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Validation of the LittlEARS((R)) Auditory Questionnaire in children with normal hearing
F Coninx1, V Weichbold, L Tsiakpini
1Institut für Audiopädagogik, an der Universität zu Köln, Solingen, Germany.
Insights
The LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire is a reliable, language-independent tool for assessing auditory skills in infants and toddlers. It effectively tracks auditory development in children with normal hearing and those using hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric audiology
- Developmental psychology
- Speech and hearing sciences
Background:
- Infants and toddlers are increasingly receiving cochlear implants, necessitating validated assessments for pre-verbal and early verbal auditory skills.
- The LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire serves as the initial module within the LittlEARS test battery.
- It is designed to evaluate auditory behavior in both normal-hearing children and those with hearing impairments who utilize hearing aids or cochlear implants before 24 months of age.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire for assessing auditory behavior in children.
- To establish norm curves for the questionnaire across different languages.
- To confirm the questionnaire's utility for tracking auditory development in young children.
Main Methods:
- A norm curve was developed using data from 218 German and Austrian children with normal hearing (aged 5 days to 24 months).
- The questionnaire was translated from German into English and 15 other languages.
- Regression curves were generated from parental responses of 3309 normal-hearing infants and toddlers, and compared to the original German validation curve.
Main Results:
- A norm curve demonstrating the age-dependency of auditory behavior was established, along with measures of reliability and homogeneity.
- Calculations of expected and critical values were determined as a function of age.
- Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences between the regression curves of the adapted languages and the original German norm curve.
Conclusions:
- The LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire is a validated, language-independent instrument for assessing early auditory behavior in infants and toddlers.
- The findings support its use in documenting progress with amplification, justifying cochlear implantation, and identifying needs for further developmental assessment.
Objectives:
With more children receiving cochlear implants during infancy, there is a need for validated assessments of pre-verbal and early verbal auditory skills. The LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire is presented here as the first module of the LittlEARS test battery. The LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire was developed and piloted to assess the auditory behaviour of normal hearing children and hearing impaired children who receive a cochlear implant or hearing aid prior to 24 months of age. This paper presents results from two studies: one validating the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire on children with normal hearing who are German speaking and a second validating the norm curves found after adaptation and administration of the questionnaire to children with normal hearing in 15 different languages.
Methods:
Scores from a group of 218 German and Austrian children with normal hearing between 5 days and 24 months of age were used to create a norm curve. The questionnaire was adapted from the German original into English and then 15 other languages to date. Regression curves were found based on parental responses from 3309 normal hearing infants and toddlers. Curves for each language were compared to the original German validation curve.
Results:
The results of the first study were a norm curve which reflects the age-dependence of auditory behaviour, reliability and homogeneity as a measure of auditory behaviour, and calculations of expected and critical values as a function of age. Results of the second study show that the regression curves found for all the adapted languages are essentially equal to the German norm curve, as no statistically significant differences were found.
Conclusions:
The LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire is a valid, language-independent tool for assessing the early auditory behaviour of infants and toddlers with normal hearing. The results of this study suggest that the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire could also be very useful for documenting children's progress with their current amplification, providing evidence of the need for implantation, or highlighting the need for follow-up in other developmental areas.
