Hearing aid status of schoolchildren attending a school for the hearing impaired or the deaf [Zum stand der hörgeräteversorgung bei schülern und schülerinnen der schwerhörigen- und gehörlosenschule]

To evaluate and possibly improve the hearing aid fittings of children attending the Westphalian School for the Hearing Impaired or the Westphalian School for the Deaf, regular pedaudiologic consulting hours were established at both schools. During a 2-year period, 115 children were examined once, 35 children twice, and 5 children three times. The examinations comprised ear microscopy, audiometry, and a check of the hearing aids with a 0.6-cm3 coupler (children up to 7 years) or 2-cm3 coupler, respectively. The following criteria were used to assess the quality of the hearing aid setting: status of the external auditory canal and middle ear, acceptance of wearing the hearing aid, status of the ear mold, technical status of the hearing aid, and its setting. The results were related to four variables: gender, type of school, age, and mean hearing loss. Overall, just 40.9% of all children showed satisfactory hearing aid performance at the first examination and just 37.1% at the second. A significant influence of the variables on the hearing aid performance was documented for hearing loss only. The higher the hearing loss, the more likely the children were to have good hearing aid status. Analysis of the different parameters revealed that an incorrect setting was the main problem, with a rate of 20.9%; the rate of the other parameters varied from 6.1% to 15.7%. Thus, no parameter was of major relevance to the results. The results of the second examination were poorer in most parameters than those of the first. These alarming results, which are probably not only of regional significance, demonstrate that the hearing aid status of children attending schools for the hearing impaired or for the deaf is in urgent need of improvement.