who and which questions and subject relatives, as well as in sentences with verb movement to second sentential position. Repetition of passives was only problematic for some children. Object relatives were still difficult at this age for both HI and hearing children. An additional important outcome of the study is that not all sentence structures

  6. Perception-Based Personalization of Hearing Aids Using Gaussian Processes and Active Learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Jens Brehm; Nielsen, Jakob; Larsen, Jan

    2015-01-01

    Personalization of multi-parameter hearing aids involves an initial fitting followed by a manual knowledge-based trial-and-error fine-tuning from ambiguous verbal user feedback. The result is an often suboptimal HA setting whereby the full potential of modern hearing aids is not utilized. This ar...

  7. Hearing aid processing of loud speech and noise signals: Consequences for loudness perception and listening comfort

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmidt, Erik

    2007-01-01

    sounds, has found that both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners prefer loud sounds to be closer to the most comfortable loudness-level, than suggested by common non-linear fitting rules. During this project, two listening experiments were carried out. In the first experiment, hearing aid users......Hearing aid processing of loud speech and noise signals: Consequences for loudness perception and listening comfort. Sound processing in hearing aids is determined by the fitting rule. The fitting rule describes how the hearing aid should amplify speech and sounds in the surroundings......, such that they become audible again for the hearing impaired person. The general goal is to place all sounds within the hearing aid users’ audible range, such that speech intelligibility and listening comfort become as good as possible. Amplification strategies in hearing aids are in many cases based on empirical...

  8. Association between vestibular function and motor performance in hearing-impaired children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maes, Leen; De Kegel, Alexandra; Van Waelvelde, Hilde; Dhooge, Ingeborg

    2014-12-01

    The clinical balance performance of normal-hearing (NH) children was compared with the balance performance of hearing-impaired (HI) children with and without vestibular dysfunction to identify an association between vestibular function and motor performance. Prospective study. Tertiary referral center. Thirty-six children (mean age, 7 yr 5 mo; range, 3 yr 8 mo-12 yr 11 mo) divided into three groups: NH children with normal vestibular responses, HI children with normal vestibular responses, and HI children with abnormal vestibular function. A vestibular test protocol (rotatory and collic vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing) in combination with three clinical balance tests (balance beam walking, one-leg hopping, one-leg stance). Clinical balance performance. HI children with abnormal vestibular test results obtained the lowest quotients of motor performance, which were significantly lower compared with the NH group (p beam walking and one-leg stance; p = 0.003 for one-leg hopping). The balance performance of the HI group with normal vestibular responses was better in comparison with the vestibular impaired group but still significantly lower compared with the NH group (p = 0.020 for balance beam walking; p = 0.001 for one-leg stance; not significant for one-leg hopping). These results indicate an association between vestibular function and motor performance in HI children, with a more distinct motor deterioration if a vestibular impairment is superimposed to the auditory dysfunction.

  9. SELF-REGULATION STRATEGIES OF ORAL COMMUNICATION IN CHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alois GHERGUT

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available The study identifies some self-regulation strategies used by deaf children in order to make their speech more intelligible. To achieve self-control while speaking, the child with severe hearing loss needs not only a high level of intelligence, but also an effective lip-reading capability and a strong intrinsic motivation. This is the reason why there are many cases of children with a high level of intelligence, but with a mediocre lip-reading capability and others with a lower level of intelligence, but with a good lip-reading capability. These differences also depend on the degree of hearing loss. Among the self-regulation strategies used by the children that achieve an intelligible speech are: the cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, the motivational strategies etc. These results are important while designing the therapeutic activities, and especially the speech intelligibility factor being crucial in the social integration of those children with hearing impairment.

  10. Dynamic-range reduction by peak clipping or compression and its effects on phoneme perception in hearing-impaired listeners

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dreschler, W. A.

    1988-01-01

    In this study, differences between dynamic-range reduction by peak clipping and single-channel compression for phoneme perception through conventional hearing aids have been investigated. The results from 16 hearing-impaired listeners show that compression limiting yields significantly better

  11. Effects of noise and working memory capacity on memory processing of speech for hearing-aid users.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Elaine Hoi Ning; Rudner, Mary; Lunner, Thomas; Pedersen, Michael Syskind; Rönnberg, Jerker

    2013-07-01

    It has been shown that noise reduction algorithms can reduce the negative effects of noise on memory processing in persons with normal hearing. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether a similar effect can be obtained for persons with hearing impairment and whether such an effect is dependent on individual differences in working memory capacity. A sentence-final word identification and recall (SWIR) test was conducted in two noise backgrounds with and without noise reduction as well as in quiet. Working memory capacity was measured using a reading span (RS) test. Twenty-six experienced hearing-aid users with moderate to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss. Noise impaired recall performance. Competing speech disrupted memory performance more than speech-shaped noise. For late list items the disruptive effect of the competing speech background was virtually cancelled out by noise reduction for persons with high working memory capacity. Noise reduction can reduce the adverse effect of noise on memory for speech for persons with good working memory capacity. We argue that the mechanism behind this is faster word identification that enhances encoding into working memory.

  12. Effect of musical training on pitch discrimination performance in older normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bianchi, Federica; Dau, Torsten; Santurette, Sébastien

    2017-01-01

    -discrimination performance for NH listeners. It is unclear whether a comparable effect of musical training occurs for listeners whose sensory encoding of F0 is degraded. To address this question, F0 discrimination was investigated for three groups of listeners (14 young NH, 9 older NH and 10 HI listeners), each......Hearing-impaired (HI) listeners, as well as elderly listeners, typically have a reduced ability to discriminate the fundamental frequency (F0) of complex tones compared to young normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Several studies have shown that musical training, on the other hand, leads to improved F0...... including musicians and non-musicians, using complex tones that differed in harmonic content. Musical training significantly improved F0 discrimination for all groups of listeners, especially for complex tones containing low-numbered harmonics. In a second experiment, the sensitivity to temporal fine...

  13. [Voting by cognitively impaired persons: legal and ethical issues].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosquet, Antoine; Medjkane, Amar; Vinceneux, Philippe; Mahé, Isabelle

    2010-03-01

    In democratic countries, cognitively impaired persons are a substantial and growing group of citizens. Most of them are citizens with dementia. In dementia, cognitive impairment induces a loss of some capacities, resulting in vulnerability and increased need for assistance. Voting by cognitively impaired persons raises any questions about the integrity of the electoral process, the risk of fraud and the respect of their citizenship. In France, the law is not definite about the voting of cognitively impaired persons. An objective assessment for voting capacity may be useful both for professionals in charge of voting organisation and for guardianship judge in order to help him in his decision to remove or keep the voting right of persons placed under guardianship. Assessing the reality of voting by cognitively impaired citizens is necessary to advance respect for their right to vote.

  14. Comparison of visual working memory in deaf and hearing-impaired students with normal counterparts: A research in people without sign language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farideh Tangestani Zadeh

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: The hearing defects in deaf and hearing-impaired students also affect their cognitive skills such as memory in addition to communication skills. Hence, the aim of this study was to compare visual working memory in deaf and hearing-impaired students with that in normal counterparts.Method: In the present study, which was a causal-comparative study using the André Rey test, 30 deaf and 30 hearing-impaired students were compared with 30 students in a normal group, and they were matched based on gender, intelligence, educational grade, and socioeconomic status.Findings: Findings show that there is significant difference between the three groups’ subjects (p0.05.Conclusion: Function of deaf or hard-of-hearing students in the visual working memory task was weaker in comparison with the normal counterparts, while the two deaf and hard-of-hearing groups have similar functions. With a better identification and understanding of the factors that affect the development of this cognitive ability, we can offer new methods of teaching and reduce many of the disadvantages of this group of people in the different fields of cognitive science.

  15. Permanent Childhood Hearing Impairment: Aetiological Evaluation of Infants identified through the Irish Newborn Hearing Screening Programme

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Smith, A

    2017-11-01

    The Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) was established in Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) in April 2011. Between April 2011 and July 2014, 42 infants were identified with a Permanent Childhood Hearing Impairment (PCHI). Following this diagnosis, infants underwent a paediatric assessment according to recognised guidelines with the intention of identifying the underlying aetiology of the PCHI. The aim of this study was to assess the findings of this aetiological workup via retrospective chart review. PCHI data was obtained from the eSP database. This is a web based information system (eSP) used to track each baby through the screening and referral process A retrospective chart review of these patients was performed. Sixteen (38%) infants were diagnosed with a bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Two infants had congenital CMV infection. A Connexin 26 gene mutation was detected in one infant. Two infants were diagnosed with Waardenburg syndrome, One with Pendred syndrome and one with Pfeiffer syndrome. Five babies underwent cochlear implantation. Through adherence to the recommended protocol a possible cause of PCHI may be determined. This study has identified areas of future improvement for this service in Ireland.

  16. Comparative characteristics of psychophysiological features skilled basketball players-women with hearing and skilled basketball players healthy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kozina Zh.L.

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available A comparative analysis of the psychophysiological features of skilled basketball players with normal hearing and impaired hearing aid. The study involved two women's basketball team to 12 people each. The study used a complex computer psychodiagnosis. The complex includes 20 psychophysiological and 18 personal psychological tests. The indicators of the time simple and complex reaction and average tapping test healthy skilled basketball players and basketball players are hearing impaired. There was a significant higher rates of visual-motor speed and reaction-tapping test in basketball players with hearing compared to healthy athletes. This is explained by compensatory mechanisms that occur in connection with the violation of the audition.

  17. Comparative characteristics of psychophysiological features skilled basketball players-women with hearing and skilled basketball players healthy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zh.L. Kozina

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available A comparative analysis of the psychophysiological features of skilled basketball players with normal hearing and impaired hearing aid. The study involved two women's basketball team to 12 people each. The study used a complex computer psychodiagnosis. The complex includes 20 psychophysiological and 18 personal psychological tests. The indicators of the time simple and complex reaction and average tapping test healthy skilled basketball players and basketball players are hearing impaired. There was a significant higher rates of visual-motor speed and reaction-tapping test in basketball players with hearing compared to healthy athletes. This is explained by compensatory mechanisms that occur in connection with the violation of the audition.

  18. 2q24 deletion in a 9-month old girl with anal atresia, hearing impairment, and hypotonia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Peiwei; Mao, Bing; Cai, Xiaonan; Jiang, Jun; Liu, Zhisheng; Lin, Jun; He, Xuelian

    2018-06-01

    Deletion of 2q24.2 is a rare cytogenetic aberration in patients, exhibiting heterogeneous clinical features, and common phenotypes included developmental delay, intellectual disability, hypotonia, and mild dysmorphic features. Hearing impairment and anal atresia are rarely described. Here we described a 9-month-old female patient with hypotonia in all four limbs, developmental delay, and intellectual disability. In addition, congenital anal atresia was diagnosed and treated after birth, and hearing impairment was found in right ear. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) array detected a 5.2 Mb deletion on 2q24.2q24.3, including 19 genes (ITGB6; TBR1; SLC4A10; KCNH7 SCN3A; SCN2A et al.). Among these genes, it is affirmative that TBR1 is a causative gene for intellectual disability; however, the pathogenic genes of other phenotypes remain unclear. We briefly review the knowledge of genes likely involved in these clinical features, including hearing impairment, anal atresia, and developmental delay. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Mother's Perspective toward Al-Quran Education for Hearing Impaired Children in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghadim, Nafiseh Alaghehband; Jomhari, Nazean; Alias, Norlidah; Rashid, Syar Meeze Mohd; Yusoff, Mohd Yakub Zulkifli Bin Mohd

    2013-01-01

    An interview with parents of children with hearing impairment was carried out in the initial study since the coordinated effort of parents and children is essential in the education of children. Considering that this interview was appropriate for collecting qualitative-oriented data, it has been chosen as the knowledge elicitation method. In most…

  20. Guidelines for Evaluating Auditory-Oral Programs for Children Who Are Hearing Impaired.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, Inc., Washington, DC.

    These guidelines are intended to assist parents in evaluating educational programs for children who are hearing impaired, where a program's stated intention is promoting the child's optimal use of spoken language as a mode of everyday communication and learning. The guidelines are applicable to programs where spoken language is the sole mode or…

  1. Understanding of the Alphabetic Principle through Invented Spelling among Hearing-Impaired Children Learning to Read and Write: Experimentation with a Pedagogical Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sirois, Pauline; Boisclair, Andree; Giasson, Jocelyne

    2008-01-01

    Given the problems experienced by hearing-impaired individuals in learning the written language, a pedagogical approach was tested. The study examined the links between the development of representations of alphabetic system and the results in reading and writing of first graders. In the study, there were 31 hearing-impaired children and 25…

  2. A comparative evaluation of dental caries status among hearing-impaired and normal children of Malda, West Bengal, evaluated with the Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kar, Sudipta; Kundu, Goutam; Maiti, Shyamal Kumar; Ghosh, Chiranjit; Bazmi, Badruddin Ahamed; Mukhopadhyay, Santanu

    2016-01-01

    Dental caries is one of the major modern-day diseases of dental hard tissue. It may affect both normal and hearing-impaired children. This study is aimed to evaluate and compare the prevalence of dental caries in hearing-impaired and normal children of Malda, West Bengal, utilizing the Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment (CAST). In a cross-sectional, case-control study of dental caries status of 6-12-year-old children was assessed. Statistically significant difference was found in studied (hearing-impaired) and control group (normal children). In the present study, caries affected hearing-impaired children found to be about 30.51% compared to 15.81% in normal children, and the result was statistically significant. Regarding individual caries assessment criteria, nearly all subgroups reflect statistically significant difference except sealed tooth structure group, internal caries-related discoloration in dentin, and distinct cavitation into dentine group, and the result is significant at P caries effected hearing-impaired children found about 30.51% instead of 15.81% in normal children, and the result was statistically significant (P caries assessment criteria, nearly all subgroups reflect statistically significant difference except sealed tooth structure group, internal caries-related discoloration in dentin, and distinct cavitation into dentine group. Dental health of hearing-impaired children was found unsatisfactory than normal children when studied in relation to dental caries status evaluated with CAST.

  3. A comparative evaluation of dental caries status among hearing-impaired and normal children of Malda, West Bengal, evaluated with the Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sudipta Kar

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Context: Dental caries is one of the major modern-day diseases of dental hard tissue. It may affect both normal and hearing-impaired children. Aims: This study is aimed to evaluate and compare the prevalence of dental caries in hearing-impaired and normal children of Malda, West Bengal, utilizing the Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment (CAST. Settings and Design: In a cross-sectional, case-control study of dental caries status of 6-12-year-old children was assessed. Subjects and Methods: Statistically significant difference was found in studied (hearing-impaired and control group (normal children. In the present study, caries affected hearing-impaired children found to be about 30.51% compared to 15.81% in normal children, and the result was statistically significant. Regarding individual caries assessment criteria, nearly all subgroups reflect statistically significant difference except sealed tooth structure group, internal caries-related discoloration in dentin, and distinct cavitation into dentine group, and the result is significant at P < 0.05. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was carried out utilizing Z-test. Results: Statistically significant difference was found in studied (hearing-impaired and control group (normal children. In the present study, caries effected hearing-impaired children found about 30.51% instead of 15.81% in normal children, and the result was statistically significant (P < 0.05. Regarding individual caries assessment criteria, nearly all subgroups reflect statistically significant difference except sealed tooth structure group, internal caries-related discoloration in dentin, and distinct cavitation into dentine group. Conclusions: Dental health of hearing-impaired children was found unsatisfactory than normal children when studied in relation to dental caries status evaluated with CAST.

  4. Hearing impairment associated with oral terbinafine use: a case series and case/non-case analysis in the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb database and VigiBase™.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scholl, Joep H G; van Puijenbroek, Eugene P

    2012-08-01

    The Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb received reports of six cases of hearing impairment in association with oral terbinafine use. This study describes these cases and provides support for this association from the Lareb database for spontaneous adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting and from Vigibase™, the ADR database of the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring, the Uppsala Monitoring Centre. The objective of the current study was to identify whether the observed association between oral terbinafine use and hearing impairment, based on cases received by Lareb, constitutes a safety signal. Cases of hearing impairment in oral terbinafine users are described. In a case/non-case analysis, the strength of the association in Vigibase™ and the Lareb database was determined (date of analysis August 2011) by calculating the reporting odds ratios (RORs), adjusted for possible confounding by age, sex and ototoxic concomitant medication. For the purpose of this study, RORs were calculated for deafness, hypoacusis and the combination of both, defined as hearing impairment. In the Lareb database, six reports concerning individuals aged 31-82 years, who developed hearing impairment after starting oral terbinafine, were present. The use of oral terbinafine was disproportionally associated with hypoacusis in both the Lareb database (adjusted ROR 3.9; 95% CI 1.7, 9.0) and in Vigibase™ (adjusted ROR 1.7; 95% CI 1.0, 2.8). Deafness was not disproportionally present in either of the databases. Based on the described cases and the statistical analyses from both databases, a causal relationship between the use of oral terbinafine and hearing impairment is possible. The mechanism by which terbinafine could cause hearing impairment has not been elucidated yet. The pharmacological action of terbinafine is based on the inhibition of squalene epoxidase, an enzyme present in both fungal and human cells. This inhibition might result in a decrease in

  5. Subjective Evaluation of Sound Quality for Normal-hearing and Hearing-i,paired Listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Lars Bramsløw

    1992-01-01

    11 hearing-impaired (HI) and 12 normal-hearing (NH) subjects have performed sound quality ratings on 6 perceptual scales (Loudness, Clarity, Sharpness, Fullness, Spaciousness and Overall judgement). The signals for the rating experiment consisted of running speech and music with or without......, but the normal-hearing group was slightly more reliable. There were significant differences between stimuli and between subjects, with stimuli affecting the ratings the most. Normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects showed similar trends, but normal-hearing listeners were generally more sensitive, i...

  6. Deafness and Hearing Loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities, Washington, DC.

    This brief overview provides information on the definition, incidence, and characteristics of children with hearing impairments and deafness. The federal definitions of hearing impairment and deafness are provided. The different types of hearing loss are noted, including: (1) conductive (caused by diseases or obstructions in the outer or middle…

  7. Adult-children's perspectives on a parent's hearing impairment and its impact on their relationship and communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Preminger, Jill E; Montano, Joseph J; Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine

    2015-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to describe third-party disability experienced by adult-children as a result of hearing impairment (HI) in a parent. DESIGN: Using semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to describe the impact of a parent's HI on their relationship and communication...... factors of family relationships, communication situations, and the parent's personality, adult-children considered their coping strategies and feelings that arose as a result of the HI. Coping strategies included putting forth effort in communication, yelling as an ineffective communication strategy......, and providing support to the parent with HI. The described feelings included frustration, uncertainty, and loss surrounding their communication and relationship with their parent with HI. These feelings arose as a result of implementing coping strategies, plus these feelings drove the employment of coping...

  8. Causes of permanent childhood hearing impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korver, Anna M H; Admiraal, Ronald J C; Kant, Sarina G; Dekker, Friedo W; Wever, Capi C; Kunst, Henricus P M; Frijns, Johan H M; Oudesluys-Murphy, Anne Marie

    2011-02-01

    The causes of Permanent Childhood Hearing Impairment (PCHI) are often quoted as being hereditary in 50%, acquired in 25%, and unknown in 25% of cases. Interest in the causes of PCHI has grown recently due to increasing diagnostic possibilities. We investigated the evidence for the reported distribution of these causes. Population-based study and a systematic review. Inclusion criteria for population-based study: children born between 2003 and 2005, resident in The Netherlands at birth, known at an Audiology Center with PCHI at the age of 3-5 years. The causes of PCHI were determined prospectively by detection of congenital cytomegalovirus on dried blood spots and/or genetic diagnostic investigations in addition to reviewing data from medical records. A systematic review was carried out using three terms (hearing loss, infant, and etiology) and limited to articles published between January 1997 and July 2009. Main outcome measures were: the (weighted) proportions of the various causes of PCHI following diagnostic investigations. In the study-population (n = 185) a hereditary cause was found in 38.9%, acquired cause in 29.7%, miscellaneous cause in 7.1%, and the cause remained unknown in 24.3%. The systematic review of the literature (n = 9 articles) resulted in a weighted mean of 30.4% hereditary, 19.2% acquired, and 48.3% unknown causes of PCHI. The systematic review and the results of the population-based study provided little support for the generally accepted distribution of causes of PCHI. Copyright © 2010 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

  9. Perception of a Sung Vowel as a Function of Frequency-Modulation Rate and Excursionin Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vatti, Marianna; Santurette, Sébastien; Pontoppidan, Niels henrik

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Frequency fluctuations in human voices can usually be described as coherent frequency modulation (FM). As listeners with hearing impairment (HI listeners) are typically less sensitive to FM than listeners with normal hearing (NH listeners), this study investigated whether hearing loss...... affects the perception of a sung vowel based on FM cues. Method: Vibrato maps were obtained in 14 NH and 12 HI listeners with different degrees of musical experience. The FM rate and FM excursion of a synthesized vowel, to which coherent FM was applied, were adjusted until a singing voice emerged. Results......: In NH listeners, adding FM to the steady vowel components produced perception of a singing voice for FM rates between 4.1 and 7.5 Hz and FM excursions between 17 and 83 cents on average. In contrast, HI listeners showed substantially broader vibrato maps. Individual differences in map boundaries were...

  10. Localization of A Novel Autosomal Recessive Non-Syndromic Hearing Impairment Locus (DFNB38) to 6q26–q27 in a Consanguineous Kindred from Pakistan

    OpenAIRE

    Ansar, Muhammad; Ramzan, Mohammad; Pham, Thanh L.; Yan, Kai; Jamal, Syed Muhammad; Haque, Sayedul; Ahmad, Wasim; Leal, Suzanne M.

    2003-01-01

    For autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing impairment over 30 loci have been mapped and 19 genes have been identified. DFNB38, a novel locus for autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing impairment, was localized in a consanguineous Pakistani kindred to 6q26–q27. The affected family members present with profound prelingual sensorineural hearing impairment and use sign language for communications. Linkage was established to microsatellite markers located on chromosome 6q26–q27 (Multipoint lod...

  11. Comparison of Various Anthropometric Indices as Risk Factors for Hearing Impairment in Asian Women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Seok Hui; Jung, Da Jung; Lee, Kyu Yup; Choi, Eun Woo; Do, Jun Young

    2015-01-01

    The objective of the present study was to examine the associations between various anthropometric measures and metabolic syndrome and hearing impairment in Asian women. We identified 11,755 women who underwent voluntary routine health checkups at Yeungnam University Hospital between June 2008 and April 2014. Among these patients, 2,485 participants were <40 years old, and 1,072 participants lacked information regarding their laboratory findings or hearing and were therefore excluded. In total 8,198 participants were recruited into our study. The AUROC value for metabolic syndrome was 0.790 for the waist to hip ratio (WHR). The cutoff value was 0.939. The sensitivity and specificity for predicting metabolic syndrome were 72.7% and 71.7%, respectively. The AUROC value for hearing loss was 0.758 for WHR. The cutoff value was 0.932. The sensitivity and specificity for predicting hearing loss were 65.8% and 73.4%, respectively. The WHR had the highest AUC and was the best predictor of metabolic syndrome and hearing loss. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses showed that WHR levels were positively associated with four hearing thresholds including averaged hearing threshold and low, middle, and high frequency thresholds. In addition, multivariate logistic analysis revealed that those with a high WHR had a 1.347-fold increased risk of hearing loss compared with the participants with a low WHR. Our results demonstrated that WHR may be a surrogate marker for predicting the risk of hearing loss resulting from metabolic syndrome.

  12. How age affects memory task performance in clinically normal hearing persons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vercammen, Charlotte; Goossens, Tine; Wouters, Jan; van Wieringen, Astrid

    2017-05-01

    The main objective of this study is to investigate memory task performance in different age groups, irrespective of hearing status. Data are collected on a short-term memory task (WAIS-III Digit Span forward) and two working memory tasks (WAIS-III Digit Span backward and the Reading Span Test). The tasks are administered to young (20-30 years, n = 56), middle-aged (50-60 years, n = 47), and older participants (70-80 years, n = 16) with normal hearing thresholds. All participants have passed a cognitive screening task (Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)). Young participants perform significantly better than middle-aged participants, while middle-aged and older participants perform similarly on the three memory tasks. Our data show that older clinically normal hearing persons perform equally well on the memory tasks as middle-aged persons. However, even under optimal conditions of preserved sensory processing, changes in memory performance occur. Based on our data, these changes set in before middle age.

  13. Language Development and Impairment in Children with Mild to Moderate Sensorineural Hearing Loss

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halliday, Lorna F.; Tuomainen, Outi; Rosen, Stuart

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: The goal of this study was to examine language development and factors related to language impairments in children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL). Method: Ninety children, aged 8-16 years (46 children with MMHL; 44 aged-matched controls), were administered a battery of standardized language assessments, including…

  14. [Rehabilitative measures in hearing-impaired children].

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Wedel, H; von Wedel, U C; Zorowka, P

    1991-12-01

    On the basis of certain fundamental data on the maturation processes of the central auditory pathways in early childhood the importance of early intervention with hearing aids is discussed and emphasized. Pathological hearing, that is acoustical deprivation in early childhood will influence the maturation process. Very often speech development is delayed if diagnosis and therapy or rehabilitation are not early enough. Anamnesis, early diagnosis and clinical differential diagnosis are required before a hearing aid can be fitted. Selection criteria and adjustment parameters are discussed, showing that the hearing aid fitting procedure must be embedded in a complex matrix of requirements related to the development of speech as well as to the cognitive, emotional and social development of the child. As a rule, finding and preparing the "best" hearing aids (binaural fitting is obligatory) for a child is a long and often difficult process, which can only be performed by specialists who are pedo-audiologists. After the binaural fitting of hearing aids an intensive hearing and speech education in close cooperation between parents, pedo-audiologist and teacher must support the whole development of the child.

