Parental Reports on the Auditory Performance of Children With Normal Hearing and Children With Hearing Loss via the Hebrew Adaptation of the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children Scale.

PURPOSE

The aims of this study were to adapt the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH) scale into Hebrew, to explore the auditory performance of children with normal hearing (NH) or hearing loss (HL), to examine changes with age, and to investigate the effect of descriptive variables on the performance of children with HL.

METHOD

The PEACH scale was adapted into Hebrew using the "back-translation" method. The study included 260 parents of children with NH and 32 parents of children with HL. Children were between 9 and 72 months old. Inclusion criteria for children with HL are as follows: bilateral, congenital, or moderate-severe to profound sensorineural HL using bilateral sensory devices. Parents evaluated their child's auditory performance in real-life situations using the PEACH scale.

RESULTS

A Cronbach's alpha analysis ( = 292) scored medium-to-high values: α = .86, α = .74, and α = .78 for the entire scale and in quiet and noisy situations, respectively. Noise affected the auditory performance of both groups, with the effect being more pronounced than the hearing status, although it was more prominent in children with HL. The auditory performance of children with NH improved rapidly up to 18 months of age and then progressed more gradually to reach a plateau of 85% at 36 months of age. Chronological age contributed to auditory performance over the entire scale and in quiet situations for children with NH, whereas maternal education contributed to auditory performance in quiet situations for children with HL.

CONCLUSION

The Hebrew version of the PEACH scale provides a useful tool for evaluating the auditory performance of young children, although it is influenced by cultural differences beyond 36 months of age.