Longitudinal assessment of listening skills in UK infants with hearing aids using the LittlEARS® Auditory Questionnaire

Objective: To investigate listening skills in infant hearing aid users using the LittlEARS® Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ).

Design: Caregivers completed the LEAQ, and hearing aid data logging was recorded, at infant age 3-7 months and 7-21 months.

Study sample: Seventy infant hearing aid users with permanent bilateral hearing loss, no developmental comorbidities, aged 3-7 months at first visit.

Results: Infants with mild and moderate losses tended to have scores within the normative range at the early time point (88%), but 29% were below the normative range when older. Thirty percent of infants with severe hearing loss were outside the normative range at the early time point and 60% outside the normative range when older. Infants with profound loss were almost always (95%) outside the normative range. At the later time point, and for infants with severe-to-profound loss, low LEAQ scores were associated with fewer daily hours hearing aid use. Scores were poorer than previous reports in the literature for infant hearing aid users.

Conclusions: This study provides further knowledge on infant listening performance and hearing aid use over time that can be used to guide management of individual cases and to develop and audit service quality improvements.