  15. [Relationship between the Mandarin acceptable noise level and the personality traits in normal hearing adults].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Dan; Chen, Jian-yong; Wang, Shuo; Zhang, Man-hua; Chen, Jing; Li, Yu-ling; Zhang, Hua

    2013-03-01

    To evaluate the relationship between the Mandarin acceptable noise level (ANL) and the personality trait for normal-hearing adults. Eighty-five Mandarin speakers, aged from 21 to 27, participated in this study. ANL materials and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) questionnaire were used to test the acceptable noise level and the personality trait for normal-hearing subjects. SPSS 17.0 was used to analyze the results. ANL were (7.8 ± 2.9) dB in normal hearing participants. The P and N scores in EPQ were significantly correlated with ANL (r = 0.284 and 0.318, P 0.05). Listeners with higher ANL were more likely to be eccentric, hostile, aggressive, and instabe, no ANL differences were found in listeners who were different in introvert-extravert or lying.

  16. Phenotypic and molecular assessment of seven patients with 6p25 deletion syndrome: Relevance to ocular dysgenesis and hearing impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ritch Robert

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Thirty-nine patients have been described with deletions involving chromosome 6p25. However, relatively few of these deletions have had molecular characterization. Common phenotypes of 6p25 deletion syndrome patients include hydrocephalus, hearing loss, and ocular, craniofacial, skeletal, cardiac, and renal malformations. Molecular characterization of deletions can identify genes that are responsible for these phenotypes. Methods We report the clinical phenotype of seven patients with terminal deletions of chromosome 6p25 and compare them to previously reported patients. Molecular characterization of the deletions was performed using polymorphic marker analysis to determine the extents of the deletions in these seven 6p25 deletion syndrome patients. Results Our results, and previous data, show that ocular dysgenesis and hearing impairment are the two most highly penetrant phenotypes of the 6p25 deletion syndrome. While deletion of the forkhead box C1 gene (FOXC1 probably underlies the ocular dysgenesis, no gene in this region is known to be involved in hearing impairment. Conclusions Ocular dysgenesis and hearing impairment are the two most common phenotypes of 6p25 deletion syndrome. We conclude that a locus for dominant hearing loss is present at 6p25 and that this locus is restricted to a region distal to D6S1617. Molecular characterization of more 6p25 deletion patients will aid in refinement of this locus and the identification of a gene involved in dominant hearing loss.

  17. How to balance hearing loss and work life – when individual and organizational action go hand in hand

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lund, Katja; Rosenstand, Claus Andreas Foss

    2015-01-01

    stressors and resistance builders in hearing-impaired employees during everyday life. An ecological momentary storytelling method was applied in order to investigate, on the one hand, the narratives related to the hearing loss, and on the other hand, the narratives related to work-life in order to reach...... an understanding of the research question: How is it possible for a hearing-impaired employee to keep up a strong narrative about self and at the same time make sure that the needs related to hearing loss are met? By applying the method, we also obtained information on everyday stressors in the lives of six...... hearing-impaired persons during a workweek. Data from follow-up dialogues was analysed using a grounded theory approach. Fourteen categories placed within four meta-categories were found grounded in the data. The findings showed a clear connection between experiences of stress, energy-draining activities...

  18. 听力障碍群体的保持性注意发展%A Study on the Sustained Attention Development of Hearing Impaired Population

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    程黎; 施建农; 蹇菊华; 张兴利

    2012-01-01

    为了研究听力障碍儿童到成人的保持性注意发展的变化,采用瑞文标准推理测验筛选出207名智力正常的听力障碍儿童和听力正常儿童及成人作为被试,以划消测验作为实验材料,记录被试的加工速度、击中率和虚报率.结果显示:听力障碍和听力正常被试的加工速度都随年龄的增长而加快;7~9岁组的听力障碍被试的击中率显著低于听力正常组,其他年龄组的听力障碍被试和正常被试的击中率没有显著差异;7~14岁的听力障碍被试的虚报率显著高于听力正常被试.听力障碍被试和听力正常被试在所有指标上的发展趋势都相似,前者只有在青少年期的专注程度不如听力正常被试,对非目标的抑制能力比较弱.同时也必须看到,听力障碍被试在注意保持的时间分布上更好,他们能更为持久地维持注意.%In the present study,cancellation test was used to explore sustained attention development of hearing impaired children and adults. 207 hearing impaired and hearing participants were selected by using Raven Progressive Matrices intelligence test. Results showed clear age-related increases in processing speed for both hearing impaired and hearing participants. The hit rate of the hearing impaired children was significantly lower than that of the hearing children among aged 7-9 group,while that difference among other aged group was not found. The false alert rate of the hearing impaired adolescents was significantly higher than that of the hearing adolescents among aged 7-14 group. We interpret these results and concluded that,both hearing impaired and hearing participants had the similar developmental trajectory of the sustained attention;The ability of children's sustained attention appeared to improve with age,and in adolescence it reached the peak;The hearing impaired participants had the comparable sustained attention skills to the matched hearing peers. Besides, the

  19. High prevalence of seasonal affective disorder among persons with severe visual impairment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Helle Østergaard; Dam, Henrik; Hageman, Ida

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Light severely affects the occurrence of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). AIMS: To compare the prevalence of SAD in persons with severe visual impairment and persons with full sight, and in persons with severe visual impairment with or without light perception. METHOD: This cross......-sectional study assessed the Global Seasonality Score (GSS) and the prevalence of SAD among 2781 persons with visual impairment and 4099 persons with full sight using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). RESULTS: Respondents with visual impairment had significantly higher GSS and prevalence...... of SAD compared with full sight controls, Pvisual impairment and SPAQ-defined SAD parameters...

  20. [Hearing aid application performance evaluation questionnaire to presbycusis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xianghong; Zhou, Huifang; Zhang, Jing; Wang, Liqun

    2011-02-01

    By matching patients with presbycusis hearing aids,hearing aid performance assessment questionnaire to fill out to assess the effect of its use and targeted to solve problems encountered in its use and improve the quality of life of older persons. Through face to face way to investigate and analyse patients with hearing aids fitting, totally 30 subjects accepted the analysis, preliminary assessment of the use of hearing aids in patient with presbycusis results and solve problems encountered in its use by using SPSS software to analyze the collecting data. HHIE questionnaire on statistical analysis, obtained in patients with hearing loss use hearing aids after the problem is a significant improvement statistical analysis of the SADL questionnaire, the conclusion is relatively satisfied with the overall satisfaction. Effects Assessment Questionnaire in patients with hearing aids hearing impairment can be epitomized the disabled after use to improve the situation and understand the satisfaction of patients with hearing aids can be an initial effect as the rehabilitation of a reliable subjective assessment of the impact assessment indicators.

  1. The Sound of Silence: Mouse Models for Hearing Loss

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sumantra Chatterjee

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Sensorineural hearing loss is one of the most common disabilities in humans. It is estimated that about 278 million people worldwide have slight to extreme hearing loss in both ears, which results in an economic loss for the country and personal loss for the individual. It is thus critical to have a deeper understanding of the causes for hearing loss to better manage and treat the affected individuals. The mouse serves as an excellent model to study and recapitulate some of these phenotypes, identify new genes which cause deafness, and to study their roles in vivo and in detail. Mutant mice have been instrumental in elucidating the function and mechanisms of the inner ear. The development and morphogenesis of the inner ear from an ectodermal layer into distinct auditory and vestibular components depends on well-coordinated gene expression and well-orchestrated signaling cascades within the otic vesicle and interactions with surrounding layers of tissues. Any disruption in these pathways can lead to hearing impairment. This review takes a look at some of the genes and their corresponding mice mutants that have shed light on the mechanism governing hearing impairment (HI in humans.

  2. REHABILITATION OF PERSONS WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natasa CICEVSKA-JOVANOVA

    2000-06-01

    Full Text Available The persons with cerebral palsy with motoric impairments as a primary demmages, they have other following disables: visual impairments, hearing impairments, speech disables and very often they have intellectual difficulties.This persons in school have problems with writing, they couldn’t oriented in the books, they have difficulties with manipulation with school’s supplies and didactic materials, they couldn’t follow the order of the words in the line during the reading and the writing and etc.Using the exercises of psycho-motor reeducation, all before mentioned difficulties and problems can be mitigate or disappear.

  3. Exploring the influence of culture on hearing help-seeking and hearing-aid uptake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Fei; Manchaiah, Vinaya; St Claire, Lindsay; Danermark, Berth; Jones, Lesley; Brandreth, Marian; Krishna, Rajalakshmi; Goodwin, Robin

    2015-07-01

    The purpose of this paper was to highlight the importance of cultural influence in understanding hearing-help seeking and hearing-aid uptake. Information on audiological services in different countries and 'theories related to cross-culture' is presented, followed by a general discussion. Twenty-seven relevant literature reviews on hearing impairment, cross-cultural studies, and the health psychology model and others as secondary resources. Despite the adverse consequences of hearing impairment and the significant potential benefits of audiological rehabilitation, only a small number of those with hearing impairment seek professional help and take up appropriate rehabilitation. Therefore, hearing help-seeking and hearing-aid uptake has recently become the hot topic for clinicians and researchers. Previous research has identified many contributing factors for hearing help-seeking with self-reported hearing disability being one of the main factors. Although significant differences in help-seeking and hearing-aid adoption rates have been reported across countries in population studies, limited literature on the influence of cross-cultural factors in this area calls for an immediate need for research. This paper highlights the importance of psychological models and cross-cultural research in the area of hearing help-seeking and hearing-aid uptake, and consequently some directions for future research are proposed.

  4. Age-Related Sensory Impairments and Risk of Cognitive Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer, Mary E; Cruickshanks, Karen J.; Schubert, Carla R; Pinto, Alex A; Carlsson, Cynthia M; Klein, Barbara EK; Klein, Ronald; Tweed, Ted S.

    2016-01-01

    Background/Objectives To evaluate the associations of sensory impairments with the 10-year risk of cognitive impairment. Previous work has primarily focused on the relationship between a single sensory system and cognition. Design The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (EHLS) is a longitudinal, population-based study of aging in the Beaver Dam, WI community. Baseline examinations were conducted in 1993 and follow-up exams have been conducted every 5 years. Setting General community Participants EHLS members without cognitive impairment at EHLS-2 (1998–2000). There were 1,884 participants (mean age = 66.7 years) with complete EHLS-2 sensory data and follow-up information. Measurements Cognitive impairment was a Mini-Mental State Examination score of impairment was a pure-tone average of hearing thresholds (0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz) of > 25 decibel Hearing Level in either ear. Visual impairment was Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity of impairment was a San Diego Odor Identification Test score of impairment were independently associated with cognitive impairment risk [Hearing: Hazard Ratio (HR) = 1.90, 95% Confidence Interval (C.I.) = 1.11, 3.26; Vision: HR = 2.05, 95% C.I. = 1.24, 3.38; Olfaction: HR = 3.92, 95% C.I. = 2.45, 6.26]. However, 85% with hearing impairment, 81% with visual impairment, and 76% with olfactory impairment did not develop cognitive impairment during follow-up. Conclusion The relationship between sensory impairment and cognitive impairment was not unique to one sensory system suggesting sensorineural health may be a marker of brain aging. The development of a combined sensorineurocognitive measure may be useful in uncovering mechanisms of healthy brain aging. PMID:27611845

  5. Working memory and referential communication – multimodal aspects of interaction between children with sensorineural hearing impairment and normal hearing peers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olof eSandgren

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Whereas the language development of children with sensorineural hearing impairment (SNHI has repeatedly been shown to differ from that of peers with normal hearing (NH, few studies have used an experimental approach to investigate the consequences on everyday communicative interaction. This mini review gives an overview of a range of studies on children with SNHI and NH exploring intra- and inter-individual cognitive and linguistic systems during communication.Over the last decade, our research group has studied the conversational strategies of Swedish speaking children and adolescents with SNHI and NH using referential communication, an experimental analogue to problem-solving in the classroom. We have established verbal and nonverbal control and validation mechanisms, related to working memory capacity (WMC and phonological short term memory (PSTM. We present main findings and future directions relevant for the field of cognitive hearing science and for the clinical and school-based management of children and adolescents with SNHI.

  6. Spectral and binaural loudness summation for hearing-impaired listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oetting, Dirk; Hohmann, Volker; Appell, Jens-E; Kollmeier, Birger; Ewert, Stephan D

    2016-05-01

    Sensorineural hearing loss typically results in a steepened loudness function and a reduced dynamic range from elevated thresholds to uncomfortably loud levels for narrowband and broadband signals. Restoring narrowband loudness perception for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners can lead to overly loud perception of broadband signals and it is unclear how binaural presentation affects loudness perception in this case. Here, loudness perception quantified by categorical loudness scaling for nine normal-hearing (NH) and ten HI listeners was compared for signals with different bandwidth and different spectral shape in monaural and in binaural conditions. For the HI listeners, frequency- and level-dependent amplification was used to match the narrowband monaural loudness functions of the NH listeners. The average loudness functions for NH and HI listeners showed good agreement for monaural broadband signals. However, HI listeners showed substantially greater loudness for binaural broadband signals than NH listeners: on average a 14.1 dB lower level was required to reach "very loud" (range 30.8 to -3.7 dB). Overall, with narrowband loudness compensation, a given binaural loudness for broadband signals above "medium loud" was reached at systematically lower levels for HI than for NH listeners. Such increased binaural loudness summation was not found for loudness categories below "medium loud" or for narrowband signals. Large individual variations in the increased loudness summation were observed and could not be explained by the audiogram or the narrowband loudness functions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. The impact of a family history of hearing problems on those with hearing difficulties themselves: an exploratory study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stephens, D.; Kramer, S.E.

    2005-01-01

    The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of a family history of hearing impairment on those people with the hearing impairment themselves. The subjects were 102 consecutive patients with a family history of hearing impairment, seen in an audiological rehabilitation clinic. Each was

  8. Identification and molecular modelling of a mutation in the motor head domain of myosin VIIA in a family with autosomal dominant hearing impairment (DFNA11)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Luijendijk, M.W.J.; Wijk, E. van; Bischoff, A.M.L.C.; Krieger, E.; Huygen, P.L.M.; Pennings, R.J.E.; Brunner, H.G.; Cremers, C.W.R.J.; Cremers, F.P.M.; Kremer, J.M.J.

    2004-01-01

    Myosin VIIA is an unconventional myosin that has been implicated in Usher syndrome type 1B, atypical Usher syndrome, non-syndromic autosomal recessive hearing impairment (DFNB2) and autosomal dominant hearing impairment (DFNA11). Here, we present a family with non-syndromic autosomal dominant

  9. Identification and molecular modelling of a mutation in the motor head domain of myosin VIIA in a family with autosomal dominant hearing impairment (DFNA11).

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Luijendijk, M.W.J.; Wijk, E. van; Bischoff, A.M.L.C.; Krieger, E.; Huygen, P.L.M.; Pennings, R.J.E.; Brunner, H.G.; Cremers, C.W.R.J.; Cremers, F.P.M.; Kremer, J.M.J.

    2004-01-01

    Myosin VIIA is an unconventional myosin that has been implicated in Usher syndrome type 1B, atypical Usher syndrome, non-syndromic autosomal recessive hearing impairment (DFNB2) and autosomal dominant hearing impairment (DFNA11). Here, we present a family with non-syndromic autosomal dominant

  10. Effects of noise and working memory capacity on memory processing of speech for hearing-aid users

    OpenAIRE

    Ng, Hoi Ning, Elaine; Rudner, Mary; Lunner, Thomas; Syskind Perdersen, Michael; Rönnberg, Jerker

    2013-01-01

    Objectives: It has been shown that noise reduction algorithms can reduce the negative effects of noise on memory processing in persons with normal hearing. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether a similar effect can be obtained for persons with hearing impairment and whether such an effect is dependent on individual differences in working memory capacity. Design: A sentence-final word identification and recall (SWIR) test was conducted in two noise backgrounds with and ...

  11. Narcissistic personality disorder: relations with distress and functional impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Joshua D; Campbell, W Keith; Pilkonis, Paul A

    2007-01-01

    This study examined the construct validity of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) by examining the relations between NPD and measures of psychologic distress and functional impairment both concurrently and prospectively across 2 samples. In particular, the goal was to address whether NPD typically "meets" criterion C of the DSM-IV definition of Personality Disorder, which requires that the symptoms lead to clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning. Sample 1 (n = 152) was composed of individuals receiving psychiatric treatment, whereas sample 2 (n = 151) was composed of both psychiatric patients (46%) and individuals from the community. Narcissistic personality disorder was linked to ratings of depression, anxiety, and several measures of impairment both concurrently and at 6-month follow-up. However, the relations between NPD and psychologic distress were (a) small, especially in concurrent measurements, and (b) largely mediated by impaired functioning. Narcissistic personality disorder was most strongly related to causing pain and suffering to others, and this relationship was significant even when other Cluster B personality disorders were controlled. These findings suggest that NPD is a maladaptive personality style which primarily causes dysfunction and distress in interpersonal domains. The behavior of narcissistic individuals ultimately leads to problems and distress for the narcissistic individuals and for those with whom they interact.

  12. Neonatal Hearing screening in tafila

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rashed, K.A.

    2007-01-01

    To measure the true prevalence of hearing impairment in neonates in Tafila, Jordan. This retrospective study was carried out at Prince Zeid Hospital, Taflia, Jordan through analysis of data of all births from January 2005 and January 2006. Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) were measured via the application of echoprobe to both ears. There were two groups of births that were analysed statistically. Hearing impaired neonates were those with two fails or more in each ear. Normal ones were those with 3 pass or more. Of the 1788 babies in the study group, 1622 (90.7%) were enrolled in the study with 9.3% loss rate. 1512 babies were examined on the 2 day of birth, 2 of them had hearing impairment with a rate of 1.2/1000. 110 babies were screened on the day of discharge from the nursery, one of them with hearing defect with a rate of 5.9/1000. Thus, true prevalence of hearing impaiment or failure was 1.7/1000. We conclude that screening for hearing impairment in the neonatal period is easy, informative and the true prevalence of hearing impairment in Tafila is similar to that in different parts of the world. (author)

  13. Could Neonatal Hypernatremia Dehydration Influence Hearing Status?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hassan Boskabadi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Neonatal hypernatremia dehydration (NHD is a dangerous condition in neonates, which is accompanied by acute complications (renal failure, cerebral edema, and cerebral hemorrhage and chronic complications (developmental delay. Children begin learning language from birth, and hearing impairment interferes with this process. We assessed the hearing status of infants with hypernatremia dehydration.   Materials and Methods: In a case-control study in 110 infants presenting at the Ghaem Hospital (Mashhad, Iran between 2007 and 2011, we examined the incidence of hearing impairment in infants suffering from hypernatremia dehydration (serum sodium >150 mEq/L in comparison with infants with normal sodium level (serum sodium ≤150 mEq/L.   Results: Three of 110 cases examined in the study group showed a transient hearing impairment. A mean serum sodium level of 173mg/dl was reported among hearing-impaired infants.   Conclusion:  Transient hearing impairment was higher in infants with hypernatremia; although this difference was not significant (P>0.05. Hearing impairment was observed in cases of severe hypernatremia.  

  14. Visual Cues Contribute Differentially to Audiovisual Perception of Consonants and Vowels in Improving Recognition and Reducing Cognitive Demands in Listeners With Hearing Impairment Using Hearing Aids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moradi, Shahram; Lidestam, Björn; Danielsson, Henrik; Ng, Elaine Hoi Ning; Rönnberg, Jerker

    2017-09-18

    We sought to examine the contribution of visual cues in audiovisual identification of consonants and vowels-in terms of isolation points (the shortest time required for correct identification of a speech stimulus), accuracy, and cognitive demands-in listeners with hearing impairment using hearing aids. The study comprised 199 participants with hearing impairment (mean age = 61.1 years) with bilateral, symmetrical, mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss. Gated Swedish consonants and vowels were presented aurally and audiovisually to participants. Linear amplification was adjusted for each participant to assure audibility. The reading span test was used to measure participants' working memory capacity. Audiovisual presentation resulted in shortened isolation points and improved accuracy for consonants and vowels relative to auditory-only presentation. This benefit was more evident for consonants than vowels. In addition, correlations and subsequent analyses revealed that listeners with higher scores on the reading span test identified both consonants and vowels earlier in auditory-only presentation, but only vowels (not consonants) in audiovisual presentation. Consonants and vowels differed in terms of the benefits afforded from their associative visual cues, as indicated by the degree of audiovisual benefit and reduction in cognitive demands linked to the identification of consonants and vowels presented audiovisually.

  15. The Need for Improved Detection and Management of Adult-Onset Hearing Loss in Australia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine M. McMahon

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Adult-onset hearing loss is insidious and typically diagnosed and managed several years after onset. Often, this is after the loss having led to multiple negative consequences including effects on employment, depressive symptoms, and increased risk of mortality. In contrast, the use of hearing aids is associated with reduced depression, longer life expectancy, and retention in the workplace. Despite this, several studies indicate high levels of unmet need for hearing health services in older adults and poor use of prescribed hearing aids, often leading to their abandonment. In Australia, the largest component of financial cost of hearing loss (excluding the loss of well-being is due to lost workplace productivity. Nonetheless, the Australian public health system does not have an effective and sustainable hearing screening strategy to tackle the problem of poor detection of adult-onset hearing loss. Given the increasing prevalence and disease burden of hearing impairment in adults, two key areas are not adequately met in the Australian healthcare system: (1 early identification of persons with chronic hearing impairment; (2 appropriate and targeted referral of these patients to hearing health service providers. This paper reviews the current literature, including population-based data from the Blue Mountains Hearing Study, and suggests different models for early detection of adult-onset hearing loss.

  16. Contemporary noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) prevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sułkowski, Wiesław; Owczarek, Kalina; Olszewski, Jurek

    2017-08-31

    Hearing impairment caused by noise, traditionally called - depending on the duration of exposure - acute or chronic acoustic trauma, includes, in addition to presbyacusis, the most common adult population of hearing impaired. In Poland - according to the report of the Central Statistical Office (GUS, 2011), the number of workers employed in NDN exceeded the noise level (85 dB) is about 200 thousand, the highest in the mining, metal and metal products production, textiles and wood production. According to the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of on June 30, 2009, on the list of occupational diseases (Journal of Laws No. 132, item 1115), it is defined as "bilateral permanent hearing loss of the cochlear or sensory-nerve type, expressed as an increase in hearing threshold of at least 45 dB in the ear better heard, calculated as an arithmetic mean for frequencies 1,2 and 3 kHz. Hearing impairments also occur in the military and police during field training and in combat where the source of acoustic injuries are firearms and pulse-inducing explosions (as in some industries) with high C peak levels (Lc peak) Time to rise to a maximum of <1 ms. The prevalence of loud music listening, particularly by personal stereo players, is also affecting children and adolescents with audiometric hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates of around 15-20%. The preventive action strategy is defined by the European Union legislation and the national implementing legislation that reduces or eliminates the risk and reduces (if not eliminated), taking into account available technical and organizational solutions to minimize the risk of hearing damage. If you can not reduce the noise levels with technical and organizational methods, you need individual hearing protectors. Ear protectors may be equipped with electronic systems with active noise reduction (which can improve low and medium frequency performance), adjustable attenuation (improves speech

  17. Children Who Are Hearing Impaired with Additional Disabilities and Related Aspects of Parental Stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hintermair, Manfred

    2000-01-01

    In this German study, 317 parents of children with hearing impairments and additional disabilities completed both the Parenting Stress Index and an additional questionnaire on demographics and related information. Analysis showed consistently high stress scores in the Child Domain, whereas the Parent Domain showed only a slight tendency toward…

  18. Psychological well-being of parents and family caregivers of children with hearing impairment in south India: influence of behavioural problems in children and social support.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Driessche, Anne; Jotheeswaran, A T; Murthy, G V S; Pilot, Eva; Sagar, Jayanthi; Pant, Hira; Singh, Vivek; Dpk, Babu

    2014-08-01

    Parents of children with hearing impairment are at increased risk of mental health morbidities. We examined the predictive factors associated with caregiver's strain and psychological morbidities in parents and family caregivers of children with hearing impairment. In total, n = 201 parents and family caregivers of children with and without hearing impairment aged 3 to 16 years were recruited. Caregiver's strain and psychological morbidities were measured using the Zarit Burden scale and the World Health Organization's Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Presence of behavioural problems in children was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. After adjustment, low educational attainment and domestic violence were found to be associated with caregiving strain, whereas dissatisfaction with social support from family, behavioural problems in children, and domestic violence strongly predicted psychological morbidities. Addressing the mental healthcare needs of parents may help in downsizing the impact of psychological morbidities on the well-being of children with hearing impairment.

  19. Neurobehavioral observation and hearing impairment in children at school age in eastern Slovakia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sovcikova, E.; Trnovec, T.; Petrik, J.; Kocan, A.; Drobna, B.; Wimmerova, S.; Wsolova, L. [Slovak Medical Univ., Bratislava (Slovakia); Hustak, M. [Air Force Military Hospital, Kosice (Slovakia)

    2004-09-15

    Neurotoxicity of PCBs has been reported in humans and confirmed in animal studies. It was shown that PCBs can alter a number of developmental physiological processes in which the thyroid plays an essential role. In children, the prenatal exposure to PCBs was associated with reduced birth weight and poor recognition memory. In children with longer duration of breast feeding implying higher PCB exposure, altered behavior, lengthening of psychomotor activities, worse attention, and worse memory performance were found. The so far published data on the association between PCBs exposure and hearing were based mainly on animal observations. Low-frequency auditory impairments have been documented in PCB exposed rats, including elevated behavioral auditory thresholds, decreased amplitude and prolonged latency auditory evoked brain stem responses. Two papers were related to humans only. The first one reported PCB-associated increased thresholds at two out of eight frequencies on audiometry, but only on the left side, and no deficits on evoked potentials or contrast sensitivity in 7-year-old children prenatally exposed to seafood neurotoxicants. The other paper was focused on hearing impairments in boys of fish-eating mothers, but no individual PCB exposure data were available. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between exposure to PCBs and health outcomes assessed, as performance in neurobehavioral tests, thyroid hormones production and hearing status. Selected confounder factors such as heavy metals and health/social background of development in children were also taken into consideration.

