Translation and validation of the Listen Inventory for Education Revised into Dutch

In Belgium the majority of children with CI's are being educated in mainstream schools. In mainstream schools difficult listening situations occur (e.g. due to background noise) which may result in educational risks for children with CI's. A tool that identifies potential listening difficulties, the English Listen inventory for Education Revised (LIFE-R), was translated and validated into Dutch for elementary and secondary schools (LIFE-NL, LIFE2-NL respectively).

Two forward-backward translations were performed followed by a linguistic evaluation and validation by a multidisciplinary committee. The LIFE-NL was further validated on content by pre-testing the questionnaire in 5 students with hearing loss (8-13 years). After minor cross-cultural adaptations normative data were assembled from 187 normal-hearing (NH) students enrolled in mainstream secondary education (1st to 4th grade). The normative data were further analysed based on grade and school type. Additionally, the internal consistency was evaluated by calculating Cronbach's alpha for 3 different scales of the LIFE2-NL: the LIFE total (situation 1-15), LIFE class (situation 1-10: listening situations in classroom) and LIFE social (situation 11-15: social listening situations in school).

NH students scored on average 72.0 (SD = 19.9%) on the LIFE2-NL, indicating they experience some difficulties in secondary mainstream schools. The most difficult listening situations were those where fellow students are noisy or when students have to listen in large classrooms. NH students scored significantly higher on the LIFE class compared to the LIFE social (84.1 ± 14.7% vs. 68.1 ± 19.0%, p < .000). Moreover the LIFE social tend to decrease from the 3rd grade on. The different subscales of the LIFE2-NL showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.86, 0.89 and 0.75 for LIFE total, LIFE class and LIFE social respectively).

The LIFE-NL and LIFE2-NL are valid Dutch translations of the original LIFE-R and are fully comprehensible for students with hearing loss. The normative data of the LIFE2-NL provide a representative framework for interpreting the results of mainstreamed students with hearing loss in secondary schools.