A database has been created for research volunteers who would like to be
contacted when they qualify for a study. If you would like to be added to
the database, you must complete and sign the
Research Subjects
Database form and return it to our laboratory. For children (or
adults) with hearing loss, we will contact you to obtain an updated hearing
test if possible.
Advanced Hearing Aids for Children with Hearing Loss:
What Works and What Doesn’t
Purpose: This project involves two studies that will examine how different types of advanced hearing aids help children learn and manage busy listening environments. This project is funded by a grant from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and will last 2 years. The results will help us to create recommendations that pediatric audiologists can use when they choose hearing aids for children.
Who: For each study, we will enroll 50 children with normal hearing and 90 children with hearing loss between the ages of 8 and 12 years. Each child should be enrolled in a regular classroom, and speak English as their native language.
What: Children may participate in one or both studies (their choice). Prior to either study the children will receive a standard clinical hearing evaluation and answer some questions about their hearing loss and hearing aids (if any). In the first study, children will learn the names of toys presented in a video-game format on the computer. In the second study, children will listen to everyday words and tell us the category to which each word belongs while also doing a paper and pencil game (like dot-to-dots). For both tasks, they will first learn the names in quiet and then in noise. Children who wear hearing aid will listen in the same quiet and noise conditions but with our hearing aids that have a special noise-reduction feature. The total test time for each study is no more than 2 hours
Pay: Each child will be paid $15/hour ($30 per study). A copy of the hearing test results is also available upon request at no charge.
Call: If you have any questions about this study or if you would like to enroll your child, call Andrea Pittman at (480) 727-8728. This study will begin in February 2009 and continue through December 2010.
How well can children with hearing loss understand speech
while doing other things?
Purpose: Through this study we hope to better understand children’s ability to multitask as a function of age and task difficulty. This information will help us to understand the degree to which competing tasks interfere with speech perception and the age at which it is safe to assume that a child can attend to different tasks while listening to speech.
Who: We are looking for children who are 8 to 12 years old who have a hearing loss. The children should be enrolled in a regular classroom and speak English as their native language.
What: Each child will receive a standard hearing test as well as a standard vocabulary test. For the experiment, children will be asked to listen to everyday words and tell us which category each word belongs to (people, animal, food). At the same time, the children will play dot-to-dot games that are easy at the beginning and then get harder. During the test, children will hear background noise that sounds like people talking at a restaurant. The total test time is no more than 2 hours.
Pay: Each child will be paid $10/hr for their time ($20 total). A copy of the hearing test results is also available upon request at no charge.
Call: If you have any questions about this study or if you would like to enroll your child, call Andrea Pittman at (480) 727-8728. This study will begin in January 2009 and continue through December 2009.
