Bio Lisa Davidson is an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., (USA) in addition to being the Director of Audiology Outcomes at the CID Oral School for the Deaf. Her research focus involves evaluating spoken language and cognitive skills of children using different sensory aids as well evaluating strategies to optimize cochlear implants and hearing aids for children. Her current research efforts are examining the effects of early acoustic hearing on binaural processing skills, auditory-visual perception, spoken language, literacy and self-reported social skills and quality of life (NIDCD R01 DC012778 (PI: LSD).
Summary The Hearing Environments and Reflection of Quality of Life (HEAR-QL) was developed specifically for children with hearing loss and has been found to be a valid, reliable, and sensitive measure. We will present data from an ongoing longitudinal study that examined self-reported hearing quality of life (HEAR-QL) scores over time for pre-lingually deaf children using two devices, at least one of which is a cochlear implant (CI). These studies are part of a larger longitudinal study of 117 children from across the United States who wear either two CIs, received simultaneously or sequentially, or a CI and a hearing aid (HA) at the non-implanted ear. These children were administered tests of speech perception, receptive vocabulary, receptive language, speech production, working memory, and non-verbal intelligence when they were between approximately 5 and 9 years old. Two years later, 104 of these children returned and completed the HEAR-QL-26 child version, and eighty-seven of these 104 participants completed the HEAR-QL-28 teen version approximately 3-5 years later. HEAR-QL ratings obtained at two time periods (ages 7-11 and during adolescence, ages 10-16) will be compared. Additionally, we will present results from analyses examining the effects of audiological, demographic, speech perception, and spoken language variables on self-reported hearing quality of life at the two time periods.
This work is supported by the United States National Institutes of Health- National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH- NIDCD R01 DC012778 -PI: Lisa Davidson)