Repeatability of a Real-Ear-to-Coupler Difference Measurement as a Function of Age

¹ The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
² Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE

For a given individual, the applicability of an average real-ear-to-coupler transfer function in the fitting of hearing aids is of limited utility, because the acoustical properties of individual ears may differ substantially from average transformation values (Feigin, Kopun, Stelmachowicz, & Gorga, 1989; Fikret-Pasa & Revit, 1992). It has been suggested, therefore, that individual real-ear-to-coupler difference (RECD) measures should be obtained whenever possible and applied within the fitting process (Hawkins, 1992; Nelson Barlow, Auslander, Rines, & Stelmachowicz, 1988). The purpose of this study was to investigate the repeatability of a specific RECD measurement procedure that has been developed for clinical application with young children (Moodie, Seewald, & Sinclair, 1994). The test-retest reliability of this procedure is reported for 10 adults and 90 children in the birth-to-7-year age range.

Key Words: pediatric, amplification, hearing aid

Submitted on July 24, 1995
Accepted on February 14, 1996

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Bagatto, S. Moodie, S. Scollie, R. Seewald, S. Moodie, J. Pumford, and K. P. R. Liu Clinical Protocols for Hearing Instrument Fitting in the Desired Sensation Level Method Trends in Amplification, December 1, 2005; 9(4): 199 - 226. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. C. Seewald and S. D. Scollie An Approach for Ensuring Accuracy in Pediatric Hearing Instrument Fitting Trends in Amplification, March 1, 2003; 7(1): 29 - 40. [Abstract] [PDF]