  20. Statistical Learning, Syllable Processing, and Speech Production in Healthy Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Preschool Children: A Mismatch Negativity Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Studer-Eichenberger, Esther; Studer-Eichenberger, Felix; Koenig, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    The objectives of the present study were to investigate temporal/spectral sound-feature processing in preschool children (4 to 7 years old) with peripheral hearing loss compared with age-matched controls. The results verified the presence of statistical learning, which was diminished in children with hearing impairments (HIs), and elucidated possible perceptual mediators of speech production. Perception and production of the syllables /ba/, /da/, /ta/, and /na/ were recorded in 13 children with normal hearing and 13 children with HI. Perception was assessed physiologically through event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded by EEG in a multifeature mismatch negativity paradigm and behaviorally through a discrimination task. Temporal and spectral features of the ERPs during speech perception were analyzed, and speech production was quantitatively evaluated using speech motor maximum performance tasks. Proximal to stimulus onset, children with HI displayed a difference in map topography, indicating diminished statistical learning. In later ERP components, children with HI exhibited reduced amplitudes in the N2 and early parts of the late disciminative negativity components specifically, which are associated with temporal and spectral control mechanisms. Abnormalities of speech perception were only subtly reflected in speech production, as the lone difference found in speech production studies was a mild delay in regulating speech intensity. In addition to previously reported deficits of sound-feature discriminations, the present study results reflect diminished statistical learning in children with HI, which plays an early and important, but so far neglected, role in phonological processing. Furthermore, the lack of corresponding behavioral abnormalities in speech production implies that impaired perceptual capacities do not necessarily translate into productive deficits.

  1. Cognitive Processing Speed, Working Memory, and the Intelligibility of Hearing Aid-Processed Speech in Persons with Hearing Impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wycliffe Kabaywe Yumba

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies have demonstrated that successful listening with advanced signal processing in digital hearing aids is associated with individual cognitive capacity, particularly working memory capacity (WMC. This study aimed to examine the relationship between cognitive abilities (cognitive processing speed and WMC and individual listeners’ responses to digital signal processing settings in adverse listening conditions. A total of 194 native Swedish speakers (83 women and 111 men, aged 33–80 years (mean = 60.75 years, SD = 8.89, with bilateral, symmetrical mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss who had completed a lexical decision speed test (measuring cognitive processing speed and semantic word-pair span test (SWPST, capturing WMC participated in this study. The Hagerman test (capturing speech recognition in noise was conducted using an experimental hearing aid with three digital signal processing settings: (1 linear amplification without noise reduction (NoP, (2 linear amplification with noise reduction (NR, and (3 non-linear amplification without NR (“fast-acting compression”. The results showed that cognitive processing speed was a better predictor of speech intelligibility in noise, regardless of the types of signal processing algorithms used. That is, there was a stronger association between cognitive processing speed and NR outcomes and fast-acting compression outcomes (in steady state noise. We observed a weaker relationship between working memory and NR, but WMC did not relate to fast-acting compression. WMC was a relatively weaker predictor of speech intelligibility in noise. These findings might have been different if the participants had been provided with training and or allowed to acclimatize to binary masking noise reduction or fast-acting compression.

  2. Hard of Hearing?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    T Christensen, Vibeke

    This summary presents the results of a study of the impact of reduced hearing in relation to labour-market attachment and working life. Reduced hearing contributes to early retirement. Many people with impaired hearing are not aware of the impact of their hearing problems on their working life an...

  3. Child-Parent Interactions in Families Raising Children with Hearing Impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikitina Yu.V.

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Article reveals communication (information exchange between parents and their deaf children. The effectiveness of information exchange in different communication means between parents and children having hearing loss was investigated. Effectiveness here is an opportunity of fast understanding of the information given by one participant to another. Special experimental situation was constructed to measure the effectiveness. This situation was divided in two parts: at first parent was giving instructions to the child, then – child was giving instructions to the parent. The time that was needed to follow the instructions was measured, and communication means were registered. 17 deaf children and their mothers participated in the study. 5 of those mothers also have hearing impairment and do know sign language. Control group was represented by 10 regular developing children and their parents. Experimental results allows us to make the conclusion that there are significant difficulties in information exchange between parent and child in families raising deaf children. These difficulties are more shown in situations when children have to understand parents’ instructions and are the result of not very efficient communication means that parents use in several cases. The most efficient communication means that allow receiving information faster, accurately and fully is Russian sign language. That is shown by the best results of information exchange in pairs of mother and child both having hearing loss.

  4. The Effect of iPad on School Preparedness among Preschool Children with Hearing-Impairments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turkestani, Maryam Hafez

    2015-01-01

    With modern technological developments and with the fast expansion of mobile technical equipment, conducting a field study to find out how technology influences various developmental aspects of normal and special needs children at the preschool stage was deemed appropriate and timely hearing impairment. In this study aimed at finding out the…

  5. Self-Evaluation Scores of Hearing Difficulties and Quality of Life Components among Retired Workers with Noise-Related Hearing Loss

    Science.gov (United States)

    MIYAKITA, T.; UEDA, A.; ZUSHO, H.; KUDOH, Y.

    2002-02-01

    This study is intended to clarify the relationships between hearing loss caused both by noise exposure and aging and self-rated scores of hearing disabilities and to elucidate the structure of the quality of life (QOL) determinants and their moderating conditions among retired workers with noise-related hearing loss. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: background questions, the hearing disabilities and handicap scale (HDHS), and questions regarding QOL covering five areas, self-rated health, personal health practice, social support network, life satisfaction, and life events. Two hundred ten retired workers aged 56-65 years old (60·6±1·6) with noise-related hearing loss responded to our questionnaire. All were previously engaged in noise exposed work such as shipbuilding, steel and woodwork. According to the hearing disability score (DIS score), subjects were divided into three groups and comparisons were made of the hearing handicap score (HD score) among those groups. Although groups with a higher DIS score showed a higher HD score, a large individual difference in HD score was observed in each of the three groups with the same DIS score level. The results of multiple regression analysis including two variables (life satisfaction and HD score) as the dependent variables and seven variables as the independent variables showed that the strongest explanatory variable for life satisfaction was social support network, followed by handicaps caused by hearing disabilities, self-rated health and personal health practice. It was demonstrated that hearing disabilities and handicap measured by the Japanese version of the HDHS were directly associated with the deterioration in QOL. Measures of the social support network, life satisfaction, and hearing disabilities and handicaps may assist in the detection of workers who can be targeted for a variety of interventions, such as audiological rehabilitation or the creation of a barrier-free community that is supportive

  6. Visual function and ocular status of children with hearing impairment in Oman: A case series

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khandekar Rajiv

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Visual functions of children with hearing disability were evaluated in a school of Muscat, Oman in 2006. Two hundred and twenty-three children were tested for near vision, distant vision, contrast sensitivity, color vision, field of vision, motion perception and crowding. Profound and severe hearing loss was noted in 161 and 63 students respectively. Thirty-five (81% students with refractive error were using spectacles. Color vision and field of vision was defective in one student each. In 286 (64.1% eyes, contrast sensitivity was defective. Abnormal contrast sensitivity was not associated with the severity of hearing loss [RR = 1.04 (95% CI 0.91 to 1.29]. Children with hearing impairment should be assessed for visual functions. Refractive error and defect in contrast sensitivity were unusually high among these children. In addition to visual aids, we recommend environmental changes to improve illumination and contrast to improve the quality of life of such children with double disability.

  7. Predictors of flourishing among children with hearing loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nabors, Laura; Odar Stough, Cathleen; Merianos, Ashley; Peugh, James

    2016-12-01

    To examine parent report of flourishing in children with hearing impairments compared to children without hearing impairments, and to explore whether school engagement and bullying related to child flourishing. Participants were 655 children with hearing impairments and 44, 618 children without hearing impairments who were 10-17 years of age. Caregivers completed telephone interviews about their child's functioning for the National Survey of Children's Health. Children without hearing loss had higher parent-reported flourishing compared to children with hearing loss when controlling for child demographics (i.e., race, age, sex). School engagement was positively related to flourishing of children with hearing loss. Bullying behaviors were not related to flourishing of children with hearing loss. Improving school engagement may increase flourishing of children with hearing loss, which is critical given that children with hearing loss experience lower flourishing than children without hearing loss. Examining the relationships among other risk and resilience factors and flourishing for children with hearing loss will provide information for interventions to enhance the adaptation of these children. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Design and evaluation of a kitchen for persons with visual impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kutintara, Benjamas; Somboon, Pornpun; Buasri, Virajada; Srettananurak, Metinee; Jedeeyod, Piyanooch; Pornpratoom, Kittikan; Iam-cham, Veraya

    2013-03-01

    Visually impaired people need skills on daily living, such as cooking, and Ratchasuda College offers independent living training for them. In order to fulfill their needs, a suitable kitchen should be designed with the consideration of their limitations. The objective of this study was to design and evaluate a kitchen for persons with visual impairments. Before designing the kitchen, interviews and an observation were carried out to obtain information on the needs of blind and low vision persons. Consequently, a kitchen model was developed, and it was evaluated by 10 persons with visual impairments. After the design improvement, the kitchen was built and has been routinely used for training persons with visual impairments to prepare meals. Finally, a post-occupancy evaluation of the kitchen was conducted by observing and interviewing both trainers and those with visual impairments during the food preparation training. The results of the study indicated that kitchens for persons with visual impairments should have safety and usability features. The results of the post-occupancy evaluation showed that those who attended cooking courses were able to cook safely in the kitchen. However, the kitchen still had limitations in some features.

  9. Prediction of consonant recognition in quiet for listeners with normal and impaired hearing using an auditory model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jürgens, Tim; Ewert, Stephan D; Kollmeier, Birger; Brand, Thomas

    2014-03-01

    Consonant recognition was assessed in normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners in quiet as a function of speech level using a nonsense logatome test. Average recognition scores were analyzed and compared to recognition scores of a speech recognition model. In contrast to commonly used spectral speech recognition models operating on long-term spectra, a "microscopic" model operating in the time domain was used. Variations of the model (accounting for hearing impairment) and different model parameters (reflecting cochlear compression) were tested. Using these model variations this study examined whether speech recognition performance in quiet is affected by changes in cochlear compression, namely, a linearization, which is often observed in HI listeners. Consonant recognition scores for HI listeners were poorer than for NH listeners. The model accurately predicted the speech reception thresholds of the NH and most HI listeners. A partial linearization of the cochlear compression in the auditory model, while keeping audibility constant, produced higher recognition scores and improved the prediction accuracy. However, including listener-specific information about the exact form of the cochlear compression did not improve the prediction further.

  10. Evaluating the role of functional impairment in personality psychopathology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boland, Jennifer K; Damnjanovic, Tatjana; Anderson, Jaime L

    2018-03-22

    DSM-5's Section III Alternative Model for Personality Disorder (AMPD) model states that an individual must show impairment in self and interpersonal functioning for PD diagnosis. The current study investigated dimensional personality trait associations with impairment, including differential patterns of impairment across specific PDs, and whether traits have improved our assessment of functional impairment in PDs. Two-hundred and seventy-seven participants were administered measures of Antisocial PD, Avoidant PD, Borderline PD, Narcissistic PD, Obsessive-Compulsive PD, and Schizotypal PD from the perspectives of Section II (PDQ-4) and Section III (PID-5) PD models, as well as measures of functional impairment in interpersonal and intrapersonal domains. Pearson correlations showed associations between ratings of impairment and most Section II and Section III PDs and trait facets, with the exception of narcissistic PD. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that Section III PDs added predictive validity beyond Section II PDs in predicting impairment, except narcissistic PD. These findings provide support both for the impairment criterion in the AMPD and for the association between trait-based PDs and impairment, and suggest that this trait-based measurement adds uniquely to the understanding of functional impairment. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  11. The strengths and weaknesses in verbal short-term memory and visual working memory in children with hearing impairment and additional language learning difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willis, Suzi; Goldbart, Juliet; Stansfield, Jois

    2014-07-01

    To compare verbal short-term memory and visual working memory abilities of six children with congenital hearing-impairment identified as having significant language learning difficulties with normative data from typically hearing children using standardized memory assessments. Six children with hearing loss aged 8-15 years were assessed on measures of verbal short-term memory (Non-word and word recall) and visual working memory annually over a two year period. All children had cognitive abilities within normal limits and used spoken language as the primary mode of communication. The language assessment scores at the beginning of the study revealed that all six participants exhibited delays of two years or more on standardized assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary and spoken language. The children with hearing-impairment scores were significantly higher on the non-word recall task than the "real" word recall task. They also exhibited significantly higher scores on visual working memory than those of the age-matched sample from the standardized memory assessment. Each of the six participants in this study displayed the same pattern of strengths and weaknesses in verbal short-term memory and visual working memory despite their very different chronological ages. The children's poor ability to recall single syllable words in relation to non-words is a clinical indicator of their difficulties in verbal short-term memory. However, the children with hearing-impairment do not display generalized processing difficulties and indeed demonstrate strengths in visual working memory. The poor ability to recall words, in combination with difficulties with early word learning may be indicators of children with hearing-impairment who will struggle to develop spoken language equal to that of their normally hearing peers. This early identification has the potential to allow for target specific intervention that may remediate their difficulties. Copyright © 2014. Published

  12. EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES OF THE HEARING IMPAIRED IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY: GENDER ANALYSIS

    OpenAIRE

    Yusoff, Norhayati Mat; Zahari, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd; Ahmad, Zamri; Isa, Nina Farisha; Ghani, Fatimah Abd

    2013-01-01

    The increasing participating rates of disable youth in hospitality higher career educationcan clearly be seen in many countries including Malaysia. This group has been identified as a key equity group for several years on the basis of their overall participating level, progression rates and the employments outcomes they achieve after completion their special education. This study empirically compares the barriers and constraints of employment among the young male and female hearing impaired g...

  13. Attitudes of a group of primary school teachers towards the educational inclusion of hearing-impaired learners in regular classrooms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keith, K; Ross, E

    1998-01-01

    Research has clearly demonstrated a link between the attitudes of regular education teachers and the success of inclusion of learners with special educational needs. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the attitudes of a group of junior primary school teachers from the Gauteng area towards the inclusion of hearing-impaired children into regular classes. A survey research design was employed which utilized a questionnaire as the research tool. Analysis of results indicated that the teachers surveyed were relatively positive in their attitudes towards inclusion. Greater exposure to disability in terms of training and experience was related to more positive attitudes. Similarly, more positive attitudes were related to greater perceived competence in teaching hearing-impaired pupils. All of the teachers surveyed felt that speech-language pathologists and audiologists (SLPs & As) should be involved in facilitating inclusion of hearing-impaired children. Many of the respondents expressed concern regarding their lack of training, knowledge and skills. The findings from the research project highlight the need for an adequate training and support system for teachers prior to the implementation of an inclusive educational policy, and the potential role of SLPs & As in this regard.

  14. Presbycusis, part 1: can you hear the music of life?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutchison, Barbara; Covan, Eleanor K; Bogus, Janet C

    2012-01-01

    We used a novel approach allowing participants in this study to self-monitor their hearing sensitivity to familiar sounds in the environment. The objective of this approach was to establish whether participants in the 80-89 and 90-99 age groups would recognize the degree of their hearing impairment. It was our hope that participants would value audiology treatment and that it would improve their quality of life over a short period. The pilot study took place in a clinical environment where participants answered survey questions before and after audiology treatment, which pertained to their hearing impairment, morale, social support, and life satisfaction. Caregivers were included in the research to rate and record participants' problem behaviors (e.g., shouting, anger, agitation, repetitive speech dialog, and depression) before, during, and after treatment. This research validates other scientists' findings that annoying problem behaviors may actually be the result of hearing loss because of a person's inability to recognize speech. The pilot study shows that participants with mild dementia adapted well to speech and sounds in the natural environment without agitation as well as to management of hearing aids within a 30-day period. The participants with moderate dementia were slower to adapt. All participants with dementia required the cooperation of their caregivers to maintain hygiene of ear canals and hearing aids and insertion. This study suggests that the sooner people receive treatment for hearing loss, the quicker they are to recognize speech and to master hearing aid technology.

  15. Telephone screening tests for functionally impaired hearing: current use in seven countries and development of a US version.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Charles S; Kidd, Gary R; Miller, James D; Smits, Cas; Humes, Larry E

    2012-01-01

    An estimated 36 million US citizens have impaired hearing, but nearly half of them have never had a hearing test. As noted by a recent National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH/NIDCD) Working Group, "In the United States (in contrast to many other nations) there are no readily accessible low cost hearing screening programs…" (Donahue et al, 2010, p. 2). Since 2004, telephone administered screening tests utilizing three-digit sequences presented in noise have been developed, validated, and implemented in seven countries. Each of these tests has been based on a test protocol conceived by Smits and colleagues in The Netherlands. Investigators from Communication Disorders Technology, Inc., Indiana University, and VU University Medical Center of Amsterdam agreed to collaborate in the development and validation of a screening test for hearing impairment suitable for delivery over the telephone, for use in the United States. This test, utilizing spoken three-digit sequences (triplets), was to be based on the design of Smits and his colleagues. A version of the digits-in-noise test was developed utilizing digit triplets spoken in Middle American dialect. The stimuli were individually adjusted to speech-to-noise ratio (SNR) values yielding 50% correct identification, on the basis of data collected from a group of 10 young adult listeners with normal hearing. A final set of 64 homogeneous stimuli were selected from an original 160 recorded triplets. Each test consisted of a series of 40 triplets drawn at random, presented in a noise background. The SNR threshold for 50% correct identification of the triplets was determined by a one-down, one-up adaptive procedure. The test was implemented by telephone, and administered to listeners with varying levels of hearing impairment. The listeners were then evaluated with pure-tone tests and other audiometric measures as clinically appropriate. Ninety participants included 72

  16. The Effects of Promoting Educational Level on the Development of Reading Comprehension Levels in Hearing-Impaired Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Reza Sarmadi

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Hearing-impaired students have some delays in learning language skills such as reading because of hearing loss. To study the effect of promoting educational level on the development of reading comprehension, the students of the 4th grade of elementary and last year guidance school were compared based on international test of reading literacy.Methods: The project was cross-sectional and the tool used was the international standard booklet of PIRLS 2001. Thirty-six students selected with moderately severe and severe hearing loss from the 4th grade of elementary and last year guidance school from Shahriar, Robatkarim, Karaj and Hashtgerd, Iran, exceptional schools. Comparative statistical analysis was performed using t-test.Results: The first level (focus on and retrieve explicity information showed a meaningful difference between the last year guidance school and the 4th grade of elementary students (p<0.05, but there were no significant differences in other levels, make straightforward information-interpret and integrate ideas-examine and evaluate content, (p> 0.05.Conclusion: Hearing-impaired students have difficulties in understanding in deep levels of reading despite promoting educational level. Thus, in making policies for special trainings, continuing the rehabilitation in guidance and high school levels to promote the complex levels of comprehension should be taken more into consideration.

  17. DECIBEL study: Congenital cytomegalovirus infection in young children with permanent bilateral hearing impairment in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Korver, A. M. H.; de Vries, J. J. C.; Konings, S.; de Jong, J. W.; Dekker, F. W.; Vossen, A. C. T. M.; Frijns, J. H. M.; Oudesluys-Murphy, A. M.; Wever, C. C.; Beers, M.; Soede, W.; Kant, S. G.; van den Akker-van Marle, M. E.; Rieffe, C.; Ens-Dokkum, M. H.; van Straaten, H. L. M.; Meuwese-Jongejeugd, J.; Elvers, B.; Loeber, G.; Maré, M. J.; Van Zanten, G. A.; Goedegebure, A.; Coster, F.; de Leeuw, M.; Dijkhuizen, J.; Scharloo, M.; Hoeben, D.; Rijpma, G.; Graef, W.; Linschoten, D.; Kuijper, J.; Hof, N. J.; Pans, D.; Jorritsma, F.; van Beurden, M.; ter Huurne, C. T.; Brienesse, P.; Koldewijn, G. J.; Letourneur, K. G.; Seekles, L.; Thijssen, A.; Lievense, A.; van Egdom-van der Wind, M.; Theunissen, S. C. P. M.; Mooij, S.

    2009-01-01

    A significant number of asymptomatic newborns infected with congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) will present with permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) during early childhood. To investigate the role of congenital CMV infection in causing PCHI in the Netherlands, and assess the efficacy of two

  18. [Presbycusis - Age Related Hearing Loss].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer, N; Weber, B; Riechelmann, H

    2016-07-01

    Presbycusis or age related hearing loss can be defined as a progressive, bilateral and symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss due to age related degeneration of inner ear structures. It can be considered a multifactorial complex disorder with environmental and genetic factors. The molecular, electrophysiological and histological damage at different levels of the inner ear cause a progressive hearing loss, which usually affects the high frequencies of hearing. The resulting poor speech recognition has a negative impact on cognitive, emotional and social function in older adults. Recent investigations revealed an association between hearing impairment and social isolation, anxiety, depression and cognitive decline in elderly. These findings emphasize the importance of diagnosis and treating hearing loss in the elderly population. Hearing aids are the most commonly used devices for treating presbycusis. The technical progress of implantable hearing devices allows an effective hearing rehabilitation even in elderly with severe hearing loss. However, most people with hearing impairments are not treated adequately. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  19. Vocational identity of deaf and hard of hearing adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Šešum Mia

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Vocational identity development represents the key aspect of identity development and it is one of the most significant issues in the period of adolescence. The persons with strong vocational identity have clearer understanding of their own career goals and they are characterized by greater self-confidence and dedication to their career choices, which is the reason why they decide on their future profession more quickly and more easily than the persons whose vocational identity is weaker. The career development of deaf and hard of hearing adolescents takes place under conditions of auditory deprivation, which may have a negative effect on the stability of their vocational identity and thus on their choice of profession, employment and assimilation into the working environment. This study examines the connection between vocational identity of deaf and hard of hearing adolescents and the number of completed school years and age, as well as the effect of gender, the level of hearing impairment, primary mode of communication, and general performance at school at the end of a school term on vocational identity. The sample comprised 97 deaf and hard of hearing students attending seventh and eighth grades of primary school as well as all grades of secondary school, who are educated in segregating conditions in the territory of Serbia. 'My Vocational Situation' (MVS, Holland et al., 1980-a was used as the instrument. The results of the study, following the data analysis, point to the connection between vocational identity of deaf and hard of hearing adolescents and the number of school years completed and age, as well as the effect of gender on vocational identity, while the effect of the level of hearing impairment, primary mode of communication, and general performance at school on vocational identity of the examinees has not been confirmed. Comparing these results with the results of studies conducted on the population of typically developing

  20. Combined impairments in vision, hearing and cognition are associated with greater levels of functional and communication difficulties than cognitive impairment alone: Analysis of interRAI data for home care and long-term care recipients in Ontario.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dawn M Guthrie

    Full Text Available The objective of the current study was to understand the added effects of having a sensory impairment (vision and/or hearing impairment in combination with cognitive impairment with respect to health-related outcomes among older adults (65+ years old receiving home care or residing in a long-term care (LTC facility in Ontario, Canada.Cross-sectional analyses were conducted using existing data collected with one of two interRAI assessments, one for home care (n = 291,824 and one for LTC (n = 110,578. Items in the assessments were used to identify clients with single sensory impairments (e.g., vision only [VI], hearing only [HI], dual sensory impairment (DSI; i.e., vision and hearing and those with cognitive impairment (CI. We defined seven mutually exclusive groups based on the presence of single or combined impairments.The rate of people having all three impairments (i.e., CI+DSI was 21.3% in home care and 29.2% in LTC. Across the seven groups, individuals with all three impairments were the most likely to report loneliness, to have a reduction in social engagement, and to experience reduced independence in their activities of daily living (ADLs and instrumental ADLs (IADLs. Communication challenges were highly prevalent in this group, at 38.0% in home care and 49.2% in LTC. In both care settings, communication difficulties were more common in the CI+DSI group versus the CI-alone group.The presence of combined sensory and cognitive impairments is high among older adults in these two care settings and having all three impairments is associated with higher rates of negative outcomes than the rates for those having CI alone. There is a rising imperative for all health care professionals to recognize the potential presence of hearing, vision and cognitive impairments in those for whom they provide care, to ensure that basic screening occurs and to use those results to inform care plans.

  1. Mutations in OTOF, CLDN14 & SLC26A4 genes as major causes of hearing impairment in Dhadkai village, Jammu & Kashmir, India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nishtha Pandey

    2017-01-01

    Interpretation & conclusions: This study suggested considerable genetic heterogeneity in the causation of hearing loss in Dhadkai. Recessive mutations were observed in at least three genes causing hearing loss: OTOF (p.R708X, SLC26A4 (p.Y556X and CLDN14 (p.V85D. Mutation p.R708X appeared to be the major cause of hearing impairment in Dhadkai.

