Objective: To externally validate the Swedish version of the LittlEARS^® Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) in children with normal hearing followed longitudinally, and to examine to what extent the LEAQ correlates to other measures of auditory and language development. Design: The Swedish version of the LEAQ was completed every other month over a 2-year period and correlated with the Parents’ Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH) and McArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) to examine overlapping areas of development. Normative curve was derived through linear mixed models and the effect of time investigated with repeated measures ANOVA. Study sample: Parents of 25 typically developing children with normal hearing (13 girls, 12 boys). Results: The norm curve of the Swedish LEAQ showed a similar equation as the original German version and the effect of time was significant. Correlations between LEAQ and CDI were moderate to high, and between LEAQ and PEACH weak or non-existing. Conclusion: The Swedish version of the LEAQ is a reliable tool in accordance with the original version. However, results indicate that this questionnaire to a large extent measures language skill rather than audition specifically.

Purpose: This study investigated longitudinal hearing aid (HA) use in a cohort of children with moderate hearing loss (CHL), fitted with amplification before the age of 6 months. Additionally, the relationship of HA use and aided audibility on outcomes of parental questionnaires of auditory skills was examined, and these outcomes were compared to a group of children with normal hearing (CNH). Method: Nine CHL and 29 CNH and their parents participated in the study. Measures were collected at initial fitting, 10, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. Parents reported hours of HA use and situations the HAs were used. Datalogging and speech intelligibility index were also collected. Auditory skills were measured through parental questionnaires. Results: The mean hours of HA use/day for this cohort increased from 7.55 at the ages of 10 months to 10.15 at 36 months according to datalogging. Parental estimations of hours of HA use and in which situations varied between subjects. Correlations between HA use from datalogging and speech intelligibility index to measures of auditory skills were weak. CHL showed similar results to CNH on auditory development at the ages of 10, 18, and 24 months but presented with significantly lower scores on auditory functional performance in noise at 30 and 36 months of age. Conclusions: Longitudinal monitoring of HA use from fitting of amplification with the combination of objective and subjective tools may have a positive impact on HA use in CHL. The lower scores on listening in noise compared to CNH call for further attention.

In this study, the early expressive vocabulary development was investigated in a group of children with moderate hearing loss (HL). Size and development of expressive vocabulary from 18 30 months were analyzed and compared to a group of children with normal hearing (NH). For the children with HL, the impact of auditory variables on number of words were examined. The relationship of early consonant production to number of words produced of both groups were examined and the phonological complexity of reported words was compared between the groups. The results showed that children with HL (n = 8) produced a similar number of words as the NH (n = 8) at 18 months, but fewer at 24 and 30 months. Hours of HA use showed significant correlations to number of words. The number of different true consonants at 18 months for the whole group showed a significant relationship to number of words produced at 24 months. No significant differences were found between children with HL and NH children regarding phonological complexity of reported words. The findings indicate that the children born with moderate HL who were fitted with hearing aids (HAs) before 6 months of age are at risk in their development of expressive vocabulary. Full-time use of HAs and monitoring of early consonant use should be encouraged in the early intervention of this target group.

This longitudinal study aimed to investigate early consonant production and the impact of hearing aid (HA) use, and aided audibility in Swedish children with moderate hearing loss (CHL) who received amplification before 6 months of age. CHL (n = 11) and children with normal hearing (CNH) (n = 11) were followed-up at 10, 18, and 36 months of age. At 10 months of age, the CHL used significantly fewer oral stops (p < 0.01), dental/alveolar stops (p < 0.05) and had a significantly fewer number of different true consonants (p < 0.01). At 18 months, there were no significant differences between the groups regarding presence of oral stops, and dental/alveolar stops, but the significant difference in the number of different true consonants remained (p < 0.00). At 36 months of age, consonant proficiency did not differ between the groups. A higher number of hours of HA use was associated with the presence of consonant variables at 10 months. Aided audibility showed weak to moderate correlations with number of consonants produced and proficiency. This group of children presented with initial delays in their early consonant production but seemed to catch up as they aged. Consistency of HA use from initial fitting is an important factor that may decrease the possible delays in the development of early consonant production and proficiency in CHL by 36 months of age.

Background/Objectives: Early pediatric cochlear implantation positively impacts early language outcomes. The Teenager and Young Adults Cochlear Implant (TAYACI) study investigates the long-term outcomes of early implantation and factors influencing variability among cochlear implant (CI) users. This article outlines participants’ background, early language outcomes, and multidisciplinary study protocol. Methods and Materials: Individuals aged 12–22 received CIs before 30 months of age, followed-up at the same hearing implant center, and adhered to a standard school curriculum were invited to participate. Out of 109 eligible CI users, 50 participated; 46 agreed to undergo clinical assessments, while four completed questionnaires only. Results: The mean age at the first CI was 15.63 months (SD = 6.0). All but one communicated with spoken language(s). Participants attended mainstream schools and had highly educated parents. Over half (56%) had received Auditory Verbal Therapy in early childhood. Earlier implantation correlated with better language understanding one year post-CI. Conclusions: Earlier implantation was associated with better early language outcomes, with parental education level and early family-centered intervention likely contributing. Future sub-studies will investigate multidisciplinary long-term effects of pediatric cochlear implantation in adolescents.

Children born with moderate hearing loss present with speech and language outcomes at both ends of the spectrum. To explore reasons for this, the objective of this study was to follow up a group of children born with moderate sensorineural hearing loss at 6 years of age (n = 7) by investigating their outcomes in hearing, speech, and language development from time point of hearing aid fitting at 6 months. Another objective was to investigate the relationship between earlier outcomes on precursing variables to the current status in auditory, speech and language development. Earlier data from a project with the same participants of auditory variables, speech, and language development were compared to the current study outcomes at 6 years of age. Children in this study performed standardized tests of phonology (SVANTE), expressive vocabulary (BNT), and speech-in-noise test (Hagerman's sentences). Parents reported on their child's functional auditory performance in everyday life (PEACH), and demographics and general development (questionnaire). Etiology and frequency of speech and language-directed intervention from time point of diagnosis to 6 years of age were collected through medical journals. Hearing levels were stable over time in all children but one, who had received bilateral cochlear implants. Performance on speech-in-noise testing varied in aided condition (-0.8 to 8, mean 2.65, SD 3.09) and unaided condition (7.2 dB-21.2 dB, mean 12.06, SD 4.82). Scores on the PEACH indicated further review in four of the seven children. Mean group score on consonant proficiency had increased from 3 to 6 years of age and were within age norms. Vocabulary scores were below the norms of children with typical hearing. Outcomes on vocabulary measures at 2.5 years showed strong correlations that were significant to scores on the BNT at 6 years of age (r = 0.87, p = 0.05). Correlations between hours of hearing aid use and vocabulary was not significant at 6 years of age. The frequency of intervention sessions in the first 6 years varied between participants (4-55, mean 19.1, SD 17.1). Despite homogeneous hearing and other background variables in the participants from birth, large individual variations in speech and language outcomes at 6 years of age were found. Considering the many factors involved that impact the development of children with moderate hearing loss, the results suggest that monitoring early precursors in auditory, speech and language development may be helpful in setting commensurate goals for each child. Detecting additional conditions that may pose challenges in future speech and language as early as possible is important. There is ample room for improvement in terms of increasing the frequency of intervention for children with moderate hearing loss and their families.