Researchers from the HEARing Cooperative Research Center (HEARing CRC) in Australia recently completed testing all 5-year-olds in the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) study and are on their way to completing their 9-year-old assessments.
The LOCHI study has so far found that infants with hearing loss who are fitted with hearing aids and cochlear implants as soon as possible have better language and learning abilities. The study is in its 11th year and has assessed more than 400 children with hearing loss at 6 and 12 months, and again at 3, 5, and 9 years. All children are from New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. Male participants make up 54 percent of the study, and 25 percent of participants have additional disabilities. Thirty-five percent of children have moderate hearing loss, 29 percent have profound hearing loss, 20 percent have severe hearing loss, and 16 percent of participants have mild hearing loss.
An essential part of the LOCHI study is to relate how children with hearing loss perform on the tests when compared with children who have normal hearing, according to LOCHI's website.
Some of the tests researchers use do not have normal comparison data, and some tests were produced and normed here in the United States. For these reasons, the team has a sub study running at the same time as LOCHI, testing children with normal hearing on the LOCHI test battery. The same team that test children on the LOCHI study conduct the sub study assessments to ensure the tests were administered exactly the same way.
Assessments for both studies take place in schools, kindergartens, at home, or at hearing centers, just like the LOCHI assessments.
The LOCHI study is a joint endeavor between the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) and HEARing CRC, and is led by NAL's Teresa YC Ching, PhD.
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