  2. The association between long working hours and hearing impairment in noise unexposed workers: data from the 5th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES 2010-2012).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jung-Woo; Park, Jin-Soo; Kim, Seyoung; Park, Minkyu; Choi, Hyunrim; Lim, Sinye

    2016-01-01

    This study is aimed at finding out the relationship between long working hours, one of major job stress elements, and hearing impairment in unexposed workers to occupational and environmental noise. This study was performed on 1628 regular, full-time wage workers between the age of 25-64 who indicated in the survey of having no experience of exposure to noise, normal otoscopic findings, and not suffering from diabetes based on the data from the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES 2010-2012). The average working hours per week was categorized into 40 h and lower group, more than 40 to 48 h group, more than 48 to 60 h group, and more than 60 h group. The groups were defined as suffering from low or high frequencies hearing impairment if the average hearing threshold for 0.5, 1, 2 kHz or 3, 4, 6 kHz in both ears exceeds 25 dB based on the pure tone audiometry. The association between average weekly working hours and hearing impairment was analyzed using logistic regression after gender stratification. The prevalences of low and high frequencies hearing impairment in male workers were 4.3 and 28.6 %, respectively, which were much higher than female's prevalence of 2.7 and 11.1 %. For male workers, no significant association was found between average weekly working hours and low and high frequencies hearing impairment. For female workers, odds ratios (OR) of low and high frequencies hearing impairment were 4.22 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.09-16.27) and 4.49 (95 % CI 1.73-11.67), respectively, after controlling for several related factors, such as, age, Body Mass Index (BMI), socio-economic status, health-related behavioral, and occupational characteristics variables, in the final model in the group working more than 60 h compared to the group working 40 h and lower. In addition, a dose-response relationship was observed that ORs of low and high frequencies hearing impairment were increased according to increasing

  3. Rurality and determinants of hearing healthcare in adult hearing aid recipients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Stephen; Hixon, Brian; Adkins, Margaret; Shinn, Jennifer B; Bush, Matthew L

    2017-10-01

    The objective of this study was to compare the timing of hearing aid (HA) acquisition between adults in rural and urban communities. We hypothesized that time of acquisition of HA after onset of hearing loss is greater in rural adults compared with urban adults. Secondary objectives included assessment of socioeconomic/educational status and impact of hearing loss and hearing rehabilitation of urban and rural HA recipients. Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. We assessed demographics, timing of HA fitting from onset of hearing loss, and impact of hearing impairment in 336 adult HA recipients (273 urban, 63 rural) from a tertiary referral center. Amplification benefit was assessed using the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI). The time to HA acquisition was greater for rural participants compared to urban participants (19.1 vs. 25.7 years, P = 0.024) for those with untreated hearing loss for at least 8 years. Age at hearing loss onset was correlated with time to HA acquisition (P = -0.54, P hearing specialists (68 vs. 32 minutes, P Hearing impairment caused job performance difficulty in 60% of all participants. Rural adults are at risk for delayed HA acquisition, which may be related to distance to hearing specialists. Further research is indicated to investigate barriers to care and expand access for vulnerable populations. 4. Laryngoscope, 127:2362-2367, 2017. © 2017 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

  4. Effects of single-channel phonemic compression schemes on the understanding of speech by hearing-impaired listeners

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Goedegebure, A.; Hulshof, M.; Maas, R. J.; Dreschler, W. A.; Verschuure, H.

    2001-01-01

    The effect of digital processing on speech intelligibility was studied in hearing-impaired listeners with moderate to severe high-frequency losses. The amount of smoothed phonemic compression in a high-frequency channel was varied using wide-band control. Two alternative systems were tested to

  5. A personality and impairment approach to examine the similarities and differences between avoidant personality disorder and social anxiety disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carmichael, Kieran L C; Sellbom, Martin; Liggett, Jacqueline; Smith, Alexander

    2016-11-01

    The current study examined whether avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) should be considered distinct disorder constructs, which is a persistent and controversial issue in the clinical literature. We examined whether relative scores on SAD and AvPD were associated with the same personality profile and severity of impairment. The current research used a cross-sectional design and self-report inventories, including multiple measures of personality, impairment and psychopathology. Results from a mixed sample of 402 university and community participants found that scores on AvPD and SAD were similarly associated with personality traits and impairment indices. Moreover, a latent construct accounting for the shared variance for AvPD and SAD was associated with personality traits and impairment, whereas the residuals representing the uniquenesses of these disorder constructs were not. These findings support the view that AvPD and SAD are similar disorders from a phenotypic personality trait and impairment perspective. These findings are contrary to a prevalent view in the literature, known as severity continuum hypothesis, because the two disorders could not be meaningfully differentiated based on severity of impairment. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  6. Mental disorders and personality traits as determinants of impaired work functioning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Michon, H. W. C.; ten Have, M.; Kroon, H.; van Weeghel, J.; de Graaf, R.; Schene, A. H.

    2008-01-01

    Background. Both mental disorders and personality characteristics are associated with impaired work functioning, but these determinants have not yet been studied together. The aim of this paper is to examine the impairing effects that mental disorders and personality characteristics (i.e.

  7. Characteristics of hearing-impairment among patients in Ghana ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Again, the occurrence of Sensorineural Hearing Loss was more than other types of hearing loss. Noise, Fever, Presbycusis, Sickness, Meningitis and Meniere\\'s diseases were the major causes of Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Conductive Hearing Loss was attributed in the main to Wax, Foreign Bodies, Otitis Media, and ...

  8. A home education program for older adults with hearing impairment and their significant others: a randomized trial evaluating short- and long-term effects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kramer, S.E.; Allessie, G.H.; Dondorp, A.W.; Zekveld, A.A.; Kapteyn, T.S.

    2005-01-01

    This paper addresses the development and effectiveness of a home education program. The program, designed for hearing-impaired elders and their significant others (SO), deals with communication strategies and speech reading. Participants were randomly assigned to a training group (hearing aid

  9. Special Education and Rehabilitation Policies for the School to Community Transition of Students with Hearing Impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sendelbaugh, Joseph; Bullis, Michael

    1988-01-01

    The national survey to determine what state level transition provisions exist between special education and rehabilitation services for hearing-impaired students found that half of the vocational rehabilitation and one-fourth of the special education agencies have a formal state-level transition plan in place. (DB)

  10. Personality Pathology of Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder without Accompanying Intellectual Impairment in Comparison to Adults with Personality Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strunz, Sandra; Westphal, Linda; Ritter, Kathrin; Heuser, Isabella; Dziobek, Isabel; Roepke, Stefan

    2015-01-01

    Differentiating autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) without accompanying intellectual impairment from personality disorders is often challenging. Identifying personality traits and personality pathology specific to ASD might facilitate diagnostic procedure. We recruited a sample of 59 adults with ASD without accompanying intellectual impairment, 62…

  11. Curing hearing loss: Patient expectations, health care practitioners, and basic science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oshima, Kazuo; Suchert, Steffen; Blevins, Nikolas H; Heller, Stefan

    2010-01-01

    Millions of patients are debilitated by hearing loss, mainly caused by degeneration of sensory hair cells in the cochlea. The underlying reasons for hair cell loss are highly diverse, ranging from genetic disposition, drug side effects, traumatic noise exposure, to the effects of aging. Whereas modern hearing aids offer some relief of the symptoms of mild hearing loss, the only viable option for patients suffering from profound hearing loss is the cochlear implant. Despite their successes, hearing aids and cochlear implants are not perfect. Particularly frequency discrimination and performance in noisy environments and general efficacy of the devises vary among individual patients. The advent of regenerative medicine, the publicity of stem cells and gene therapy, and recent scientific achievements in inner ear cell regeneration have generated an emerging spirit of optimism among scientists, health care practitioners, and patients. In this review, we place the different points of view of these three groups in perspective with the goal of providing an assessment of patient expectations, health care reality, and potential future treatment options for hearing disorders. (1) Readers will be encouraged to put themselves in the position of a hearing impaired patient or family member of a hearing impaired person. (2) Readers will be able to explain why diagnosis of the underlying pathology of hearing loss is difficult. (3) Readers will be able to list the main directions of current research aimed to cure hearing loss. (4) Readers will be able to understand the different viewpoints of patients and their relatives, health care providers, and scientists with respect to finding novel treatments for hearing loss. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Faranak Parent-Child Mother Goose Program: Impact on Mother-Child Relationship for Mothers of Preschool Hearing Impaired Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rogayeh Koohi

    2016-12-01

    Discussion: The Frank parent-child Mother Goose program could help families with hearing-impaired children in this 12-week community-based program, wherein parents learned skills that affect the relationship between mother and child.

  13. Diagnosis of hearing impairment by high resolution CT scanning of inner ear anomalies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murata, Kiyotaka; Isono, Michio; Ohta, Fumihiko

    1988-01-01

    High resolution CT scanning of the temporal bone in our clinic has provided a more detailed radiological classification of inner ear anomalies than before. The statistical analysis of inner ear malformations based on the theory of quantification II has produced discriminant equations for the measurable diagnosis of hearing impairment and development of the inner ear. This analysis may make it possible to diagnose total and partial deafness on ipsi- and contralateral sides. (author)

  14. Visual pedagogy and probiotics for hearing impaired children: A pilot study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amrita Sujlana

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Context: Oral health care for children with special needs remains largely unmet. It is important that we should focus on preventive strategies for special children to help curtail and prevent oral diseases. Aim: This study aimed to assess the effect of visual pedagogy and probiotic mouth rinse on the periodontal health of hearing impaired children. Materials and Methodology: The study cohort consisted of twenty children with hearing impairment (HI and 20 age-matched healthy children. The gingival index (GI, plaque index (PI, and salivary pH for all children were assessed at baseline, 15 days after oral hygiene training using visual pedagogy, 15 days after probiotic mouth rinse introduction, and at the end of the test period, i.e., 2 months after discontinuing probiotics. Statistical Analysis: Comparison of means was carried out using the Student's t-test. Intragroup parameters were assessed using the one-way ANOVA, followed by the post hoc Scheffe test. Value for statistical significance was fixed at 0.05. Results: The GI and PI scores did not improve significantly after oral hygiene training in either of the two groups. The use of probiotic mouth rinse significantly reduced GI scores (<0.01 and PI scores (<0.01 and increased salivary pH above the critical pH in both groups. Conclusion: The use of visual pedagogy coupled with probiotic mouth rinsing may improve the periodontal status of children with HI and should be explored as a preventive procedure for children with special health-care needs.

  15. Localization of A Novel Autosomal Recessive Non-Syndromic Hearing Impairment Locus (DFNB38) to 6q26–q27 in a Consanguineous Kindred from Pakistan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ansar, Muhammad; Ramzan, Mohammad; Pham, Thanh L.; Yan, Kai; Jamal, Syed Muhammad; Haque, Sayedul; Ahmad, Wasim; Leal, Suzanne M.

    2010-01-01

    For autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing impairment over 30 loci have been mapped and 19 genes have been identified. DFNB38, a novel locus for autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing impairment, was localized in a consanguineous Pakistani kindred to 6q26–q27. The affected family members present with profound prelingual sensorineural hearing impairment and use sign language for communications. Linkage was established to microsatellite markers located on chromosome 6q26–q27 (Multipoint lod score 3.6). The genetic region for DFNB38 spans 10.1 cM according to the Marshfield genetic map and is bounded by markers D6S980 and D6S1719. This genetic region corresponds to 3.4 MB on the sequence-based physical map. PMID:12890929

  16. The impact of hearing impairment and noise-induced hearing injury on quality of life in the active-duty military population: challenges to the study of this issue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alamgir, Hasanat; Turner, Caryn A; Wong, Nicole J; Cooper, Sharon P; Betancourt, Jose A; Henry, James; Senchak, Andrew J; Hammill, Tanisha L; Packer, Mark D

    2016-01-01

    The objectives of this research were to 1) summarize the available evidence on the impact of hearing loss on quality of life (QOL) among U.S. active-duty service members, 2) describe the QOL instruments that have been used to quantify the impact of hearing loss on quality of life, 3) examine national population-level secondary databases and report on their utility for studying the impact of hearing loss on QOL among active-duty service members, and 4) provide recommendations for future studies that seek to quantify the impact of hearing loss in this population. There is a lack of literature that addresses the intersection of hearing impairment, the military population, and quality of life measures. For audiological research, U.S. military personnel offer a unique research population, as they are exposed to noise levels and blast environments that are highly unusual in civilian work settings and can serve as a model population for studying the impact on QOL associated with these conditions. Our team recommends conducting a study on the active-duty service member population using a measurement instrument suitable for determining decreases in QOL specifically due to hearing loss.

  17. Factors that influence intent to adopt a hearing aid among older people in Italy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cobelli, Nicola; Gill, Liz; Cassia, Fabio; Ugolini, Marta

    2014-11-01

    Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent health impairments associated with ageing in developed countries, and it can result in social, emotional and communication dysfunction. Hearing loss in Italy is increasing, yet, despite the availability of free hearing aids and access to qualified community-based health professionals specialising in audiology services, their uptake remains low (about 15%-20%). This paper presents an investigation of the possible reasons why older people in Italy resist adopting a hearing aid. We used the literature to identify factors influencing people with hearing loss's decision-making, and drew on the theory of reasoned action to create an explanatory model. To test our hypotheses, we applied a cross-sectional design. We developed a questionnaire including 13 items related to adopting a hearing aid. Health professionals identified 400 persons aged 60-90 who were candidates for a free hearing aid. Those willing to participate were sent a copy of the questionnaire and telephoned between August and September 2009; a total of 243 responded (response rate of 60.8%). Linear regression analysis highlighted that a person's intention to adopt a hearing aid was positively related to their attitude towards its adoption, but negatively linked to their perceived subjective norms. It was found that trust in the health professional does not moderate the relationship between a person's attitude and their intention to adopt a hearing aid, but trust mitigates the relationship between a person's perceived subjective norms and their intentions. These findings underline the importance of the potential role that the healthcare professional could play in reducing the uncertainty created by external social pressures. For this purpose, stronger collaboration between the various health professionals involved in hearing aid provision, from diagnosis to fitting, is recommended. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Hearing aid use and long-term health outcomes: hearing handicap, mental health, social engagement, cognitive function, physical health and mortality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dawes, Piers; Cruickshanks, Karen J.; Fischer, Mary E.; Klein, Barbara E.K.; Klein, Ronald; Nondahl, David M.

    2016-01-01

    Objective To clarify the impact of hearing aids on mental health, social engagement, cognitive function, and physical health outcomes in older adults with hearing impairment. Design We assessed hearing handicap (Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly; HHIE-S), cognition (Mini Mental State Exam, Trail Making, Auditory Verbal Learning, Digit-Symbol Substitution, Verbal Fluency, incidence of cognitive impairment), physical health (SF-12 physical component, basic and instrumental activities of daily living, mortality), social engagement (hours per week spent in solitary activities) and mental health (SF-12 mental component) at baseline, 5 years prior to baseline, and 5 and 11 years after baseline. Study sample Community-dwelling older adults with hearing impairment (N=666) from the Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study cohort. Results There were no significant differences between hearing aid users and non-users in cognitive, social engagement or mental health outcomes at any time point. Aided HHIE-S was significantly better than unaided HHIE-S. At 11 years hearing aid users had significantly better SF-12 physical health scores (46.2 versus 41.2; p=0.03). There was no difference in incidence of cognitive impairment or mortality. Conclusion There was no evidence that hearing aids promote cognitive function, mental health, or social engagement. Hearing aids may reduce hearing handicap and promote better physical health. PMID:26140300

  19. Demographic and audiological factors as predictors of hearing handicap

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leposavić Ljubica

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUCTION Currently available evidence reveals comparatively few studies of psychological effects of hearing impairments, in spite of the fact that clinicians have for a long time been aware of a connection between the acquired hearing impairment and mental disorders. They are focused on the investigation of dysfunction in general. Thus, three domains of the auditory imbalance may be distinguished: disorder, disability and handicap. 'Handicap', according to the definition of the World Health Organization, is a hindrance in an individual that results from an impairment or disability and represents psychological response of the individual to the impairment. OBJECTIVE Validation of acquired hearing impairment as a risk factor of psychical disorders as well as an analysis of relation of some demographic factors (sex, age, education and audiological factors (degree and duration of the impairment with the frequency of hearing handicap. METHOD MMPI-201 has been applied in 60 subjects affected with otosclerosis, potential candidates for stapedectomy, before and after the surgery. RESULTS Individuals with acquired hearing impairment manifest more frequent disorders of psychical functioning in comparison with general population, while demographic and audiometric parameters did not correlate with acquired hearing handicap. CONCLUSION It may be assumed that the very recognition of demographic and audio-logical factors can not help much in the understanding of the psychological stress associated with hearing impairment.

  20. Behavioral measures of cochlear compression and temporal resolution as predictors of speech masking release in hearing-impaired listeners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gregan, Melanie J.; Nelson, Peggy B.; Oxenham, Andrew J.

    2013-01-01

    Hearing-impaired (HI) listeners often show less masking release (MR) than normal-hearing listeners when temporal fluctuations are imposed on a steady-state masker, even when accounting for overall audibility differences. This difference may be related to a loss of cochlear compression in HI listeners. Behavioral estimates of compression, using temporal masking curves (TMCs), were compared with MR for band-limited (500–4000 Hz) speech and pure tones in HI listeners and age-matched, noise-masked normal-hearing (NMNH) listeners. Compression and pure-tone MR estimates were made at 500, 1500, and 4000 Hz. The amount of MR was defined as the difference in performance between steady-state and 10-Hz square-wave-gated speech-shaped noise. In addition, temporal resolution was estimated from the slope of the off-frequency TMC. No significant relationship was found between estimated cochlear compression and MR for either speech or pure tones. NMNH listeners had significantly steeper off-frequency temporal masking recovery slopes than did HI listeners, and a small but significant correlation was observed between poorer temporal resolution and reduced MR for speech. The results suggest either that the effects of hearing impairment on MR are not determined primarily by changes in peripheral compression, or that the TMC does not provide a sufficiently reliable measure of cochlear compression. PMID:24116426

  1. Hearing-Impaired Pupils in Mainstream Education in Finland: Teachers' Experiences of Inclusion and Support

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takala, Marjatta; Sume, Helena

    2018-01-01

    Today, in Finland, the majority of hearing-impaired pupils attend regular schools. This is in line with inclusive policy. This study aims to investigate do these pupils receive support from teachers, what kind of support is given and how is inclusion functioning. A questionnaire was used with 109 Finnish teachers, with both closed- and open-ended…

  2. Comparative multivariate analyses of transient otoacoustic emissions and distorsion products in normal and impaired hearing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stamate, Mirela Cristina; Todor, Nicolae; Cosgarea, Marcel

    2015-01-01

    The clinical utility of otoacoustic emissions as a noninvasive objective test of cochlear function has been long studied. Both transient otoacoustic emissions and distorsion products can be used to identify hearing loss, but to what extent they can be used as predictors for hearing loss is still debated. Most studies agree that multivariate analyses have better test performances than univariate analyses. The aim of the study was to determine transient otoacoustic emissions and distorsion products performance in identifying normal and impaired hearing loss, using the pure tone audiogram as a gold standard procedure and different multivariate statistical approaches. The study included 105 adult subjects with normal hearing and hearing loss who underwent the same test battery: pure-tone audiometry, tympanometry, otoacoustic emission tests. We chose to use the logistic regression as a multivariate statistical technique. Three logistic regression models were developed to characterize the relations between different risk factors (age, sex, tinnitus, demographic features, cochlear status defined by otoacoustic emissions) and hearing status defined by pure-tone audiometry. The multivariate analyses allow the calculation of the logistic score, which is a combination of the inputs, weighted by coefficients, calculated within the analyses. The accuracy of each model was assessed using receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. We used the logistic score to generate receivers operating curves and to estimate the areas under the curves in order to compare different multivariate analyses. We compared the performance of each otoacoustic emission (transient, distorsion product) using three different multivariate analyses for each ear, when multi-frequency gold standards were used. We demonstrated that all multivariate analyses provided high values of the area under the curve proving the performance of the otoacoustic emissions. Each otoacoustic emission test presented high

  3. What Factors Are Associated with Autonomous and Controlled Motivation for Hearing Help-Seekers?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ridgway, Jason; Hickson, Louise; Lind, Christopher

    Hearing impairment is prevalent in older adults. Motivation is important in people's choice to seek help for their hearing and whether to adopt or not adopt hearing aids. To investigate associations between sociodemographic and audiometric characteristics and autonomous and controlled motivation among a sample of hearing help-seekers. A quantitative approach was taken for this cross-sectional cohort study. A total of 253 adult first-time hearing help-seekers were recruited to the study. Participants provided sociodemographic information and completed questionnaires adapted from self-determination theory that measured autonomous motivation (motivation that originates from within the self and is aligned with personal values and beliefs) and controlled motivation (motivation that stems from external pressures such as rewards or punishment, or conflicted inner feelings such as guilt or shame). Participants with higher autonomous motivation scores were younger, wanted hearing aids more, and reported greater hearing difficulty in everyday life than those with lower scores. Participants with higher controlled motivation scores were more often referred to the service by others and wanted hearing aids more than those with lower controlled motivation scores. Controlled motivation scores were not associated with perceptions of hearing difficulty in everyday life. Relationships among motivation and sociodemographic factors highlight the importance of characterizing autonomous and controlled motivation in first-time hearing help-seekers. Attention to personal characteristics in order to understand motivational processes involved in rehabilitation decisions such as hearing aid adoption may aid in consultations. American Academy of Audiology

  4. Inclusive intervention to enhance the fundamental movement skills of children without hearing: a preliminary study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gursel, Ferda

    2014-02-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess an intervention program on the fundamental movement skill of students with and without hearing impairment, using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2) standardized Turkish norm. Preschool children with and without hearing impairment participated in this study. At the beginning of the study, most of the children with hearing impairment demonstrated developmental delay on the Locomotor subscale (6/7), as did about one-third (4/11) of the children without hearing impairment. For the Object control subscale, 4/7 of children with hearing impairment and none without hearing impairment showed developmental delay prior to the intervention program. After the intervention program, 3/7 children with hearing impairment had developmental delay on the Locomotor subscale. On the Object control subscale, 2/7 children with hearing impairment and none without hearing impairment showed developmental delay. The six-week intervention program improved TGMD-2 scores of children with hearing impairment, yet did not yield statistically significant improvement of fundamental movement skills.

  5. Screening for hearing, visual and dual sensory impairment in older adults using behavioural cues : A validation study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roets-Merken, Lieve M.; Zuidema, Sytse U.; Vernooij-Dassen, Myrra J. F. J.; Kempen, Gertrudis I. J. M.

    2014-01-01

    Objective: This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Severe Dual Sensory Loss screening tool, a tool designed to help nurses and care assistants to identify hearing, visual and dual sensory impairment in older adults. Design: Construct validity of the Severe Dual Sensory Loss

  6. CERN hearing day

    CERN Multimedia

    2005-01-01

    1 in 10 people suffer from hearing loss - do you? The Medical Service invites everyone working on the CERN site to participate in the NATIONAL HEARING DAY on: Thursday 10th March 2005 From 9am to 4pm The Infirmary, Blg. 57, Ground Floor We will be offering hearing tests (audiograms), as well as information and advice on hearing loss, tinnitus, etc. Deafness does not just affect the elderly: in Europe, 50% of the hearing-impaired are under the age of 55. Exposure to excessive noise is one of the main reasons for hearing problems but PREVENTION IS POSSIBLE. For example, hearing protection devices can prevent 80% of tinnitus cases.

  7. CERN hearing day

    CERN Multimedia

    2005-01-01

    1 in 10 people suffer from hearing loss - do you? The Medical Service invites everyone working on CERN premises to participate in the National Hearing Day on: Thursday 10th March From 9am to 4pm The Infirmary, Blg. 57, Gr.Fl. We will be offering hearing tests (audiogram); information, advice on hearing loss, tinnitus and more. Deafness does not just affect the elderly: in Europe, 50% the hearing-impaired are under the age of 55. Exposure to excessive noise is one of the main reasons for hearing loss. But PREVENTION IS POSSIBLE AND EFFECTIVE: for example, Hearing protection devices could reduce tinnitus cases by 80%.

  8. CERN hearing day

    CERN Document Server

    2005-01-01

    1 in 10 people suffer from hearing loss - do you? The Medical Service invites everyone working on CERN premises to participate in the National Hearing Day on: Thursday 10th March From 9am to 4pm The Infirmary, Blg. 57, Gr.Fl. We will be offering hearing tests (audiogram); information, advice on hearing loss, tinnitus and more. Deafness does not just affect the elderly: in Europe, 50% the hearing-impaired are under the age of 55. Exposure to excessive noise is one of the main reasons for hearing loss. But prevention is possible and effective: for example, Hearing protection devices could reduce tinnitus cases by 80%.

  9. CERN hearing day

    CERN Multimedia

    2005-01-01

    1 in 10 people suffer from hearing loss ? do you? The Medical Service invites everyone working on the CERN site to participate in the NATIONAL HEARING DAY on: Thursday 10th March 2005 From 9am to 4pm The Infirmary, Blg. 57, Ground Floor We will be offering hearing tests (audiograms), as well as information and advice on hearing loss, tinnitus, etc. Deafness does not just affect the elderly: in Europe, 50% of the hearing-impaired are under the age of 55. Exposure to excessive noise is one of the main reasons for hearing problems but prevention is possible. For example, hearing protection devices can prevent 80% of tinnitus cases.

  10. A Comparison of job selection by students with and without hearing impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oya Kanyilmaz

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available AbstractObjectives: Hearing loss can significantly affect an individual’s life, particularly in communication, education, social life and work life. The objective of the present study was to determine the required educational levels for the preferred jobs by the students with and without hearing impairment. Methods: This study, based on surveys made in two different schools, was performed in Ankara in May 2004. Surveys were made in Yahya Özsoy Primary School for the Deaf (n=119 with students having a hearing loss over 70 dB, and in a National Primary School (n=119 with students without a hearing impairment. The study, conducted by trained staff on both groups was done by filling up questionnaires focused on the job and educational level preferences of students. The required education levels for preferred jobs were considered as two groups: the first group required an education of a minimum of 11 years in order to become doctors, nurses, teachers etc. The second group did not require any education or required an education of less than 11 years in order to become shoe painters, drivers, ironers, grocers etc. Logistic regression analyses were used for the statistical analyses. Results: It was found that several factors influence the required education levels for the preferred jobs: students who were attending the hearing impaired school and were male were more likely to prefer less than 11 years educational level job compared to the other group. There was no association between the required educational levels for the preferred jobs of the students and the class, maternal age, employment status or education, or of the paternal age, employment status or education. Considering only the students with hearing impairment, male students more frequently prefer less than 11 years educational jobs than females. Similar results were also seen in the group of students without hearing impairment. Conclusions: The importance of career training and counseling

  11. Dynamic Range Across Music Genres and the Perception of Dynamic Compression in Hearing-Impaired Listeners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martin Kirchberger

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Dynamic range compression serves different purposes in the music and hearing-aid industries. In the music industry, it is used to make music louder and more attractive to normal-hearing listeners. In the hearing-aid industry, it is used to map the variable dynamic range of acoustic signals to the reduced dynamic range of hearing-impaired listeners. Hence, hearing-aided listeners will typically receive a dual dose of compression when listening to recorded music. The present study involved an acoustic analysis of dynamic range across a cross section of recorded music as well as a perceptual study comparing the efficacy of different compression schemes. The acoustic analysis revealed that the dynamic range of samples from popular genres, such as rock or rap, was generally smaller than the dynamic range of samples from classical genres, such as opera and orchestra. By comparison, the dynamic range of speech, based on recordings of monologues in quiet, was larger than the dynamic range of all music genres tested. The perceptual study compared the effect of the prescription rule NAL-NL2 with a semicompressive and a linear scheme. Music subjected to linear processing had the highest ratings for dynamics and quality, followed by the semicompressive and the NAL-NL2 setting. These findings advise against NAL-NL2 as a prescription rule for recorded music and recommend linear settings.

