Developing a functional assessment tool for the auditory performance of Arabic-speaking Egyptian hearing impaired children

Background: Auditory performance outcome of children with hearing impairment has been widely studied, and the related factors of the performance have been explored among different age groups for English speaking hearing impaired children. Objectives: The objective of this study was to construct Arabic questionnaires for the evaluation of the auditory abilities of hearing impaired Egyptian Arabic-speaking children. Methods: Three Arabic questionnaires targeting the auditory abilities were constructed by selecting items from different English-based questionnaires and translating them into Arabic and adapted to Egyptian culture. The questionnaires were administered to 210 Arabic-speaking Egyptian children in the age range 1-12 years who were divided into three age groups. They included 90 hearing impaired children fitted with hearing aids and 30 hearing impaired children with a cochlear implant and 90 children with normal hearing (as a control group). Participants' responses were statistically analyzed to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaires and to compare hearing impaired children with normal hearing children. Results: There were non-significant differences between cochlear implanted children and children with hearing aids regarding auditory abilities performances. Language age and aided pure tone audiometry were considered the best predictors of auditory abilities of hearing impaired Egyptian children. Conclusion: The constructed Arabic questionnaires proved to be reliable and valid functional assessment tools that provide information about auditory behaviors of hearing impaired Egyptian children in everyday life and would complement other objective test results in evaluating and monitoring the performance of these children.