May-Mederake Birgit, Kuehn Heike, Vogel Arno, Keilmann Annerose, Bohnert Andrea, Mueller Sabine, Witt Gabriele, Neumann Katrin, Hey Christiane, Stroele Anne, Streitberger Christian, Carnio Sabrina, Zorowka Patrick, Nekahm-Heis Doris, Esser-Leyding Barbara, Brachmaier Joanna, Coninx Frans
CIC Sued Wuerzburg, Germany.
Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2010 Oct;74(10):1149-55. doi: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2010.07.003. Epub 2010 Aug 4.
Newborn hearing screening and early intervention for congenital hearing loss have created a need for tools assessing the hearing development of very young children. A multidisciplinary evaluation of children's development is now becoming standard in clinical practice, though not many reliable diagnostic instruments exist. For this reason, the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) was created to assess the auditory skills of a growing population of infants and toddlers who receive hearing instruments. The LEAQ relies on parent report, which has been shown to be a reliable way of assessing child development. Results with this tool in a group of children who received very early cochlear implantation are presented.
The LEAQ is the first module of the LittlEARS comprehensive test battery for children under the age of two who have normal hearing (NH), cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids (HAs). The LEAQ is a parent questionnaire comprised of 35 "yes/no" questions which can be completed by parents in less than 10 min. Sixty-three children who received unilateral CIs at a young age were assessed longitudinally and their performance was compared to that of a NH group.
All CI children reached the maximum possible score on the LEAQ on average by 22 months of hearing age, i.e. 38 months of chronological age. In comparison, the NH group reached the maximum score by 24 months of age demonstrating that auditory skills of CI children often develop quicker than those of NH children. In the two comparison groups of children aged (a) younger and older than 12 months, and (b) between 6-9 and 21-24 months at first fitting, the early implanted children reached the highest scores faster than the later implanted children. Furthermore, three children with additional needs were tested. They showed slower growth over time but also received benefits from early implantation.
The LEAQ is a quick and effective tool for assessing auditory skills of very young children with or without hearing loss. In our study, the auditory skills of children with CI progressed very quickly after implantation and were comparable with those of NH peers.
新生儿听力筛查以及先天性听力损失的早期干预使得人们需要能够评估幼儿听力发育的工具。目前，儿童发育的多学科评估在临床实践中已逐渐成为标准操作，但可靠的诊断工具并不多。因此，研发了小儿听力问卷（LEAQ），用于评估越来越多佩戴听力设备的婴幼儿的听觉技能。LEAQ依靠家长报告，而家长报告已被证明是评估儿童发育的可靠方式。本文展示了该工具应用于一组接受极早期人工耳蜗植入的儿童的结果。
LEAQ是针对听力正常（NH）、植入人工耳蜗（CI）或佩戴助听器（HA）的两岁以下儿童的LittlEARS综合测试组的首个模块。LEAQ是一份家长问卷，由35个“是/否”问题组成，家长可在不到10分钟内完成。对63名幼年接受单侧CI植入的儿童进行纵向评估，并将他们的表现与NH组进行比较。
所有CI儿童在平均听力年龄22个月时，即实际年龄38个月时，在LEAQ上达到了可能的最高分。相比之下，NH组在24个月时达到最高分，这表明CI儿童的听觉技能发展往往比NH儿童更快。在两个比较组中，（a）首次佩戴时年龄小于和大于12个月的儿童，以及（b）首次佩戴时年龄在6 - 9个月和21 - 24个月之间的儿童，早期植入的儿童比晚期植入的儿童更快达到最高分。此外，对三名有特殊需求的儿童进行了测试。他们随时间推移增长较慢，但也从早期植入中受益。
LEAQ是评估有或无听力损失的幼儿听觉技能的快速有效工具。在我们研究中，CI儿童植入后听觉技能进展非常迅速，与NH儿童相当。