  12. Dynamic Range Across Music Genres and the Perception of Dynamic Compression in Hearing-Impaired Listeners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirchberger, Martin

    2016-01-01

    Dynamic range compression serves different purposes in the music and hearing-aid industries. In the music industry, it is used to make music louder and more attractive to normal-hearing listeners. In the hearing-aid industry, it is used to map the variable dynamic range of acoustic signals to the reduced dynamic range of hearing-impaired listeners. Hence, hearing-aided listeners will typically receive a dual dose of compression when listening to recorded music. The present study involved an acoustic analysis of dynamic range across a cross section of recorded music as well as a perceptual study comparing the efficacy of different compression schemes. The acoustic analysis revealed that the dynamic range of samples from popular genres, such as rock or rap, was generally smaller than the dynamic range of samples from classical genres, such as opera and orchestra. By comparison, the dynamic range of speech, based on recordings of monologues in quiet, was larger than the dynamic range of all music genres tested. The perceptual study compared the effect of the prescription rule NAL-NL2 with a semicompressive and a linear scheme. Music subjected to linear processing had the highest ratings for dynamics and quality, followed by the semicompressive and the NAL-NL2 setting. These findings advise against NAL-NL2 as a prescription rule for recorded music and recommend linear settings. PMID:26868955

  13. Dynamic Range Across Music Genres and the Perception of Dynamic Compression in Hearing-Impaired Listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirchberger, Martin; Russo, Frank A

    2016-02-10

    Dynamic range compression serves different purposes in the music and hearing-aid industries. In the music industry, it is used to make music louder and more attractive to normal-hearing listeners. In the hearing-aid industry, it is used to map the variable dynamic range of acoustic signals to the reduced dynamic range of hearing-impaired listeners. Hence, hearing-aided listeners will typically receive a dual dose of compression when listening to recorded music. The present study involved an acoustic analysis of dynamic range across a cross section of recorded music as well as a perceptual study comparing the efficacy of different compression schemes. The acoustic analysis revealed that the dynamic range of samples from popular genres, such as rock or rap, was generally smaller than the dynamic range of samples from classical genres, such as opera and orchestra. By comparison, the dynamic range of speech, based on recordings of monologues in quiet, was larger than the dynamic range of all music genres tested. The perceptual study compared the effect of the prescription rule NAL-NL2 with a semicompressive and a linear scheme. Music subjected to linear processing had the highest ratings for dynamics and quality, followed by the semicompressive and the NAL-NL2 setting. These findings advise against NAL-NL2 as a prescription rule for recorded music and recommend linear settings. © The Author(s) 2016.

  14. Sensitivity to Angular and Radial Source Movements as a Function of Acoustic Complexity in Normal and Impaired Hearing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lundbeck, Micha; Grimm, Giso; Hohmann, Volker

    2017-01-01

    In contrast to static sounds, spatially dynamic sounds have received little attention in psychoacoustic research so far. This holds true especially for acoustically complex (reverberant, multisource) conditions and impaired hearing. The current study therefore investigated the influence of reverb...

  15. Prerequisites for the development of the concept of health-forming technologies in the process of adaptive physical education of school-age children with hearing impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vitaliy Kashuba

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Prerequisites for the development of the concept of health-forming technologies in the process of adaptive physical education of school-age children with hearing impairment Prerequisites for the development of the concept of health-forming technologies in the process of adaptive physical education of school-age children with hearing impairment National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine, Kyiv. Actuality. The leading position of the contemporary issues of health-forming activity of children and youth presented in the form of a methodological basis for the formation of a positive motivation for a healthy lifestyle of the younger generation, especially with specific disabilities in the state of health, separates the central component of this process from the humanistic approach, the essence of which is creating a favorable situation for the readiness of the present youth to perceive and adequately respond to the educational activities of the school and social environment that are implemented in the process of their physical education. Objectives of the study: determination of priority directions of optimization of the process of physical education of students with hearing impairments, selection of rational means and methods that fully satisfy the specific needs of this contingent based on the study of their interests not only during physical education, but also correctional activities, self-organized motor activity Research results. The data obtained during the study showed that most children with hearing impairments understood the problems of their own health and had a desire to carry out activities aimed at improving their level, defining for themselves as the main criterion the physical state of their organism. The results of the questionnaire survey of 236 schoolchildren aged 13 to 19 years with different established hearing disorders supplemented the systematization of preconditions and scientifically substantiated the

  16. Hearing impairment in children with congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection based on distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) and brain evoked response audiometry stimulus click (BERA Click) examinations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Airlangga, T. J.; Mangunatmadja, I.; Prihartono, J.; Zizlavsky, S.

    2017-08-01

    Congenital cytomegalovirus (congenital CMV) infection is a leading factor of nongenetic sensorineural hearing loss in children. Hearing loss caused by CMV infection does not have a pathognomonic configuration hence further research is needed. The development of knowledge on hearing loss caused by congenital CMV infection is progressing in many countries. Due to a lack of research in the context of Indonesia, this study assesses hearing impairment in children with congenital CMV infection in Indonesia, more specifically in the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. Our objective was to profile hearing impairment in children 0-5 years of age with congenital CMV infection using Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAE) and Brain Evoked Response Audiometry Stimulus Click (BERA Click) examinations. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Cipto Mangunkusum Hospital from November, 2015 to May 2016 with 27 children 0-5 years of age with congenital CMV infection. Of individual ears studied, 58.0% exhibited sensorineural hearing loss. There was a significant relationship between developmental delay and incidence of sensorineural hearing loss. Subjects with a developmental delay were 6.57 times more likely (CI 95%; 1.88-22.87) to experience sensorineural hearing loss. Congenital CMV infection has an important role in causing sensorineural hearing loss in children.

  17. Readability of Internet Information on Hearing: Systematic Literature Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laplante-Lévesque, Ariane; Thorén, Elisabet Sundewall

    2015-09-01

    This systematic literature review asks the following question: “ What is the readability of Internet information on hearing that people with hearing impairment and their significant others can access in the context of their hearing care?” Searches were completed in three databases: CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus. Seventy-eight records were identified and systematically screened for eligibility: 8 records were included that contained data on the readability of Internet information on hearing that people with hear ing impairment and their significant others can access in the context of their hearing care. Records reported mean readability levels from 9 to over 14. In other words, people with hearing impairment and their significant others need 9 to 14 years of education to read and understand Internet information on hearing that they access in the context of their hearing care. The poor readability of Internet information on hearing has been well documented; it is time to focus on valid and sustainable initiatives that address this problem.

  18. Efficacy of Information and Communication Technology in Enhancing Learning Outcomes of Students with Hearing Impairment in Ibadan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Egaga, Patrick I.; Aderibigbe, S. Akinwumi

    2015-01-01

    The study aimed at examining the efficacy of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in enhancing learning outcomes of students with hearing impairment in Ibadan. The study adopted a pretest, post-test, control group quasi-experimental research design. Purposive sampling techniques was used for the selection of thirty participants…

  19. Deaf/Hearing Research Partnerships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolsey, Ju-Lee A.; Misener Dunn, Kim; Gentzke, Scott W.; Joharchi, Hannah A.; Clark, M. Diane

    2017-01-01

    Deaf individuals typically are seen through the lens of the dominant hearing society's perception, i.e., that being deaf is an impairment. Today, a small but growing number of Deaf and hearing researchers are challenging this perception. The authors examined perceptions of what components are necessary for a successful Deaf/hearing research…

  20. Computers and Communications. Improving the Employability of Persons with Handicaps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deitel, Harvey M.

    1984-01-01

    Reviews applications of computer and communications technologies for persons with visual, hearing, physical, speech, and language impairments, as well as the effects of technologies on transportation, work at home, education, and other aspects affecting the employment of the disabled. (SK)

  1. Influence of visual impairment and hearing impairment on functional dependence status among people in Taiwan—An evaluation using the WHODAS 2.0 score

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ko-Fang Chang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: Visual impairment (VI and hearing impairment (HI are the two most common types of sensory disability encountered clinically. However, VI and HI result in different limitations in daily life. We assessed the level of functioning in patients with VI or HI based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. Methods: This nationwide, cross-sectional study included 312 people with VI and 540 people with HI. Each participant's degree of functioning and disability was evaluated using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0. The standardized WHODAS 2.0 scores ranged from 0 (least difficulty to 100 (most difficulty. Results: Patients with VI and those with HI had a mean (±standard error 32-item WHODAS 2.0 score of 42.4 ± 2.9 and 27.1 ± 1.6, respectively. The degree of restriction was positively related to the level of VI. Specifically, the patients with VI and a WHODAS 2.0 score of 33.7–35.3 or higher were likely to experience barriers to accessing mobility products, communication products, and education products. Furthermore, patients with a score of 42.9 or higher might experience barriers to accessing ingestion products and living products. Conclusion: WHODAS 2.0 scores are strongly correlated with the severity of VI. Mild VI should be targeted for treatment and referral as early as possible. Compared with the patients with HI, the patients with VI more frequently experience barriers to accessing environmental factors. Keywords: Disability, Functioning, Hearing impairment, International Classification of Functioning (ICF, Visual impairment, WHODAS 2.0

  2. Unique Approach to Dental Management of Children with Hearing Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renahan, Navanith; Varma, R Balagopal; Kumaran, Parvathy; Xavier, Arun M

    2017-01-01

    The number of deaf children has dramatically increased in the past few decades. These children present to the pediatric dentist a unique set of challenges mostly pertaining to the establishment of communication with them. There have been very few attempts in the past to break down these challenges and formulate a strategy on how to manage them effectively. This is a case report of a child who was successfully managed using two different modes of communication. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages are mentioned, and a common strategy incorporating the positives of both the methods has been devised. Renahan N, Varma RB, Kumaran P, Xavier AM. Unique Approach to Dental Management of Children with Hearing Impairment. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2017;10(1):107-110.

  3. Mutational spectrum of the WFS1 gene in Wolfram syndrome, nonsyndromic hearing impairment, diabetes mellitus, and psychiatric disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cryns, K; Sivakumaran, TA; Van den Ouweland, JMW; Pennings, RJE; Cremers, CWRJ; Flothmann, K; Young, TL; Smith, RJH; Lesperance, MM; Van Camp, G

    2003-01-01

    WFS1 is a novel gene and encodes an 890 amino-acid glycoprotein (wolframin), predominantly localized in the endoplasmic reticulum. Mutations in WFS1 underlie autosomal recessive Wolfram syndrome and autosomal dominant low frequency sensorineural hearing impairment (LFSNHI) DFNA6/14. In addition,

  4. Mutational spectrum of the WFS1 gene in Wolfram syndrome, nonsyndromic hearing impairment, diabetes mellitus, and psychiatric disease.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cryns, K.; Sivakumaran, T.A.; Ouweland, J.M.W. van den; Pennings, R.J.E.; Cremers, C.W.R.J.; Flothmann, K.; Young, T.L.; Smith, R.J.H.; Lesperance, M.M.; Camp, G. van

    2003-01-01

    WFS1 is a novel gene and encodes an 890 amino-acid glycoprotein (wolframin), predominantly localized in the endoplasmic reticulum. Mutations in WFS1 underlie autosomal recessive Wolfram syndrome and autosomal dominant low frequency sensorineural hearing impairment (LFSNHI) DFNA6/14. In addition,

  5. Hearing loss induced by loud music among musicians of symphonic orchestra

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tanja Carli

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Noise-induced hearing loss is an important public health issue, especially among musicians who are, more than any other occupation, dependent on their hearing. For them, hearing impairment is due to too loud music, the effect of which, if exceeding the limit depending on the individual sensitivity of one’s ear, can be compared with theeffect of noise on the ear. Risk factors for its development are: the type of musical instrument and sound character, the way of playing, music genre or composition, duration of exposure to loud music, sound source and its distance from the ear, intervals of acoustic stimuli, individual factors and the musician’s position in the orchestra. Hearing impairment is greater at higher frequencies; in pure tone audiogram it is shown as notches between 3000 and 6000 Hz and is most frequent in the wind and brass section. Hearing loss is greater among violinists and typically affects the left ear owing to the sound source proximity and their position in the orchestra. The most common health problems take the form of diplacusis, algiacusis and tinnitus, as exposure to the loud acoustic stimulus above 90 dB(A cause damage to the inner ear, the so-called acoustic trauma. Use of personal protective equipment among musicians is low especially because of too much high-frequency attenuation and occlusion effect.

  6. Promoting Healthful Exercise for Visually Impaired Persons with Diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weitzman, D. M.

    1993-01-01

    This article discusses the importance of exercise for many people with visual impairments and diabetes. It lists precautions for the person with visual impairments and diabetes and specifies who should not exercise, explains "diabetes-specific" benefits of exercise, suggests a format for a safe workout, and includes an example of a successful…

  7. The impact of hearing aids and age-related hearing loss on auditory plasticity across three months - An electrical neuroimaging study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giroud, Nathalie; Lemke, Ulrike; Reich, Philip; Matthes, Katarina L; Meyer, Martin

    2017-09-01

    The present study investigates behavioral and electrophysiological auditory and cognitive-related plasticity in three groups of healthy older adults (60-77 years). Group 1 was moderately hearing-impaired, experienced hearing aid users, and fitted with new hearing aids using non-linear frequency compression (NLFC on); Group 2, also moderately hearing-impaired, used the same type of hearing aids but NLFC was switched off during the entire period of study duration (NLFC off); Group 3 represented individuals with age-appropriate hearing (NHO) as controls, who were not different in IQ, gender, or age from Group 1 and 2. At five measurement time points (M1-M5) across three months, a series of active oddball tasks were administered while EEG was recorded. The stimuli comprised syllables consisting of naturally high-pitched fricatives (/sh/, /s/, and /f/), which are hard to distinguish for individuals with presbycusis. By applying a data-driven microstate approach to obtain global field power (GFP) as a measure of processing effort, the modulations of perceptual (P50, N1, P2) and cognitive-related (N2b, P3b) auditory evoked potentials were calculated and subsequently related to behavioral changes (accuracy and reaction time) across time. All groups improved their performance across time, but NHO showed consistently higher accuracy and faster reaction times than the hearing-impaired groups, especially under difficult conditions. Electrophysiological results complemented this finding by demonstrating longer latencies in the P50 and the N1 peak in hearing aid users. Furthermore, the GFP of cognitive-related evoked potentials decreased from M1 to M2 in the NHO group, while a comparable decrease in the hearing-impaired group was only evident at M5. After twelve weeks of hearing aid use of eight hours each day, we found a significantly lower GFP in the P3b of the group with NLFC on as compared to the group with NLFC off. These findings suggest higher processing effort, as

  8. Hearing Loss in Persons Exposed and not Exposed to Occupational Noise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kovalova, Martina; Mrazkova, Eva; Sachova, Petra; Vojkovska, Kristyna; Tomaskova, Hana; Janoutova, Jana; Janout, Vladimir

    2016-04-01

    This study aimed to compare hearing loss in individuals at risk and those not at risk for occupational noise and to compare working loss by gender. The analysis used data from a current Czech Ministry of Health grant project called Epidemiological and Genetic Study of the Frequency of Hearing Loss (2011 to 2015; NT12246-5/2011). The analyzed sample comprised 4988 participants. Hearing was tested using pure-tone threshold audiometry, tympanometry, and measurement of the stapedius reflex. Females at risk and those not at risk for occupational noise who were younger than 44 years and older than 75 years were found to have no statistically significant differences at any pure-tone threshold audiometry frequency. In females aged 45 to 74 years, statistically significant differences were found. In males, hearing loss was observed as early as 18 years of age. When comparing males and females at no risk for occupational noise, there were no statistically significant differences at any of the frequencies in those younger than 29 years. In females aged 30 years or older, statistically significant differences were observed at various frequencies in all age groups. When comparing males and females at risk for occupational noise, statistically significant differences were more frequent than in employees not exposed to noise. Hearing loss in females does not significantly vary depending on occupational exposure. The opposite is true for males. However, the maximum differences in mean levels did not exceed 10 dB. It is therefore clear that noise is a preventable factor, and the use of personal protective equipment is warranted.

  9. Sensorineural hearing loss after magnetic resonance imaging

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mollasadeghi, Abolfazl; Mehrparvar, Amir Houshang; Atighechi, Saeid

    2013-01-01

    Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices produce noise, which may affect patient's or operators' hearing. Some cases of hearing impairment after MRI procedure have been reported with different patterns (temporary or permanent, unilateral or bilateral, with or without other symptoms like tinnitus)......). In this report, a case of bilateral sensorineural hearing loss in an otherwise healthy patient underwent brain MRI was described. The patient's hearing loss was accompanied with tinnitus and was not improved after 3 months of followup.......Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices produce noise, which may affect patient's or operators' hearing. Some cases of hearing impairment after MRI procedure have been reported with different patterns (temporary or permanent, unilateral or bilateral, with or without other symptoms like tinnitus...

  10. Hearing aid-related satisfaction based on type and degree of hearing loss in elderly

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farzad FarajiKhiavi

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the elderly; using a hearing aid to alleviate auditory impairment can positively affect their quality of life. This research aimed to determine the level of satisfaction concerning hearing aids in elderly people with hearing impairment based on the type and degree of hearing loss.Methods: An analytic cross-sectional research design was used ; the sample included 40 elderly people who used hearing aids. According to the World Health Organization (WHO age classification, participants were divided into two age groups: 65-74 years (n=20 and 75-90 years (n=20. Satisfaction levels were assessed using a standard satisfaction with amplification in daily life (SADL questionnaire.Results: Satisfaction levels in the 65-74 age group were significantly higher than that in the 75-90 age group (p=0.02. Participants with mixed hearing loss revealed higher satisfaction levels than participants with sensorineural hearing loss (p=0.02. On the negative effects dimension, participants with severe hearing loss exhibited significantly higher satisfaction levels than participants with moderate or moderate to severe hearing loss (p=0.01.Conclusion: Total satisfaction mean scores were relatively high in the elderly participants . Negative features could be reduced via careful consultation regarding the aids’ amplifying capabilities and limitations in groups with moderate or moderate to severe hearing loss.

  11. Visual perception and appraisal of persons with impairments: a randomised controlled field experiment using photo elicitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reinhardt, Jan Dietrich; Ballert, Carolina Saskia; Fellinghauer, Bernd; Lötscher, Alexander; Gradinger, Felix; Hilfiker, Roger; Graf, Sibylle; Stucki, Gerold

    2011-01-01

    Visual cues from persons with impairments may trigger stereotypical generalisations that lead to prejudice and discrimination. The main objective of this pilot study is to examine whether visual stimuli of impairment activate latent prejudice against disability and whether this connection can be counteracted with priming strategies. In a field experiment, participants were asked to rate photographs showing models with mental impairments, wheelchair users with paraplegia, and persons without any visible impairment. Participants should appraise the models with regard to several features (e.g. communicativeness, intelligence). One hundred participants rated 12 photo models yielding a total of 1183 observations. One group of participants was primed with a cover story introducing visual perception of impairment as the study's gist, while controls received neutral information. Photo models with mental impairments were rated lowest and models without visible impairment highest. In participants who did not have prior contacts with persons with impairments, priming led to a levelling of scores of models with and without impairment. Prior contacts with persons with impairments created similar effects as the priming. Unexpectedly, a pattern of converse double discrimination to the disadvantage of men with mental impairments was revealed. Signs of stereotypical processing of visual cues of impairment have been found in participants of the Swiss general population. Personal contact with persons with impairments as well as priming participants seems to reduce stereotyping.

  12. Language Characteristics of Preschool Children with Hearing Loss in Tehran, Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Younes Lotfi

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Hearing impairment affects all aspect of individual life, specially language and communication skills. When hearing impairment is congenital or occurs early in life, the child’s ability to learn optimally through audition, will be affected. The aim of this study was to evaluate linguistic skills of preschool hearing impaired children and compare these skills with normal peers.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 38 preschool hearing impaired children that the main handicap was severe to profound hearing loss with ability to communicate orally and 28 normal children with the same cultural and social context. Twenty four non linguistic variables including age, gender, the age of entrance of preschool center, number of hearing aids, etc. were obtained by filling a questionnaire and fifteen linguistics variables including number of utterance, morphemes, correct utterance, noun phrase, ambiguous utterance, correct sentences, compound sentences, etc. were collected by some part of TOLD-P-3 test and three complementary questions. Then we compared the data from two groups.Results: There were significant differences between number of utterance, number of correct mean length utterance, number of well-formed sentences in normal and hearing impaired group (p0.05.Conclusion: This study showed a severe deficit in linguistic skills in preschool hearing impaired children.

  13. Demographic Characteristics and Impairments of Louisiana Students with Usher's Syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, S. C.

    1987-01-01

    Of 51 Louisiana students with Usher's Syndrome (a genetic condition characterized by hearing loss and progressive blindness), 71 percent manifested visual impairment and hearing loss, 9 percent had neither, 10 percent had visual impairments but a less-than-profound hearing loss, and 10 percent had profound hearing loss and no visual impairment.…

  14. Personality Pathology of Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder Without Accompanying Intellectual Impairment in Comparison to Adults With Personality Disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strunz, Sandra; Westphal, Linda; Ritter, Kathrin; Heuser, Isabella; Dziobek, Isabel; Roepke, Stefan

    2015-12-01

    Differentiating autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) without accompanying intellectual impairment from personality disorders is often challenging. Identifying personality traits and personality pathology specific to ASD might facilitate diagnostic procedure. We recruited a sample of 59 adults with ASD without accompanying intellectual impairment, 62 individuals with narcissistic personality disorder, 80 individuals with borderline personality disorder, and 106 nonclinical controls. Personality traits, measured with the neo-personality inventory-revised (NEO-PI-R), and personality pathology, measured with the dimensional assessment of personality pathology (DAPP-BQ), were assessed. Personality traits and personality pathology specific to ASD could be identified. ASD individuals scored significantly lower on the NEO-PI-R scales extraversion and openness to experience and significantly higher on the DAPP-BQ scales inhibitedness and compulsivity relative to all other groups. Diagnostic implications are discussed.

  15. Examination of the neighborhood activation theory in normal and hearing-impaired listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirks, D D; Takayanagi, S; Moshfegh, A; Noffsinger, P D; Fausti, S A

    2001-02-01

    well as to an elderly group of listeners with sensorineural hearing loss in the speech-shaped noise (Experiment 3). The results of three experiments verified predictions of NAM in both normal hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. In each experiment, words from low density neighborhoods were recognized more accurately than those from high density neighborhoods. The presence of high frequency neighbors (average neighborhood frequency) produced poorer recognition performance than comparable conditions with low frequency neighbors. Word frequency was found to have a highly significant effect on word recognition. Lexical conditions with high word frequencies produced higher performance scores than conditions with low frequency words. The results supported the basic tenets of NAM theory and identified both neighborhood structural properties and word frequency as significant lexical factors affecting word recognition when listening in noise and "in quiet." The results of the third experiment permit extension of NAM theory to individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. Future development of speech recognition tests should allow for the effects of higher level cognitive (lexical) factors on lower level phonemic processing.

