Preferred listening levels of children who use hearing aids: comparison to prescriptive targets

The preferred listening levels (PLLs) of children with sensorineural hearing loss were elicited using conversation-level speech, heard through the children's own hearing aids. All hearing aids were fitted using the desired sensation level (DSL) method. Comparisons were made between the PLL and targets from the following prescriptive formulae: DSL version 4.1 and two versions of the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) procedure, including NAL revised for severe-profound losses (NAL)-RP and NAL nonlinear NAL/NL1. Results for this sample of children indicated that the PLL was similar to the DSL targets, and that, on average, NAL-RP/NL1 targets recommended less gain than that preferred by the majority of children in this study. The implications of factors such as acclimatization, test levels, and clinical procedures on these results are discussed.