More about the Complex Listening Skills in School-Age Hard of Hearing Children study

The team's long-range goals, which were developed based on our research findings, are to develop age-appropriate listening strategies that clinicians and family members can use with children who are hard of hearing. The investigators also will develop methods to help clinicians in identifying children who are at risk for difficulties in complex listening skills.

Dr. Ryan McCreery leads the research team at Boys Town National Research Hospital, and Dr. Beth Walker leads the team at the University of Iowa.

Complex Listening Study Assessments

Research visits for the Complex Listening study occur in the spring or summer after children complete 1st and 3rd grades. Each visit lasts approximately 3 to 4 hours. Families are compensated for their time and children are also able to choose a prize at the end of the research visit.

1st and 3rd grade visits are very similar and include some of the following tasks:

• A hearing evaluation or screening
• Measures of language knowledge, focusing on grammar and vocabulary production and understanding
• Assessment of working memory skills and the ability to attend and focus
• Evaluation of sentence recognition in quiet, noisy, and reverberant conditions
• Assessment of whether a child uses amplification, the audibility of speech with their hearing devices
• Ratings of child’s classroom and home listening skills and behaviors by child, parent and teacher
• Completion of an online survey by the child's classroom teacher regarding their teaching strategies, classroom setup, and personal experience working with children who are hard of hearing.
• Documentation of the acoustic characteristics of classrooms