  16. Autism and peripheral hearing loss: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beers, Alison N; McBoyle, Melanie; Kakande, Emily; Dar Santos, Rachelle C; Kozak, Frederick K

    2014-01-01

    To systematically review the literature describing the relationship between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and peripheral hearing loss including literature recommendations for audiological assessment and auditory habilitation in cases where peripheral hearing loss and ASD coexist. Published studies indexed in MEDLINE (1948-2011). The search strategy identified 595 potential studies. After a review of the titles, 115 abstracts were reviewed and 39 articles were retrieved and assessed independently by at least two authors for possible inclusion. 22 articles pertained to children with ASD and peripheral hearing loss, hearing assessment in children with ASD, audiological habilitation for children with ASD or hyper-responsiveness in children with ASD. 17 further studies were garnered from the reference section of the 22 papers. Controversy exists in the literature regarding prevalence of hearing impairment among individuals with ASD. In cases where ASD and hearing impairment co-exist, diagnosis of one condition often leads to a delay in diagnosing the other. Audiological assessment can be difficult in children with ASD and test-retest reliability of behavioural thresholds can be poor. In cases where hearing impairment exists and hearing aids or cochlear implantation are recommended, devices are often fit with special considerations for the child with ASD. Hyper-responsiveness to auditory stimuli may be displayed by individuals with ASD. Evidence or the suspicion of hyper-responsiveness may be taken into consideration when fitting amplification and planning behavioural intervention. Prevalence rates of hearing impairment among individuals with ASD continue to be debated. At present there is no conclusive evidence that children with ASD are at increased risk of peripheral hearing loss. A complete audiological assessment is recommended in all cases where ASD is suspected so as not to delay the diagnosis of hearing impairment in the event that hearing loss and ASD co

  17. Speech-evoked auditory brainstem responses in children with hearing loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koravand, Amineh; Al Osman, Rida; Rivest, Véronique; Poulin, Catherine

    2017-08-01

    The main objective of the present study was to investigate subcortical auditory processing in children with sensorineural hearing loss. Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABRs) were recorded using click and speech/da/stimuli. Twenty-five children, aged 6-14 years old, participated in the study: 13 with normal hearing acuity and 12 with sensorineural hearing loss. No significant differences were observed for the click-evoked ABRs between normal hearing and hearing-impaired groups. For the speech-evoked ABRs, no significant differences were found for the latencies of the following responses between the two groups: onset (V and A), transition (C), one of the steady-state wave (F), and offset (O). However, the latency of the steady-state waves (D and E) was significantly longer for the hearing-impaired compared to the normal hearing group. Furthermore, the amplitude of the offset wave O and of the envelope frequency response (EFR) of the speech-evoked ABRs was significantly larger for the hearing-impaired compared to the normal hearing group. Results obtained from the speech-evoked ABRs suggest that children with a mild to moderately-severe sensorineural hearing loss have a specific pattern of subcortical auditory processing. Our results show differences for the speech-evoked ABRs in normal hearing children compared to hearing-impaired children. These results add to the body of the literature on how children with hearing loss process speech at the brainstem level. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Test-retest reliability of the assessment of postural stability in typically developing children and in hearing impaired children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Kegel, A; Dhooge, I; Cambier, D; Baetens, T; Palmans, T; Van Waelvelde, H

    2011-04-01

    The purpose of this study was to establish test-retest reliability of centre of pressure (COP) measurements obtained by an AccuGait portable forceplate (ACG), mean COG sway velocity measured by a Basic Balance Master (BBM) and clinical balance tests in children with and without balance difficulties. 49 typically developing children and 23 hearing impaired children, with a higher risk for stability problems, between 6 and 12 years of age participated. Each child performed the modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction on Balance (mCTSIB), Unilateral Stance (US) and Tandem Stance on ACG, mCTSIB and US on BBM and clinical balance tests: one-leg standing, balance beam walking and one-leg hopping. All subjects completed 2 test sessions on 2 different days in the same week assessed by the same examiner. Among COP measurements obtained by the ACG, mean sway velocity was the most reliable parameter with all ICCs higher than 0.72. The standard deviation (SD) of sway velocity, sway area, SD of anterior-posterior and SD of medio-lateral COP data showed moderate to excellent reliability with ICCs between 0.55 and 0.96 but some caution must be taken into account in some conditions. BBM is less reliable but clinical balance tests are as reliable as ACG. Hearing impaired children exhibited better relative reliability (ICC) and comparable absolute reliability (SEM) for most balance parameters compared to typically developing children. Reliable information regarding postural stability of typically developing children and hearing impaired children may be obtained utilizing COP measurements generated by an AccuGait system and clinical balance tests. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Hearing aid fitting for visual and hearing impaired patients with Usher syndrome type IIa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartel, B P; Agterberg, M J H; Snik, A F; Kunst, H P M; van Opstal, A J; Bosman, A J; Pennings, R J E

    2017-08-01

    Usher syndrome is the leading cause of hereditary deaf-blindness. Most patients with Usher syndrome type IIa start using hearing aids from a young age. A serious complaint refers to interference between sound localisation abilities and adaptive sound processing (compression), as present in today's hearing aids. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of advanced signal processing on binaural hearing, including sound localisation. In this prospective study, patients were fitted with hearing aids with a nonlinear (compression) and linear amplification programs. Data logging was used to objectively evaluate the use of either program. Performance was evaluated with a speech-in-noise test, a sound localisation test and two questionnaires focussing on self-reported benefit. Data logging confirmed that the reported use of hearing aids was high. The linear program was used significantly more often (average use: 77%) than the nonlinear program (average use: 17%). The results for speech intelligibility in noise and sound localisation did not show a significant difference between type of amplification. However, the self-reported outcomes showed higher scores on 'ease of communication' and overall benefit, and significant lower scores on disability for the new hearing aids when compared to their previous hearing aids with compression amplification. Patients with Usher syndrome type IIa prefer a linear amplification over nonlinear amplification when fitted with novel hearing aids. Apart from a significantly higher logged use, no difference in speech in noise and sound localisation was observed between linear and nonlinear amplification with the currently used tests. Further research is needed to evaluate the reasons behind the preference for the linear settings. © 2016 The Authors. Clinical Otolaryngology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. Antiretroviral therapy, immune suppression and renal impairment in HIV-positive persons

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Lene Ryom; Mocroft, Amanda; Lundgren, Jens D

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to review recent literature on antiretroviral treatment (ART) and immune suppression as risk factors for renal impairment in HIV-positive persons, and to discuss pending research questions within this field.......The purpose of this article is to review recent literature on antiretroviral treatment (ART) and immune suppression as risk factors for renal impairment in HIV-positive persons, and to discuss pending research questions within this field....

  1. Processing of spatial sounds in the impaired auditory system

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arweiler, Iris

    with an intelligibility-weighted “efficiency factor” which revealed that the spectral characteristics of the ER’s caused the reduced benefit. Hearing-impaired listeners were able to utilize the ER energy as effectively as normal-hearing listeners, most likely because binaural processing was not required...... implications for speech perception models and the development of compensation strategies in future generations of hearing instruments.......Understanding speech in complex acoustic environments presents a challenge for most hearing-impaired listeners. In conditions where normal-hearing listeners effortlessly utilize spatial cues to improve speech intelligibility, hearing-impaired listeners often struggle. In this thesis, the influence...

  2. The Danish hearing in noise test

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Jens Bo; Dau, Torsten

    2010-01-01

    Objective : A Danish version of the hearing in noise test (HINT) has been developed and evaluated in normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. The speech material originated from Nielsen & Dau (2009) where a sentence-based intelligibility equalization method was presented. Design...

  3. Hearing Aids Communication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Globally, hearing loss is the second most frequent disability. About 80% of the persons affected by hearing loss do not use hearing aids. The goal of this edited volume is to present a theoretically founded, interdisciplinary approach geared at understanding and improving social interaction...

  4. Features of the technical training athletes with hearing impaired in various sports

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khurtyk D.V.

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available It was analysed scientific-methodical and specialized literature on adaptive sports: table tennis, basketball, judo, skiing. It is conducted interviews with leading coaches working in the Deaflympic sport. Monitor the training process of elite athletes with hearing impairments, specializing in ski racing. Found that for technical training of athletes use the principle of learning the exercises and improvement from simple to complex with the rote. It was shown the necessity of attracting able-bodied athletes in the training process deflimpiytsev to optimize their technical training. The data obtained allow us to determine the direction of improving the technical skills of this category of athletes.

  5. Hearing Aid and children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jamileh Fatahi

    2002-07-01

    Full Text Available In order to develop oral communication, hearing impaired infants and young children must be able to hear speech comfortably and consistently. To day children with all degrees of hearing loss may be condidates for some kinds of amlification. As children differ from adults, many Factors should be consider in hearing aid selection, evaluation and fitting. For example the child age when he or she is candidate for custom instruments? Do we consider programmable Hearing aid? Are multi memory instruments appropriate for them? What about directional microphones? What style of hearing aid do we select? In this paper such questions are Answered.

  6. Attachment and Individuation of Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing and Hearing Young Adults

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weisel, Amatzia; Kamara, Ahiya

    2005-01-01

    This study examined differences between deaf/hard-of-hearing (D/HH) and hearing persons with regard to two interrelated and continuous developmental processes: attachment (Bowlby, 1969) and individuation (Mahler, 1963). The study also examined intergroup differences in two personal variables assumed to be influenced by these processes: self-esteem…

  7. Correlation between Serum Aldosterone Level and Hearing Condition of Elderly Patients Referred to Otolaryngology Services of Hamadan, Western Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Farhad Farahani

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Recently, more attention was paid to the direct protective effect of aldosterone against hearing impairment in elderly patients. The aim of this study was determination of possible correlation between serum aldosterone level and hearing condition of elderly patients that referred to the Otolaryngology services of Hamadan in 2005-2006.Methods: In this case control study 54 (27 males,27 females persons above 60 years old were evaluated. They contained twenty eight cases with normal hearing and 26 cases with presbycusis. Persons with any abnormal biochemical finding or history of conditions that predispose them to the sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL were excluded. In both groups serum level of sodium, potassium and aldosterone were measured and hearing condition evaluated by puretone, speech and immitance audiometry.Results: Statistical relationship between serum aldostrone level and hearing condition, sex, configuration of audiogram and speech discrimination score (SDS were not significant. In addition, no significant relationship between sodium and potassium levels with hearing condition was found (p>0.05.Conclusion: This study could not confirm protective effect of aldostrone against presbycusis. This discrepancy may originate from epidemiologic differences, laboratory errors or small sample size.

  8. Individual Hearing Loss

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sébastien Santurette

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available It is well-established that hearing loss does not only lead to a reduction of hearing sensitivity. Large individual differences are typically observed among listeners with hearing impairment in a wide range of suprathreshold auditory measures. In many cases, audiometric thresholds cannot fully account for such individual differences, which make it challenging to find adequate compensation strategies in hearing devices. How to characterize, model, and compensate for individual hearing loss were the main topics of the fifth International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research (ISAAR, held in Nyborg, Denmark, in August 2015. The following collection of papers results from some of the work that was presented and discussed at the symposium.

  9. Temporal and spatio-temporal vibrotactile displays for voice fundamental frequency: an initial evaluation of a new vibrotactile speech perception aid with normal-hearing and hearing-impaired individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auer, E T; Bernstein, L E; Coulter, D C

    1998-10-01

    Four experiments were performed to evaluate a new wearable vibrotactile speech perception aid that extracts fundamental frequency (F0) and displays the extracted F0 as a single-channel temporal or an eight-channel spatio-temporal stimulus. Specifically, we investigated the perception of intonation (i.e., question versus statement) and emphatic stress (i.e., stress on the first, second, or third word) under Visual-Alone (VA), Visual-Tactile (VT), and Tactile-Alone (TA) conditions and compared performance using the temporal and spatio-temporal vibrotactile display. Subjects were adults with normal hearing in experiments I-III and adults with severe to profound hearing impairments in experiment IV. Both versions of the vibrotactile speech perception aid successfully conveyed intonation. Vibrotactile stress information was successfully conveyed, but vibrotactile stress information did not enhance performance in VT conditions beyond performance in VA conditions. In experiment III, which involved only intonation identification, a reliable advantage for the spatio-temporal display was obtained. Differences between subject groups were obtained for intonation identification, with more accurate VT performance by those with normal hearing. Possible effects of long-term hearing status are discussed.

  10. Factors contributing to hearing impairment in patients with cleft lip/palate in Malaysia: A prospective study of 346 ears.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheong, Jack Pein; Soo, Siew Shuin; Manuel, Anura Michelle

    2016-09-01

    To determine the factors contributing towards hearing impairment in patients with cleft lip/palate. A prospective analysis was conducted on 173 patients (346 ears) with cleft lip and palate (CL/P) who presented to the combined cleft clinic at University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) over 12 months. The patients' hearing status was determined using otoacoustic emission (OAE), pure tone audiometry (PTA) and auditory brainstem response (ABR). These results were analysed against several parameters, which included age, gender, race, types of cleft pathology, impact and timing of repair surgery. The patients' age ranged from 1-26 years old. They comprised 30% with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP), 28% with bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP), 28% with isolated cleft palate (ICP) and 14% with isolated cleft lip (ICL). Majority of the patients (68.2%) had normal otoscopic findings. Out of the 346 ears, 241 ears (70%) ears had passed the hearing tests. There was no significant relationship between patients' gender and ethnicity with their hearing status. The types of cleft pathology significantly influenced the outcome of PTA and ABR screening results (p cleft groups and the outcome of hearing tests. However, hearing improvement occurred when palatal repair was performed at the age of cleft patients had normal hearing (70%). Hearing threshold varied significantly between the different types of cleft pathology. Surgery conferred no significant impact on the hearing outcome unless surgery was performed at the age of <1 year old. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. A Survey of Basic Facilities and Service Provision for the Successful Inclusion of the Students with Hearing Impairment in Inklusive Education Setting in Cross River, Akwa IBOM & Rivers State of Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Abua Ewa

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Obviously, since the challenges of life change with time, education should aim at bringing up children with hearing impairment to face these changes and make necessary adjustment in their lives for successful living. Hence education programs and service provisions should therefore be dynamic. To realise these important functions, programs and services designed for the students with hearing impairment in an inclusive education setting should not be on exemption, since the society itself is dynamic in many respects, its fundamental needs equally change with time which hitherto makes societal objective changes also, owing to advancement in scientific inventions, innovation in trends and practices of inclusive education. Bearing this in mind, this paper sought to ascertain the level of provision and availability of basic facilities and services necessary for the successful inclusion of students with hearing impairment. The survey focused on the availability and use of assistive technology devices by the hearing impaired students, recruitment and training of teaching and supportive staff, communication strategies adapted by the teachers, medical and socials services .Data were collected using a Likert-like questionnaire from the sampled secondary schools in the states under investigation. The researcher analysed the data using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation co-efficient. The results revealed that much is yet to be put in place in the states under study for the successful inclusion of students with hearing impairment into inclusive education setting.

  12. Occupational noise, smoking, and a high body mass index are risk factors for age-related hearing impairment and moderate alcohol consumption is protective: A European population-based multicenter study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fransen, E.; Topsakal, V.; Hendrickx, J.J.

    2008-01-01

    A multicenter study was set up to elucidate the environmental and medical risk factors contributing to age-related hearing impairment (ARHI). Nine subsamples, collected by nine audiological centers across Europe, added up to a total of 4,083 subjects between 53 and 67 years. Audiometric data (pur...... as well as in the low frequencies. The results suggest that a healthy lifestyle can protect against age-related hearing impairment Udgivelsesdato: 2008/9...

  13. From Texas to Alaska: Leading Hearing Impaired Elementary Students in Texas to Engage in Science of the Northern Lights Performed in Alaska.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jahn, J. M.; Ibarra, S.; Pfeifer, M. D.; Samara, M.; Michell, R.

    2014-12-01

    Interacting with hearing impaired students who communicate using auditory/oral methods provides challenges and opportunities to education/outreach activities. Despite many advances in assistive technologies, these hearing impaired students will learn much less incidentally than their peers with typical hearing. In other words, they will often require repeated auditory and perhaps visual reinforcement in order to learn a new word or a new concept. This need leads to a much more deliberate and conscious interaction between educators or scientists and the students. We are reporting from a unique joint project between the Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), to bring actual space research to life for hearing impaired elementary school students. During this project, we combined the unique capabilities of Deaf Education educators with the excitement and wonder of researching the northern lights. For three consecutive winters, we conducted a series of informal yet structured activities each year with fourth and fifth grade students. Our interactions went beyond typical classroom activities and readily available educational materials. Our goal was to engage and excite the students. To do so, we set up a series of interactions and mini-projects that introduced the students to actual research and actual researchers. From "meet the scientists" visits to school over a field trip to the SwRI space research facilities to observing and predicting the aurora using real-time space weather data, we engaged students in the "who" and "how" of doing research and field work in Alaska's winter. Over the course of this project, students connected with a remote school in the interior of Alaska, participated in the excitement of a NASA sounding rocket campaign in in Poker Flat, AK, skyped with researchers and students in Alaska, and made aurora predictions using NOAA real time space weather data. The highlight of the program each year was

  14. Effects of Conductive Hearing Loss: Fact or Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ventry, Ira M.

    1980-01-01

    The article reviews the empirical evidence implicating conductive hearing impairments as causal agents in learning disability, language dysfunction, and central auditory problems. It is concluded that there are few, if any, valid data linking conductive hearing impairment to any of these problems. (Author/DLS)

  15. Hearing Impairment CausedbyOccupational Noise*

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    1971-08-28

    Aug 28, 1971 ... over-all noise level, (b) exposure duration in a working day, and (c) exposure .... The highest tone on a piano is about 4 000 Hz. This is the frequency for which ..... hours per week and serves as the decisive criterion for hearing ...

  16. Validation of Self-Report Impairment Measures for Section III Obsessive-Compulsive and Avoidant Personality Disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liggett, Jacqueline; Carmichael, Kieran L C; Smith, Alexander; Sellbom, Martin

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the validity of newly developed disorder-specific impairment scales (IS), modeled on the Level of Personality Functioning Scale, for obsessive-compulsive (OCPD) and avoidant (AvPD) personality disorders. The IS focused on content validity (items directly reflected the disorder-specific impairments listed in DSM-5 Section III) and severity of impairment. A community sample of 313 adults completed personality inventories indexing the DSM-5 Sections II and III diagnostic criteria for OCPD and AvPD, as well as measures of impairment in the domains of self- and interpersonal functioning. Results indicated that both impairment measures (for AvPD in particular) showed promise in their ability to measure disorder-specific impairment, demonstrating convergent validity with their respective Section II counterparts and discriminant validity with their noncorresponding Section II disorder and with each other. The pattern of relationships between scores on the IS and scores on external measures of personality functioning, however, did not indicate that it is useful to maintain a distinction between impairment in the self- and interpersonal domains, at least for AvPD and OCPD.

  17. Personality traits and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terracciano, Antonio; Stephan, Yannick; Luchetti, Martina; Albanese, Emiliano; Sutin, Angelina R

    2017-06-01

    We investigated the association between five factor model personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and risk of dementia, cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND), and conversion from CIND to dementia in a large national cohort. Participants from the Health and Retirement Study (N > 10,000) completed a personality scale in 2006-2008 and their cognitive status was tracked for up to 8 years using the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICSm). Adjusting for age, sex, education, race, and ethnicity, lower conscientiousness and agreeableness and higher neuroticism were independently associated with increased risk of dementia. These associations remained significant after adjusting for other risk factors for dementia, including income, wealth, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and blood biomarkers. These associations were not modified by age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education, suggesting that the associations of personality with risk of dementia were similar across demographic groups. Neuroticism and conscientiousness were also associated with risk of CIND. Low conscientiousness predicted conversion from CIND to dementia. Using brief assessments of personality and cognition, we found robust evidence that personality is associated with risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in a large national sample. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. De standaard vroegtijdige opsporing van gehoorstoornissen 0-19 jaar van de jeugdgezondheidszorg [The youth health care guideline early screening for hearing impairment ages 0-19 years

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leerdam, F.J.M. van

    2000-01-01

    The Youth Health Care guideline 'Early screening for hearing impairment, ages 0-19 years' draws the attention of all parties involved to the case finding of, notably, perceptive hearing loss; it helps workers in the Youth Health Care argue their referrals and improve the next steps in the process.

  19. Sentence Recognition Prediction for Hearing-impaired Listeners in Stationary and Fluctuation Noise With FADE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schädler, Marc René; Warzybok, Anna; Meyer, Bernd T.; Brand, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    To characterize the individual patient’s hearing impairment as obtained with the matrix sentence recognition test, a simulation Framework for Auditory Discrimination Experiments (FADE) is extended here using the Attenuation and Distortion (A+D) approach by Plomp as a blueprint for setting the individual processing parameters. FADE has been shown to predict the outcome of both speech recognition tests and psychoacoustic experiments based on simulations using an automatic speech recognition system requiring only few assumptions. It builds on the closed-set matrix sentence recognition test which is advantageous for testing individual speech recognition in a way comparable across languages. Individual predictions of speech recognition thresholds in stationary and in fluctuating noise were derived using the audiogram and an estimate of the internal level uncertainty for modeling the individual Plomp curves fitted to the data with the Attenuation (A-) and Distortion (D-) parameters of the Plomp approach. The “typical” audiogram shapes from Bisgaard et al with or without a “typical” level uncertainty and the individual data were used for individual predictions. As a result, the individualization of the level uncertainty was found to be more important than the exact shape of the individual audiogram to accurately model the outcome of the German Matrix test in stationary or fluctuating noise for listeners with hearing impairment. The prediction accuracy of the individualized approach also outperforms the (modified) Speech Intelligibility Index approach which is based on the individual threshold data only. PMID:27604782

  20. Sentence Recognition Prediction for Hearing-impaired Listeners in Stationary and Fluctuation Noise With FADE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birger Kollmeier

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available To characterize the individual patient’s hearing impairment as obtained with the matrix sentence recognition test, a simulation Framework for Auditory Discrimination Experiments (FADE is extended here using the Attenuation and Distortion (A+D approach by Plomp as a blueprint for setting the individual processing parameters. FADE has been shown to predict the outcome of both speech recognition tests and psychoacoustic experiments based on simulations using an automatic speech recognition system requiring only few assumptions. It builds on the closed-set matrix sentence recognition test which is advantageous for testing individual speech recognition in a way comparable across languages. Individual predictions of speech recognition thresholds in stationary and in fluctuating noise were derived using the audiogram and an estimate of the internal level uncertainty for modeling the individual Plomp curves fitted to the data with the Attenuation (A- and Distortion (D- parameters of the Plomp approach. The “typical” audiogram shapes from Bisgaard et al with or without a “typical” level uncertainty and the individual data were used for individual predictions. As a result, the individualization of the level uncertainty was found to be more important than the exact shape of the individual audiogram to accurately model the outcome of the German Matrix test in stationary or fluctuating noise for listeners with hearing impairment. The prediction accuracy of the individualized approach also outperforms the (modified Speech Intelligibility Index approach which is based on the individual threshold data only.

  1. How Hearing Impairment Affects Sentence Comprehension: Using Eye Fixations to Investigate the Duration of Speech Processing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wendt, Dorothea; Kollmeier, Birger; Brand, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    ; this measure uses eye fixations recorded while the participant listens to a sentence. Eye fixations toward a target picture (which matches the aurally presented sentence) were measured in the presence of a competitor picture. Based on the recorded eye fixations, the single target detection amplitude, which...... reflects the tendency of the participant to fixate the target picture, was used as a metric to estimate the duration of sentence processing. The single target detection amplitude was calculated for sentence structures with different levels of linguistic complexity and for different listening conditions......: in quiet and in two different noise conditions. Participants with hearing impairment spent more time processing sentences, even at high levels of speech intelligibility. In addition, the relationship between the proposed online measure and listener-specific factors, such as hearing aid use and cognitive...

  2. Auditory-model based assessment of the effects of hearing loss and hearing-aid compression on spectral and temporal resolution

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kowalewski, Borys; MacDonald, Ewen; Strelcyk, Olaf

    2016-01-01

    . However, due to the complexity of speech and its robustness to spectral and temporal alterations, the effects of DRC on speech perception have been mixed and controversial. The goal of the present study was to obtain a clearer understanding of the interplay between hearing loss and DRC by means......Most state-of-the-art hearing aids apply multi-channel dynamic-range compression (DRC). Such designs have the potential to emulate, at least to some degree, the processing that takes place in the healthy auditory system. One way to assess hearing-aid performance is to measure speech intelligibility....... Outcomes were simulated using the auditory processing model of Jepsen et al. (2008) with the front end modified to include effects of hearing impairment and DRC. The results were compared to experimental data from normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners....

  3. Effectiveness of an online SUpport PRogramme (SUPR) for older hearing aid users: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meijerink, Janine Fj; Pronk, Marieke; Paulissen, Bernadette; Witte, Birgit I; Wouden, Bregje van der; Jansen, Vera; Kramer, Sophia E

    2017-06-20

    An educational SUpport PRogramme called SUPR has been developed for hearing aid users (HAUs) and their communication partners (CPs) offering care beyond hearing aid fitting. SUPR teaches its users communication strategies, hearing aid handling skills and personal adjustment to hearing impairment. Using a cluster randomised controlled trial design, 70 Dutch hearing aid dispenser practices were randomised into hearing aid fitting (care as usual, 34 practices) and hearing aid fitting including SUPR (36 practices). The aim was to recruit a total of 569 older (aged 50+ years) first-time (n=258) and experienced (n=311) HAUs and their CPs. SUPR consists of a Practical Support Booklet and online material offered via email over a period of 6-7 months. The booklet provides practical information on hearing aids, advice on communication strategies and home exercises. The online material consists of educational videos on hearing aid functionality and usage, communication strategies and peer testimonials. Finally, noncommittal email contact with the dispenser is offered. Every HAU is asked to assign a CP who is advised to be involved intensively. Effect measurements for HAUs and their CPs will occur at baseline and at 6, 12 and 18 months follow-up via online questionnaires. The primary outcomes for HAUs will be the use of communication strategies as measured by the subscales of the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired. A process evaluation will be performed. The study was approved by the Dutch Institutional Review Board of the VU Medical University Center Amsterdam. This intervention could contribute to lowering the hearing impairment burden in our ageing society. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and scientific conferences. ISRCTN77340339; Pre-results. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly

  4. Mental Health among Students with Hearing Impairment in a Malaysian Secondary School

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sharene Tay Ai Hwa

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Good mental health is important to meet challenges in life. In contrast, mental health problem may affect anyone at any age, and may significantly impair one’s ability to form daily activities. The aim of this study is to identify mental health state among hearing impaired secondary school students in Johor Bahru. For collecting data, a survey design was using a questionnaire. A total of 77 students with hearing disabilities were selected through purposive sampling to participate in this study. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics in the form of frequency and percentage. The findings in this study showed that peers problems are the most significant problems, followed by conduct problems, and emotional problems. These findings indicate that the need to tackle mental health problems due to the impact of poor mental health in an individual can lead to problems for the individuals themselves, their families and society. Kesihatan mental yang baik adalah penting untuk menghadapi cabaran dalam kehidupan. Sebaliknya, masalah kesihatan mental boleh menjejaskan sesiapa sahaja pada peringkat umur, dan dengan ketara boleh menjejaskan keupayaan seseorang untuk membentuk aktiviti harian. Tujuan utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti tahap kesihatan mental murid di sekolah menengah kurang upaya pendengaran di Johor Bahru. Kajian tinjauan ini menggunakan soalselidik untuk mengumpulkan data. Seramai 77 orang murid kurang upaya pendengaran yang telah dipilih melalui persampelan bertujuan sebagai responden dalam kajian ini. Data dianalisis melalui statistik deskriptif dalam bentuk kekerapan dan peratusan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa masalah rakan sebaya merupakan masalah yang paling signifikan, diikuti oleh masalah conduct, dan masalah emosi. Penemuan ini menunjukkan keperluan untuk menangani masalah kesihatan mental kerana impak kesihatan mental yang kurang memuaskan pada seseorang individu boleh mengakibatkan masalah kepada individu itu

  5. Characteristics of hearing-impairment among patients in Ghana ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Noise, Fever, Presbycusis, Sickness, Meningitis and Meniere's diseases were the major causes of Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Conductive Hearing Loss was attributed in the main to Wax, Foreign Bodies, Otitis Media, and Traumas. These findings have important implications on the need of resources for rehabilitation.

