The relationship of hearing-loss severity to demographic, age, treatment, and intervention-effectiveness variables

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how hearing-loss severity and the variables of demographics, age, treatment, and intervention effectiveness were related for 2519 children served by SKI*HI home-based programs between July 1979 and June 1991. Relationships between hearing-loss severity and demographic variables were negligible to small. Severity was inversely associated with identification, amplification, and program-start ages. The relationship between severity and early versus late program start was small; this was also true for the relationship between severity and communication methodology. Severity was positively associated with treatment duration; however, severity was not associated with treatment density. Intervention effectiveness for the severity levels, based on expressive and receptive language scores, was examined using three predictive models. These included the residuals between actual and predicted posttest scores, proportional change indices, and value-added gains per month. The usefulness of the three procedures for clinical and program-evaluation purposes is discussed.