  6. Characteristics of hearing-impairment among patients in Ghana ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    kemrilib

    Noise, Fever, Presbycusis, Sickness,. Meningitis and Meniere's diseases were the major causes of Sensorineural. Hearing Loss. Conductive Hearing Loss was attributed in the main to Wax,. Foreign Bodies, Otitis Media, and Traumas. These findings have important implications on the need of resources for rehabilitation.

  7. Unilateral Hearing Loss Is Associated With Impaired Balance in Children: A Pilot Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolter, Nikolaus E; Cushing, Sharon L; Vilchez-Madrigal, Luis D; James, Adrian L; Campos, Jennifer; Papsin, Blake C; Gordon, Karen A

    2016-12-01

    To determine if children with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (UHL) demonstrate impaired balance compared with their normal hearing (NH) peers. Prospective, case-control study. Balance was assessed in14 UHL and 14 NH children using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test-2 (BOT-2) and time to fall (TTF) in an immersive, virtual-reality laboratory. Postural control was quantified by center of pressure (COP) using force plates. The effect of vision on balance was assessed by comparing scores and COP characteristics on BOT-2 tasks performed with eyes open and closed. Balance ability as measured by the BOT-2 score was significantly worse in children with UHL compared with NH children (p = 0.004). TTF was shorter in children with UHL compared with NH children in the most difficult tasks when visual and somatosensory inputs were limited (p children with UHL when visual input was removed while performing moderately difficult tasks (i.e., standing on one foot) (p = 0.02). In this pilot study, children with UHL show poorer balance skills than NH children. Significant differences in TTF between the two groups were only seen in the most difficult tasks and therefore may be missed on routine clinical assessment. Children with UHL appear to rely more on vision for maintaining postural control than their NH peers. These findings may point to deficits not only in the hearing but also the vestibular portion of the inner ear.

  8. Cognitive Compensation of Speech Perception With Hearing Impairment, Cochlear Implants, and Aging : How and to What Degree Can It Be Achieved?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Baskent, Deniz; Clarke, Jeanne; Pals, Carina; Benard, Michel R.; Bhargava, Pranesh; Saija, Jefta; Sarampalis, Anastasios; Wagner, Anita; Gaudrain, Etienne

    2016-01-01

    External degradations in incoming speech reduce understanding, and hearing impairment further compounds the problem. While cognitive mechanisms alleviate some of the difficulties, their effectiveness may change with age. In our research, reviewed here, we investigated cognitive compensation with

  9. Effects of Varying Reverberation on Music Perception for Young Normal-Hearing and Old Hearing-Impaired Listeners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reinhart, Paul N; Souza, Pamela E

    2018-01-01

    Reverberation enhances music perception and is one of the most important acoustic factors in auditorium design. However, previous research on reverberant music perception has focused on young normal-hearing (YNH) listeners. Old hearing-impaired (OHI) listeners have degraded spatial auditory processing; therefore, they may perceive reverberant music differently. Two experiments were conducted examining the effects of varying reverberation on music perception for YNH and OHI listeners. Experiment 1 examined whether YNH listeners and OHI listeners prefer different amounts of reverberation for classical music listening. Symphonic excerpts were processed at a range of reverberation times using a point-source simulation. Listeners performed a paired-comparisons task in which they heard two excerpts with different reverberation times, and they indicated which they preferred. The YNH group preferred a reverberation time of 2.5 s; however, the OHI group did not demonstrate any significant preference. Experiment 2 examined whether OHI listeners are less sensitive to (e, less able to discriminate) differences in reverberation time than YNH listeners. YNH and OHI participants listened to pairs of music excerpts and indicated whether they perceived the same or different amount of reverberation. Results indicated that the ability of both groups to detect differences in reverberation time improved with increasing reverberation time difference. However, discrimination was poorer for the OHI group than for the YNH group. This suggests that OHI listeners are less sensitive to differences in reverberation when listening to music than YNH listeners, which might explain the lack of group reverberation time preferences of the OHI group.

  10. In situ Hearing Tests for the Purpose of a Self-Fit Hearing Aid

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boymans, Monique; Dreschler, Wouter A.

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the potential and limitations of a self-fit hearing aid. This can be used in the "developing" world or in countries with large distances between the hearing-impaired subjects and the professional. It contains an on-board tone generator for in situ user-controlled, automated

  11. Effect of postsecondary education on the economic status of persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schley, Sara; Walter, Gerard G; Weathers, Robert R; Hemmeter, Jeffrey; Hennessey, John C; Burkhauser, Richard V

    2011-01-01

    This article examines the effect that postsecondary education has on earnings and the duration of time spent in the Social Security disability programs for young persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. Our hypothesis is that investments in postsecondary training increase the likelihood of employment for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and thus reduce dependency on disability-related income support programs. A longitudinal data set based upon records from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Social Security administrative records is used for this analysis. We find that those who graduate, even those who graduate with vocational degrees, experience significant earnings benefits and reductions in the duration of time spent on federal disability programs when compared with those who do not graduate with a degree. This finding suggests that reductions in the duration of time spent on Social Security programs are not limited to those with the highest level of scholastic aptitude and that investments in post-secondary education can benefit a broad group of deaf and hard-of-hearing persons. In addition, the data show that individuals who attend college, but withdraw before graduation, fair no better economically than individuals who never attended college.

  12. THE DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUCTION BOOK ABOUT ARCHIPELAGO CAKE MAKING IN STUDY OF COOK AND FOOD PREPARATION FOR STUDENTS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dienda Nurmaisitha

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this research was to develop instruction book of archipelago cake making for students with hearing impairment. The research adapted the Sugiyono (2011 model which consists of 7 stages: (1 potential problems, (2 data collection, (3 product design, (4 validation of the design, (5 design revisions, (6 product testing, and (7 the revision of the product. The results of matter experts was 97%, media experts was 92%, and practitioners (teachers was 98%. The individual experimental result was 90% for student I, 95% for student II, and 80% for student III. The result of field experimental from the evaluation to the students were 82,66 in average scoring. The research result showed that the instruction book about archipelago cake making in study of cook and food preparation for students with hearing impairment in state SMPLB was proper and effective.

  13. Genome-wide SNP-based linkage scan identifies a locus on 8q24 for an age-related hearing impairment trait

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Huyghe, J.R.; Laer, L. Van; Hendrickx, J.J.

    2008-01-01

    Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI), or presbycusis, is a very common multifactorial disorder. Despite the knowledge that genetics play an important role in the etiology of human ARHI as revealed by heritability studies, to date, its precise genetic determinants remain elusive. Here we report t...

  14. Use of tactile materials for Astronomy teaching for visually- and hearing- impaired public schools in Minas Gerais

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paganotti, A.; Reis, C.; Voelzke, M. R.

    2017-12-01

    This work deals with the use of tactile materials as a pedagogical tool for the teaching of Astronomy, and this material was used in a didactic activity with 44 students of the public elementary school in Minas Gerais. A visually impaired student and another hearing impaired participated, being these the focus of the research. With the tactile visual material elaborated, the objective was to develop themes such as phases of the Moon, eclipses and Solar System. Two questionnaires were applied and revealed an improvement in the concepts related to Astronomy and in the socialization of disabled students with the group after the didactic activity.

  15. Opinions of hearing parents about the causes of hearing impairment of their children with biallelic GJB2 mutations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solovyev, Aisen V; Dzhemileva, Lilya U; Posukh, Olga L; Barashkov, Nikolay A; Bady-Khoo, Marita S; Lobov, Semen L; Popova, Natalya Yu; Romanov, Georgii P; Sazonov, Nikolay N; Bondar, Alexander A; Morozov, Igor V; Tomsky, Mikhail I; Fedorova, Sardana A; Khusnutdinova, Elza K

    2017-07-01

    Hereditary hearing impairment (HI) caused by recessive GJB2 mutations is a frequent sensory disorder. The results of the molecular-based studies of HI are widely used in various genetic test systems. However, the ethical aspects are less described than the genetic aspects. The concerns expressed by individuals from groups with genetic risks must be included in the counseling of patients and their families. For evaluation of subjective opinions of hearing parents about the presumed causes of HI of their children, we analyze the cohort of parents having children with confirmed hereditary HI caused by biallelic recessive GJB2 mutations (in a homozygous or a compound heterozygous state). This study included 70 deaf children with HI due to mutations in the GJB2 gene and 91 questionnaires about the presumed causes of their deafness filled by their parents. Most of the parents at 78% (CI 68.4-85.4%) attributed their children's HI to "non-hereditary" causes and 22% (CI 14.7-31.6%) to "hereditary" causes (p < 0.05). Therefore, the prior opinions of the parents did not correspond to positive GJB2 genetic testing results. The subjective opinions of parents are probably partly based on family history, since respondents with deaf relatives in their pedigree more likely supposed hereditary causes for HI in their children than the respondents without deaf relatives (p < 0.001).

  16. The combination of vestibular impairment and congenital sensorineural hearing loss predisposes patients to ocular anomalies, including Usher syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kletke, S; Batmanabane, V; Dai, T; Vincent, A; Li, S; Gordon, K A; Papsin, B C; Cushing, S L; Héon, E

    2017-07-01

    The co-occurrence of hearing impairment and visual dysfunction is devastating. Most deaf-blind etiologies are genetically determined, the commonest being Usher syndrome (USH). While studies of the congenitally deaf population reveal a variable degree of visual problems, there are no effective ophthalmic screening guidelines. We hypothesized that children with congenital sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and vestibular impairment were at an increased risk of having USH. A retrospective chart review of 33 cochlear implants recipients for severe to profound SNHL and measured vestibular dysfunction was performed to determine the ocular phenotype. All the cases had undergone ocular examination and electroretinogram (ERG). Patients with an abnormal ERG underwent genetic testing for USH. We found an underlying ocular abnormality in 81.81% (27/33) of cases; of which 75% had refractive errors, and 50% of those patients showed visual improvement with refractive correction. A total of 14 cases (42.42%; 14/33) had generalized rod-cone dysfunction on ERG suggestive of Usher syndrome type 1, confirmed by mutational analysis. This work shows that adding vestibular impairment as a criterion for requesting an eye exam and adding the ERG to detect USH increases the chances of detecting ocular anomalies, when compared with previous literature focusing only on congenital SNHL. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  17. Headphone listening habits and hearing thresholds in swedish adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen E Widen

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported hearing and portable music listening habits, measured hearing function and music exposure levels in Swedish adolescents. The study was divided into two parts. Materials and Methods: The first part included 280 adolescents, who were 17 years of age and focused on self-reported data on subjective hearing problems and listening habits regarding portable music players. From this group, 50 adolescents volunteered to participate in Part II of the study, which focused on audiological measurements and measured listening volume. Results: The results indicated that longer lifetime exposure in years and increased listening frequency were associated with poorer hearing thresholds and more self-reported hearing problems. A tendency was found for listening to louder volumes and poorer hearing thresholds. Women reported more subjective hearing problems compared with men but exhibited better hearing thresholds. In contrast, men reported more use of personal music devices, and they listen at higher volumes. Discussion: Additionally, the study shows that adolescents listening for ≥3 h at every occasion more likely had tinnitus. Those listening at ≥85 dB LAeq, FF and listening every day exhibited poorer mean hearing thresholds, reported more subjective hearing problems and listened more frequently in school and while sleeping. Conclusion: Although the vast majority listened at moderate sound levels and for shorter periods of time, the study also indicates that there is a subgroup (10% that listens between 90 and 100 dB for longer periods of time, even during sleep. This group might be at risk for developing future noise-induced hearing impairments.

  18. Selective Inner Hair Cell Dysfunction in Chinchillas Impairs Hearing-in-Noise in the Absence of Outer Hair Cell Loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lobarinas, Edward; Salvi, Richard; Ding, Dalian

    2016-04-01

    Poorer hearing in the presence of background noise is a significant problem for the hearing impaired. Ototoxic drugs, ageing, and noise exposure can damage the sensory hair cells of the inner ear that are essential for normal hearing sensitivity. The relationship between outer hair cell (OHC) loss and progressively poorer hearing sensitivity in quiet or in competing background noise is supported by a number of human and animal studies. In contrast, the effect of moderate inner hair cell (IHC) loss or dysfunction shows almost no impact on behavioral measures of hearing sensitivity in quiet, when OHCs remain intact, but the relationship between selective IHC loss and hearing in noise remains relatively unknown. Here, a moderately high dose of carboplatin (75 mg/kg) that produced IHC loss in chinchillas ranging from 40 to 80 % had little effect on thresholds in quiet. However, when tested in the presence of competing broadband (BBN) or narrowband noise (NBN), thresholds increased significantly. IHC loss >60 % increased signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for tones (500-11,300 Hz) in competing BBN by 5-10 dB and broadened the masking function under NBN. These data suggest that IHC loss or dysfunction may play a significant role in listening in noise independent of OHC integrity and that these deficits may be present even when thresholds in quiet are within normal limits.

  19. Age-Related Hearing Impairment (ARHI) associated with GJB2 single mutation IVS1+1G>A in the Yakut population isolate in Eastern Siberia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barashkov, Nikolay A; Teryutin, Fedor M; Pshennikova, Vera G; Solovyev, Aisen V; Klarov, Leonid A; Solovyeva, Natalya A; Kozhevnikov, Andrei A; Vasilyeva, Lena M; Fedotova, Elvira E; Pak, Maria V; Lekhanova, Sargylana N; Zakharova, Elena V; Savvinova, Kyunney E; Gotovtsev, Nyurgun N; Rafailo, Adyum M; Luginov, Nikolay V; Alexeev, Anatoliy N; Posukh, Olga L; Dzhemileva, Lilya U; Khusnutdinova, Elza K; Fedorova, Sardana A

    2014-01-01

    Age-Related Hearing Impairment (ARHI) is one of the frequent sensory disorders registered in 50% of individuals over 80 years. ARHI is a multifactorial disorder due to environmental and poor-known genetic components. In this study, we present the data on age-related hearing impairment of 48 heterozygous carriers of mutation IVS1+1G>A (GJB2 gene) and 97 subjects with GJB2 genotype wt/wt in the Republic of Sakha/Yakutia (Eastern Siberia, Russia). This subarctic territory was found as the region with the most extensive accumulation of mutation IVS1+1G>A in the world as a result of founder effect in the unique Yakut population isolate. The GJB2 gene resequencing and detailed audiological analysis in the frequency range 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0 kHz were performed in all examined subjects that allowed to investigate genotype-phenotype correlations between the presence of single mutation IVS1+1G>A and hearing of subjects from examined groups. We revealed the linear correlation between increase of average hearing thresholds at speech frequencies (PTA0.5,1.0,2.0,4.0 kHz) and age of individuals with GJB2 genotype IVS1+1G>A/wt (rs = 0.499, p = 0.006860 for males and rs = 0.427, p = 0.000277 for females). Moreover, the average hearing thresholds on high frequency (8.0 kHz) in individuals with genotype IVS1+1G>A/wt (both sexes) were significantly worse than in individuals with genotype wt/wt (pA/wt was estimated to be ∼40 years (rs = 0.504, p = 0.003). These findings demonstrate that the single IVS1+1G>A mutation (GJB2) is associated with age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) of the IVS1+1G>A carriers in the Yakuts.

  20. Age-Related Hearing Impairment (ARHI associated with GJB2 single mutation IVS1+1G>A in the Yakut population isolate in Eastern Siberia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolay A Barashkov

    Full Text Available Age-Related Hearing Impairment (ARHI is one of the frequent sensory disorders registered in 50% of individuals over 80 years. ARHI is a multifactorial disorder due to environmental and poor-known genetic components. In this study, we present the data on age-related hearing impairment of 48 heterozygous carriers of mutation IVS1+1G>A (GJB2 gene and 97 subjects with GJB2 genotype wt/wt in the Republic of Sakha/Yakutia (Eastern Siberia, Russia. This subarctic territory was found as the region with the most extensive accumulation of mutation IVS1+1G>A in the world as a result of founder effect in the unique Yakut population isolate. The GJB2 gene resequencing and detailed audiological analysis in the frequency range 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0 kHz were performed in all examined subjects that allowed to investigate genotype-phenotype correlations between the presence of single mutation IVS1+1G>A and hearing of subjects from examined groups. We revealed the linear correlation between increase of average hearing thresholds at speech frequencies (PTA0.5,1.0,2.0,4.0 kHz and age of individuals with GJB2 genotype IVS1+1G>A/wt (rs = 0.499, p = 0.006860 for males and rs = 0.427, p = 0.000277 for females. Moreover, the average hearing thresholds on high frequency (8.0 kHz in individuals with genotype IVS1+1G>A/wt (both sexes were significantly worse than in individuals with genotype wt/wt (pA/wt was estimated to be ∼40 years (rs = 0.504, p = 0.003. These findings demonstrate that the single IVS1+1G>A mutation (GJB2 is associated with age-related hearing impairment (ARHI of the IVS1+1G>A carriers in the Yakuts.

  1. Rapid learning of minimally different words in five- to six-year-old children : Effects of acoustic salience and hearing impairment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Giezen, M.R.; Escudero, P.; Baker, A.E.

    This study investigates the role of acoustic salience and hearing impairment in learning phonologically minimal pairs. Picture-matching and object-matching tasks were used to investigate the learning of consonant and vowel minimal pairs in five- to six-year-old deaf children with a cochlear implant

  2. Noise exposure and hearing impairment among Chinese restaurant workers and entertainment employees in Hong Kong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lao, Xiang Qian; Yu, Ignatius Tak Sun; Au, Dennis Kin Kwok; Chiu, Yuk Lan; Wong, Claudie Chiu Yi; Wong, Tze Wai

    2013-01-01

    Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a major concern in the non-manufacturing industries. This study aimed to investigate the occupational noise exposure and the NIHL among Chinese restaurant workers and entertainment employees working in the service industry in Hong Kong. This cross-sectional survey involved a total of 1,670 participants. Among them, 937 were randomly selected from the workers of Chinese restaurants and 733 were selected from workers in three entertainment sectors: radio and television stations; cultural performance halls or auditoria of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD); and karaoke bars. Noise exposure levels were measured in the sampled restaurants and entertainment sectors. Each participant received an audiometric screening test. Those who were found to have abnormalities were required to take another diagnostic test in the health center. The "Klockhoff digit" method was used to classify NIHL in the present study. The main source of noise inside restaurants was the stoves. The mean hearing thresholds showed a typical dip at 3 to 6 KHz and a substantial proportion (23.7%) of the workers fulfilled the criteria for presumptive NIHL. For entertainment sectors, employees in radio and television stations generally had higher exposure levels than those in the halls or auditoria of the LCSD and karaoke bars. The mean hearing thresholds showed a typical dip at 6 KHz and a substantial proportion of the employees fulfilled the criteria for presumptive NIHL (38.6%, 95%CI: 35.1-42.1%). Being male, older, and having longer service and daily alcohol consumption were associated with noise-induced hearing impairment both in restaurant workers and entertainment employees. Excessive noise exposure is common in the Chinese restaurant and entertainment industries and a substantial proportion of restaurant workers and entertainment employees suffer from NIHL. Comprehensive hearing conservation programs should be introduced to the service industry

  3. Hearing aid fine-tuning based on Dutch descriptions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thielemans, Thijs; Pans, Donné; Chenault, Michelene; Anteunis, Lucien

    2017-07-01

    The aim of this study was to derive an independent fitting assistant based on expert consensus. Two questions were asked: (1) what (Dutch) terms do hearing impaired listeners use nowadays to describe their specific hearing aid fitting problems? (2) What is the expert consensus on how to resolve these complaints by adjusting hearing aid parameters? Hearing aid dispensers provided descriptors that impaired listeners use to describe their reactions to specific hearing aid fitting problems. Hearing aid fitting experts were asked "How would you adjust the hearing aid if its user reports that the aid sounds…?" with the blank filled with each of the 40 most frequently mentioned descriptors. 112 hearing aid dispensers and 15 hearing aid experts. The expert solution with the highest weight value was considered the best solution for that descriptor. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify a factor structure in fitting problems. Nine fitting problems could be identified resulting in an expert-based, hearing aid manufacturer independent, fine-tuning fitting assistant for clinical use. The construction of an expert-based, hearing aid manufacturer independent, fine-tuning fitting assistant to be used as an additional tool in the iterative fitting process is feasible.

  4. Psycholinguistic abilities in cochlear implant and hearing impaired children

    OpenAIRE

    Hassan, Hatem Ezzeldin; Eldin, Sally Taher Kheir; Al Kasaby, Rasha Mohamed

    2014-01-01

    Background: Many congenitally sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) children and cochlear implant (CI) recipients develop near-normal language skills. However, there is a wide variation in individual outcomes following cochlear implantation, or using hearing aids. Some CI recipients or Hearing aids users never develop useable speech and oral language skills. The causes of this enormous variation in outcomes are only partly understood at the present time. So, the aim of this study was to assess th...

  5. Cochlear implant: Speech and language development in deaf and hard of hearing children following implantation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ostojić Sanja

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Bacground/Aim. Almost 200 cochlear implantations were done in the four centers (two in Belgrade, per one in Novi Sad and Niš in Serbia from 2002 to 2009. Less than 10% of implantees were postlingually deaf adults. The vast majority, i.e. 90% were pre- and perilingually profoundly deaf children. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of improved auditory perception due to cochlear implantation on comprehension of abstract words in children as compared with hearing impaired children with conventional hearing aids and normal hearing children. Methods. Thirty children were enrolled in this study: 20 hearing impaired and 10 normal hearing. The vocabulary test was used. Results. The overall results for the whole test (100 words showed a significant difference in favor of the normal hearing as compared with hearing impaired children. The normal hearing children successfully described or defined 77.93% of a total of 100 words. Success rate for the cochlear implanted children was 26.87% and for the hearing impaired children with conventional hearing aids 20.32%. Conclusion. Testing for abstract words showed a statistically significant difference between the cochlear implanted and the hearing impaired children with hearing aids (Mann- Whitney U-test, p = 0.019 implying considerable advantage of cochlear implants over hearing aids regarding successful speech development in prelingually deaf children.

  6. 78 FR 66940 - Regulatory Requirements for Hearing Aid Devices and Personal Sound Amplification Products; Draft...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-07

    ... for such products. These inconsistent interpretations of the definitions may inadvertently result in... amplification products (PSAPs), as well as the regulatory controls that apply to each. This draft guidance is... of clarity regarding how the Agency defines a hearing aid versus a personal sound amplification...

  7. Efficient evaluation of hearing ability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2009-01-01

    A system for establishing a hearing ability model of a hearing ability of a person, includes a data storage configured to store a representation of a distribution of a hearing ability of a population of individuals, and a processor configured to establish a hearing ability model representing a

  8. Hearing impairment and language delay in infants: Diagnostics and genetics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lang-Roth, Ruth

    2014-01-01

    This overview study provides information on important phoniatric and audiological aspects of early childhood hearing and language development with the aim of presenting diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. The article first addresses the universal newborn hearing screening that has been implemented in Germany for all infants since January 2009. The process of newborn hearing screening from the maternity ward to confirmation diagnostics is presented in accordance with a decision by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA). The second topic is pediatric audiology diagnostics. Following confirmation of a permanent early childhood hearing disorder, the search for the cause plays an important role. Hereditary hearing disorders and intrauterine cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, probably the most common cause of an acquired hearing disorder, are discussed and compared with the most common temporary hearing disorder, otitis media with effusion, which in some cases is severe enough to be relevant for hearing and language development and therefore requires treatment. The third topic covered in this article is speech and language development in the first 3 years of life, which is known today to be crucial for later language development and learning to read and write. There is a short overview and introduction to modern terminology, followed by the abnormalities and diagnostics of early speech and language development. Only some aspects of early hearing and language development are addressed here. Important areas such as the indication for a cochlear implant in the first year of life or because of unilateral deafness are not included due to their complexity. PMID:25587365

  9. Prevalence and Parental Awareness of Hearing Loss in Children with Down Syndrome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wai-Ling Lau

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: To establish the prevalence of hearing deficit in children with Down syndrome (DS in Hong Kong as measured by brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP. The secondary objective is to examine the agreement between BAEP and clinical questioning in detecting hearing deficit in DS. Methods: Consecutive DS patients attending the Down′s Clinic in a regional pediatric referral center were recruited into this cross-sectional study. BAEP data performed within 12 months were retrieved. The care-taker was interviewed with a structured questionnaire to detect any symptom of hearing impairment. BAEP findings and clinical questionings were compared in an agreement analysis using quadratic weighted kappa statistics. Results: Fifty DS patients (35 male, 15 female, mean age 11.70 years ± 5.74 standard deviation were recruited. Eighteen patients (36.0% were identified having hearing deficit by BAEP. Among patients with hearing impairment, 13 patients (72.2% had a conductive deficit, and most have mild to moderate hearing loss. Five patients (27.8% had sensorineural deficit and most have moderate to severe degree. Eight (44.4% had bilateral hearing deficit. Care-takers of 13 patients (26.0% reported symptoms of hearing impairment, with 9 (69.2% having mild symptoms, 3 (23.1% had moderate symptoms and 1 (7.7% had severe symptoms. The weighted kappa was 0.045 (95.0% confidence interval − 0.138-0.229, indicating very poor strength of agreement between BAEP and clinical questioning. For patients with conductive hearing impairment, only 1 patients (7.7% recalled history of otitis media. Conclusions: The estimated point prevalence of hearing impairment in Chinese DS children in Hong Kong is 36%. Our finding of poor strength of agreement between objective testing and symptom questioning reflects significant underestimation of hearing impairment by history taking alone. In view of the high prevalence and low parental awareness, continuous surveillance of

  10. Empowering the family during the first months after identification of permanent hearing impairment in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ciciriello, E; Bolzonello, P; Marchi, R; Falzone, C; Muzzi, E; Orzan, E

    2016-02-01

    The latest international guidelines highlight the importance of involving the family in the diagnostic and rehabilitation process of children affected by permanent hearing impairment. This emphasises how meaningful this approach is for the development of the deaf child. So far, there is very little evidence about this approach in Italy, and there are still some barriers to its practical management. The aim of this paper is to report the results of a strategic analysis, which identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the family empowerment process during early auditory diagnosis and rehabilitation. The audiology programme should have the goal to offer information and support to families in order to achieve a conscious decision about the use and type of auditory prosthesis and rehabilitation choice within three months after audiologic diagnosis. Within the framework of the Ministry of Health project CCM 2013 "Preventing Communication Disorders: a Regional Program for Early Identification, Intervention and Care of Hearing Impaired Children", a group of professionals identified three main recommendations that can be useful to foster the natural communicative development of the child by strengthening the therapeutic alliance and empowerment of the family. The recommendations obtained with this analysis can help to develop new Italian guidelines with the aim to foster natural communicative development of the child by strengthening the therapeutic alliance and empowerment of the family. © Copyright by Società Italiana di Otorinolaringologia e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale.

  11. Statistical representation of sound textures in the impaired auditory system

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    McWalter, Richard Ian; Dau, Torsten

    2015-01-01

    Many challenges exist when it comes to understanding and compensating for hearing impairment. Traditional methods, such as pure tone audiometry and speech intelligibility tests, offer insight into the deficiencies of a hearingimpaired listener, but can only partially reveal the mechanisms...... that underlie the hearing loss. An alternative approach is to investigate the statistical representation of sounds for hearing-impaired listeners along the auditory pathway. Using models of the auditory periphery and sound synthesis, we aimed to probe hearing impaired perception for sound textures – temporally...

  12. Mediterranean spotted fever and hearing impairment: a rare complication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raffaella Rossio

    2015-06-01

    We describe a case of Rickettsia conorii that was complicated with hearing loss and did not respond to specific treatment. Hearing loss is a rare event, but clinicians should be aware of this complication.

  13. Examining the Training Process of a New Teacher Educator in the Field of the Education of the Hearing Impaired

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurgur, Hasan

    2012-01-01

    Training of beginning teacher educators has become a popular topic in the literature. This study aimed to investigate the training procedures of a new teacher educator who would be working in the division of the hearing impaired. The study was designed as action research and a new teacher educator, an experienced teacher educator and an academic…

  14. GJB2 (Connexin-26) mutations are not frequent among hearing impaired patients in East Greenland

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Homoe, P.; Koch, A.; Rendtorff, Nanna Dahl

    2012-01-01

    Objective: Investigate genetic causes of HI among the Inuit populations in the Arctic with a high prevalence of hearing impairment (HI). Design: A cross-sectional survey with population-based controls. Study sample: Forty-five patients, with sensorineural or mixed HI and an available blood sample...... for GJB2 sequencing from DNA, were selected from 166 East Greenlanders by specialist audiology examination, including pure-tone air and bone conduction audiometry from 125 Hz to 8000 Hz. Controls were 108 East- and 109 West-Greenlanders. Results: Forty-five patients with HI were included, 24 males and 21...

  15. Hearing Evaluation in Children (For Parents)

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Loss? Going to a Speech Therapist Can Loud Music Hurt My Ears? Going to the Audiologist Hearing Impairment Speech Problems Hearing Aids Earbuds View more About Us Contact Us Partners Editorial Policy Permissions Guidelines Privacy Policy & Terms of Use Notice ...

  16. Situations of Choice: Configuring the Empowered Consumer of Hearing Technologies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hindhede, Anette Lykke

    2013-01-01

    . The paper shows how recent changes in perception of the hearing impaired patient relate to the introduction of a new health care reform that turns audiological rehabilitation into a consumer issue. Ethnographic and interview data from hearing clinics provides evidence that the hearing technologies...... that are on offer stabilise in specific forms through processes of negotiation among a variety of social actors representing the interests of science, industry, government, and hearing-impaired people. The discussion critically considers the emergence of an ‘‘informed consumer’’ in audiological practices....

  17. The assessment of visually impaired persons working capacities using electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. I. Razumovsky

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Aim was to analyze working capacities of visually impaired persons by means of complex electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics eye examination.Materials and methods. Standard clinical ophthalmologic examination (visual acuity measurement, refractometry, biomicroscopy, ophthalmoscopy as well as electrophysiological (electrooculography, electrical sensitivity of the eye, critical flicker fusion frequency and ophthalmic ergonomics tests (accommodation measurement, professional testing using automated system «Proftest-1» were performed.Results. Complex electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics tests were performed in 20 visually impaired persons. Their results revealed direct correlation between electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics indices.Conclusion. Working capacities of visually impaired persons can be assessed reliably using complex electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics eye examination only.

  18. The assessment of visually impaired persons working capacities using electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. I. Razumovsky

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim was to analyze working capacities of visually impaired persons by means of complex electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics eye examination.Materials and methods. Standard clinical ophthalmologic examination (visual acuity measurement, refractometry, biomicroscopy, ophthalmoscopy as well as electrophysiological (electrooculography, electrical sensitivity of the eye, critical flicker fusion frequency and ophthalmic ergonomics tests (accommodation measurement, professional testing using automated system «Proftest-1» were performed.Results. Complex electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics tests were performed in 20 visually impaired persons. Their results revealed direct correlation between electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics indices.Conclusion. Working capacities of visually impaired persons can be assessed reliably using complex electrophysiological and ophthalmic ergonomics eye examination only.

  19. Inclusion of Children with Hearing Impairment in Schools: A Survey on Teachers’ Attitudes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Santhi S Prakash

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream classrooms has become the focus of extensive research in education. It has both academic and social benefits for all students, such as providing opportunities for communication and social interaction. The evaluation of teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion appears to be a good method to determine the success of the programme. Although this has been widely researched in many countries, the available evidence is not consistent. This study was undertaken in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, to measure and compare teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of children with hearing impairment in schools.Method: A questionnaire developed by Giles and Tanner (1995 measuring three domains - (1 effective strategies for meeting the needs of all students, (2 the support for educational change in their district, and (3 inclusive education - was modified in keeping with cultural and geographical variations and used as the test tool. A hundred teachers of various Government and non-Government schools in 2 districts of Andhra Pradesh, India, participated in the study.Results: Higher scores on domain 1 indicate that teachers feel effective strategies to benefit students with disabilities should be implemented in schools. The results also indicate that most teachers are agreeable to the inclusion of students with disabilities in their classrooms. Significant difference in attitudes was observed, based on the teachers’ qualifications, teaching experience, gender, level of teaching and management.Conclusion: The study concludes that there is a need for intervention to foster more positive attitudes among teachers, if the implementation of inclusive education is to succeed. It also has implications for the framing of laws and policies for children with hearing impairments.doi: 10.5463/dcid.v23i3.117

  20. Hearing loss at work? Hearing loss from leisure activities?

    CERN Multimedia

    2006-01-01

    The nurses of the Medical Service would like invite all persons working on the CERN site to take part in a: HEARING LOSS DETECTION WEEK From 28 August to 1st September 2006 At the Infirmary, Building 57 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hearing tests - advice - information - documentation - protective equipment

  1. Everyday trajectories of hearing correction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lykke Hindhede, Anette

    2010-01-01

    wearers in order to rehabilitate them back to ‘normal'. However, within audiological research, noncompliance has attracted much attention as investigations have shown that more than 20 percent of hearing aids are very seldom, if ever, in use and 19 percent are used only occasionally. As shown in the paper...... are complex and epistemologically contested and can help explain why noncompliance is dominant when it comes to hearing rehabilitation for hearing impaired adults....

  2. Parasympathetic nervous system dysfunction, as identified by pupil light reflex, and its possible connection to hearing impairment

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Yang; Zekveld, Adriana A.; Naylor, Graham; Ohlenforst, Barbara; Jansma, Elise P.; Lorens, Artur; Lunner, Thomas; Kramer, Sophia E.

    2016-01-01

    Context\\ud Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown.\\ud \\ud Objectives\\ud To 1) review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive meth...

  3. Elucidation of the Molecular Genetic Basis of Inherited Hearing Impairment.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Luijendijk, M.W.J.

    2006-01-01

    Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder in the human population. It affects 0.1% of all young children and by the age of 70, 30% of the population suffers from hearing loss greater than 40 dB. When early onset hearing loss is inherited, 70% is classified as nonsyndromic and 30% as

  4. The Role of Music in Speech Intelligibility of Learners with Post Lingual Hearing Impairment in Selected Units in Lusaka District

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katongo, Emily Mwamba; Ndhlovu, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    This study sought to establish the role of music in speech intelligibility of learners with Post Lingual Hearing Impairment (PLHI) and strategies teachers used to enhance speech intelligibility in learners with PLHI in selected special units for the deaf in Lusaka district. The study used a descriptive research design. Qualitative and quantitative…

  5. The Mass1frings mutation underlies early onset hearing impairment in BUB/BnJ mice, a model for the auditory pathology of Usher syndrome IIC

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, K.R.; Zheng, Q.Y.; Weston, M.D.; Ptacek, L.J.; Noben-Trauth, K.

    2010-01-01

    The human ortholog of the gene responsible for audiogenic seizure susceptibility in Frings and BUB/BnJ mice (mouse gene symbol Mass1) recently was shown to underlie Usher syndrome type IIC (USH2C). Here we report that the Mass1frings mutation is responsible for the early onset hearing impairment of BUB/BnJ mice. We found highly significant linkage of Mass1 with ABR threshold variation among mice from two backcrosses involving BUB/BnJ mice with mice of strains CAST/EiJ and MOLD/RkJ. We also show an additive effect of the Cdh23 locus in modulating the progression of hearing loss in backcross mice. Together, these two loci account for more than 70% of the total ABR threshold variation among the backcross mice at all ages. The modifying effect of the strain-specific Cdh23ahl variant may account for the hearing and audiogenic seizure differences observed between Frings and BUB/BnJ mice, which share the Mass1frings mutation. During postnatal cochlear development in BUB/BnJ mice, stereocilia bundles develop abnormally and remain immature and splayed into adulthood, corresponding with the early onset hearing impairment associated with Mass1frings. Progressive base–apex hair cell degeneration occurs at older ages, corresponding with the age-related hearing loss associated with Cdh23ahl. The molecular basis and pathophysiology of hearing loss suggest BUB/BnJ and Frings mice as models to study cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying USH2C auditory pathology. PMID:15820310

  6. Case Factors Affecting Hearing Aid Recommendations by Hearing Care Professionals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gioia, Carmine; Ben-Akiva, Moshe; Jørgensen, Ole

    2015-01-01

    in subjective decision-making as regards the technology level recommendation made by professionals. Purpose: The objective of this study is to gain insight into the decision-making criteria utilized by professionals when recommending HI technology levels to hearing-impaired patients.......Background: Professional recommendations to patients concerning hearing instrument (HI) technology levels are not currently evidence-based. Pre-fitting parameters have not been proven to be the primary indicators for optimal patient outcome with different HI technology levels. This results...

  7. Assessing challenging behaviour in people with hearing impairments and profound intellectial disabilities : the development of an Individual behaviour observation and recording scale

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Buskermolen, M.; Hoekman, J.; Aldenkamp, A.P.

    2013-01-01

    Background and Objective: Studies on people with both Hearing Impairments (HI) and an Intellectual Disability (ID) are rare, although in clinical practice aggressive incidents such as destructive behaviour aimed at objects or other people and self-harming behaviour are mentioned as common problems.

  8. Association Between Sensory Impairment and Dementia in Older Adults: Evidence from China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Yanan; He, Ping; Guo, Chao; Chen, Gong; Li, Ning; Zheng, Xiaoying

    2018-03-01

    To determine the association between sensory impairment and dementia in Chinese older adults. Cross-sectional. Older adults in 31 provinces of China. Individuals aged 65 and older (N = 250,752). Psychiatrists ascertained dementia based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. Sensory impairment was measured as only hearing impairment, only vision impairment, and combined sensory impairment (combined hearing and vision impairment). Hearing impairment was defined as greater than 40 dB loss in the better ear according to the standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Impairment (PDH) standard 97.3. Ophthalmologists assessed vision impairment according to the WHO best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) criteria (low vision: 0.05≤BCVA ≤0.29; blindness: no light perception ≤ BCVA without sensory impairment, 0.83% (95% CI = 0.70-0.99%) with only visual impairment, 0.61 (95% CI = 0.53-0.71%) with only hearing impairment, and 1.27% (95% CI = 1.00-1.61%) with combined sensory impairments. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, vision impairment (odds ratio (OR) = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.28-1.96) and combined sensory impairments (OR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.23-2.20) were associated with greater risk of severe to extremely severe dementia. Hearing impairment was not significantly associated with dementia. Sensory impairments are associated with greater risk of dementia in Chinese older adults. Studies are needed to further explore the pathway of this association in Chinese elderly adults and to provide suggestions to improve health status for this population. © 2018, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2018, The American Geriatrics Society.

  9. Accessibility of shared space for visually impaired persons : A comparative field study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Havik, Else; Steyvers, Franciscus J.J.M.; Kooijman, Aart; Melis, Bart

    Shared Space is a concept that comprises the design and planning process of a public space. There are concerns about the accessibility of Shared Spaces for people who are visually impaired. In a comparative field study, the wayfinding performance of 25 visually impaired persons (VIPs) was observed

  10. Expression levels of the BAK1 and BCL2 genes highlight the role of apoptosis in age-related hearing impairment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Falah M

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Masoumeh Falah,1,2 Mohammad Najafi,2 Massoud Houshmand,3 Mohammad Farhadi1 1ENT and Head & Neck Research Center and Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 2Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Biochemistry Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Medical Genetics, National Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran Abstract: Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI is a progressive and a common sensory disorder in the elderly and will become an increasingly important clinical problem given the growing elderly population. Apoptosis of cochlear cells is an important factor in animal models of ARHI. As these cells cannot regenerate, their loss leads to irreversible hearing impairment. Identification of molecular mechanisms can facilitate disease prevention and effective treatment. In this study, we compared the expression of the genes BAK1 and BCL2 as two arms of the intrinsic apoptosis pathway between patients with ARHI and healthy subjects. ARHI and healthy subjects were selected after an ear nose throat examination, otoscopic investigation, and pure tone audiometry. RNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples, and relative gene expression levels were measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. BAK1 and the BAK1/BCL2 ratio were statistically significantly upregulated in the ARHI subjects. The BAK1/BCL2 ratio was positively correlated with the results of the audiometric tests. Our results indicate that BAK-mediated apoptosis may be a core mechanism in the progression of ARHI in humans, similar to finding in animal models. Moreover, the gene expression changes in peripheral blood samples could be used as a rapid and simple biomarker for early detection of ARHI. Keywords: age-related hearing impairment (ARHI, presbycusis, biomarker, treatment

  11. National Research Conference on Day Programs for Hearing Impaired Children (Lake Mohonk, New York, May 10-13, 1967). Final Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulholland, Ann M.; Fellendorf, George W.

    State needs in public school education for the hearing impaired and steps in the development of comprehensive state planning are presented along with recommendations of conference participants, a summary report, and models for regional planning, day programs, and the team approach. The interest of the Alexander Graham Bell Association and the U.S.…

  12. Efficient evaluation of hearing ability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2010-01-01

    The present invention relates to a method of establishing a hearing ability model for a person, the method including providing a representation of the distribution of hearing ability for a population of individuals. The method may comprise the steps) performing a hearing evaluation event, comprising

  13. Hearing Status after Radical Mastoidectomy without Tympanoplasty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Shamaila Nawaz; Udaipurwala, Iqbal Hussain; Mehmood, Talat; Rahat, Zahid Mehmood

    2017-12-01

    To find out the impairment of hearing associated with radical mastoidectomy by measuring the quantitative difference in the functional hearing level before and after radical mastoidectomy operation without tympanoplasty. Cross-sectional comparative study. Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head Neck Surgery, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur and PNS Shifa Hospital, Karachi, from November 2009 to January 2013. Eighty-five patients, diagnosed clinically as chronic suppurative otitis media with extensive cholesteatoma having history of ear discharge and hearing impairment for more than 6 weeks duration and requiring radical mastoidectomy for treatment, were included in this study. Pure tone audiogram was done before and after radical mastoidectomy. Hearing impairment was compared in each patient before and after the operation. Among the 85 patients, 54 (63.5%) were males and 31 (36.5%) were females, with the age ranged between 18 to 63 years, mean age being 42.31 4.8 years. The mean increase in hearing loss after radical mastoidectomy in air conduction was 7.19 dB, bone conduction was 4.16 dB, and air-bone gap was 3.75 dB (0.001). The ear became dry and safe in 82 patients (96.5%) out of a total of 85, and only 3 patients required revision surgery at a second stage. Radical mastoidectomy has a least negligible effect on hearing status and one should not limit this technique due to the concern of aggravated hearing in patients with extensive cholesteatoma at the cost of dry and safe ears, which should be of prime importance.

  14. The Milan Project: a newborn hearing screening programme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pastorino, Giancarlo; Sergi, Paola; Mastrangelo, Massimo; Ravazzani, Paolo; Tognola, Gabriella; Parazzini, Marta; Mosca, Fabio; Pugni, Lorenza; Grandori, Ferdinando

    2005-04-01

    Since 1997 a newborn hearing screening programme has been implemented by the U.O. Neurologia-Neurofisiopatologia and Dipartimento di Neonatologia of the Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento ICP in Milan for both babies with no risk and those at risk of hearing impairment. This programme was named the Milan Project. The protocol for no-risk babies consisted of three stages: in the first two stages, newborns were tested with transient click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE), in the third one with conventional auditory brainstem responses (ABR). The first TEOAE test was performed by 36 h of age, before discharge, the second one after 15-30 d in case of referral, and the third one, by ABR, for those babies who failed the second TEOAE stage. Newborns at audiological risk were submitted to conventional ABR before the third month of corrected age. Some of this latter population was also submitted to the TEOAE test. The entire tested population (no-risk babies and newborns at audiological risk) consisted of 19 777 babies: 19 290 without risk ("no risk") and 487 at risk ("at risk"). During the course of the Milan Project, hearing impairment (ABR threshold equal to or greater than 40 dB nHL) was identified in 63 newborns (19 from the no-risk and 44 from the at-risk population), with a prevalence of 0.32%. Bilateral hearing impairment (BHI) was found in 33 newborns (10 from the no-risk and 23 from the at-risk population), corresponding to 0.17%. Among infants with bilateral hearing impairment, 30.3% had no risk factors. The prevalence of hearing impairment was determined on days 15-30 after birth. The results show that the implementation of a hospital-based, universal neonatal hearing screening programme for babies with and without audiological risk is feasible and effective. The effectiveness of the programme has increased as a function of the years since its inception, with a strong decrease in the referral rate. Further improvement is obtained if the TEOAE measurements

  15. Peripheral hearing loss reduces the ability of children to direct selective attention during multi-talker listening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holmes, Emma; Kitterick, Padraig T; Summerfield, A Quentin

    2017-07-01

    Restoring normal hearing requires knowledge of how peripheral and central auditory processes are affected by hearing loss. Previous research has focussed primarily on peripheral changes following sensorineural hearing loss, whereas consequences for central auditory processing have received less attention. We examined the ability of hearing-impaired children to direct auditory attention to a voice of interest (based on the talker's spatial location or gender) in the presence of a common form of background noise: the voices of competing talkers (i.e. during multi-talker, or "Cocktail Party" listening). We measured brain activity using electro-encephalography (EEG) when children prepared to direct attention to the spatial location or gender of an upcoming target talker who spoke in a mixture of three talkers. Compared to normally-hearing children, hearing-impaired children showed significantly less evidence of preparatory brain activity when required to direct spatial attention. This finding is consistent with the idea that hearing-impaired children have a reduced ability to prepare spatial attention for an upcoming talker. Moreover, preparatory brain activity was not restored when hearing-impaired children listened with their acoustic hearing aids. An implication of these findings is that steps to improve auditory attention alongside acoustic hearing aids may be required to improve the ability of hearing-impaired children to understand speech in the presence of competing talkers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Improving regional universal newborn hearing screening programmes in Italy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molini, E; Cristi, M C; Lapenna, R; Calzolaro, L; Muzzi, E; Ciciriello, E; Della Volpe, A; Orzan, E; Ricci, G

    2016-02-01

    The Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) programme aims at achieving early detection of hearing impairment. Subsequent diagnosis and intervention should follow promptly. Within the framework of the Ministry of Health project CCM 2013 "Preventing Communication Disorders: a Regional Program for early Identification, Intervention and Care of Hearing Impaired Children", the limitations and strengths of current UNHS programs in Italy have been analysed by a group of professionals working in tertiary centres involved in regional UNHS programmes, using SWOT analysis and a subsequent TOWS matrix. Coverage and lost-to-follow up rates are issues related to UNHS programmes. Recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the UNHS programme have been identified. The need for homogeneous policies, high-quality information and dissemination of knowledge for operators and families of hearing-impaired children emerged from the discussion. © Copyright by Società Italiana di Otorinolaringologia e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale.

  17. Audiological management of adults with hearing impairment in Malaysia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Akmaliza; Hickson, Louise; Meyer, Carly

    2017-06-01

    This study explored the nature of audiological services for adults with hearing impairment in Malaysia, with an emphasis on whether current services address clients' overall functioning as described by the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework. An online survey exploring current practice, skills and confidence of audiologists, and the infrastructure and facilities available in their workplaces, was distributed to audiologists in Malaysia via professional associations and social media. A total of 111 audiologists, 84.7% female and 15.3% male (range = 23-44 years), participated in the study. Although audiologists in Malaysia reported addressing all of the ICF domains, less than 26% of them assessed the patients' speech perception, carried out real-ear measurements, or used outcome measures routinely. The majority of the audiologists reported feeling confident in managing adult patients. However, 83% of the audiologists indicated they wanted to improve their skills related to management of adult patients, particularly in the areas of counselling and auditory training. Inadequate infrastructure, resources and facilities in the workplace may have contributed to the gaps in service provision and influenced the current practice of audiological management for adult patients in Malaysia.

  18. Hearing in middle age: a population snapshot of 40–69 year olds in the UK

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dawes, Piers; Fortnum, Heather; Moore, David R.; Emsley, Richard; Norman, Paul; Cruickshanks, Karen; Davis, Adrian; Edmondson-Jones, Mark; McCormack, Abby; Lutman, Mark; Munro, Kevin

    2014-01-01

    Objective To report population-based prevalence of hearing impairment based on speech recognition in noise testing in a large and inclusive sample of UK adults aged 40 to 69 years. The present study is the first to report such data. Prevalence of tinnitus and use of hearing aids is also reported. Design The research was conducted using the UK Biobank resource. The better-ear unaided speech reception threshold was measured adaptively using the Digit Triplet Test (n = 164,770). Self-report data on tinnitus, hearing aid use, noise exposure as well as demographic variables were collected. Results Overall, 10.7% of adults (95%CI 10.5–10.9%) had significant hearing impairment. Prevalence of tinnitus was 16.9% (95%CI 16.6–17.1%) and hearing aid use was 2.0% (95%CI 1.9–2.1%). Odds of hearing impairment increased with age, with a history of work- and music-related noise exposure, for lower socioeconomic background and for ethnic minority backgrounds. Males were at no higher risk of hearing impairment than females. Conclusion Around 1 in 10 adults aged 40 to 69 years have substantial hearing impairment. The reasons for excess risk of hearing impairment particularly for those from low socioeconomic and ethnic minority backgrounds require identification, as this represents a serious health inequality. The underutilization of hearing aids has altered little since the 1980s, and is a major cause for concern. PMID:24518430

  19. Impact of stimulus-related factors and hearing impairment on listening effort as indicated by pupil dilation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ohlenforst, Barbara; Zekveld, Adriana A.; Lunner, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    Previous research has reported effects of masker type and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on listening effort, as indicated by the peak pupil dilation (PPD) relative to baseline during speech recognition. At about 50% correct sentence recognition performance, increasing SNRs generally results...... in declining PPDs, indicating reduced effort. However, the decline in PPD over SNRs has been observed to be less pronounced for hearing-impaired (HI) compared to normal-hearing (NH) listeners. The presence of a competing talker during speech recognition generally resulted in larger PPDs as compared......-talker masker) on the PPD during speech perception. Twenty-five HI and 32 age-matched NH participants listened to sentences across a broad range of SNRs, masked with speech from a single talker (-25 dB to +15 dB SNR) or with stationary noise (-12 dB to +16 dB). Correct sentence recognition scores and pupil...

  20. Auditory and language skills of children using hearing aids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leticia Macedo Penna

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Hearing loss may impair the development of a child. The rehabilitation process for individuals with hearing loss depends on effective interventions.OBJECTIVE: To describe the linguistic profile and the hearing skills of children using hearing aids, to characterize the rehabilitation process and to analyze its association with the children's degree of hearing loss.METHODS: Cross-sectional study with a non-probabilistic sample of 110 children using hearing aids (6-10 years of age for mild to profound hearing loss. Tests of language, speech perception, phonemic discrimination, and school performance were performed. The associations were verified by the following tests: chi-squared for linear trend and Kruskal-Wallis.RESULTS: About 65% of the children had altered vocabulary, whereas 89% and 94% had altered phonology and inferior school performance, respectively. The degree of hearing loss was associated with differences in the median age of diagnosis; the age at which the hearing aids were adapted and at which speech therapy was started; and the performance on auditory tests and the type of communication used.CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of hearing loss and the clinical interventions occurred late, contributing to impairments in auditory and language development.