Research Studies

There are several research projects in progress, either based at Chear or in collaboration with the Hearing Lab at Cambridge University where Josephine works two days a week.

Current studies are as follows:

Paediatric Hearing Aid Prescription study

We are starting a new study, funded over three years by Deafness Research UK, to look at how hearing aids should be set for children between the ages of two and eight years. This is a big challenge as we plan to see over 100 children with 3 different settings in their hearing aids over the course of the study. The research builds on studies which we have done over the last 5 years, looking at the use of compression for speech understanding by both children and adults.

Development of a new test for dead regions in the cochlea

This study is part of a research programme funded by the RNID looking into the assessment and diagnosis of areas of inner hair cell damage, or “dead regions” in the cochlea, in people with hearing loss. The TEN test is used to identify dead regions in adults and older children, but the test requires concentration and co-operation by the subject.

In this study we developed a protocol to test for inner hair cell damage using evoked potentials (such as brainstem and steady state responses) in babies and young children. This is important because this type of hearing impairment may not be effectively helped by fitting of hearing aids.

The protocol has been developed and tested on adults and was used with hearing impaired teenagers. We are lucky to have the help of hearing impaired students (with support from parents and staff) at Mary Hare grammar school in Newbury.

A new TEN test technique with hearing aids

A further part of the dead region programme is the development of a new method of performing the TEN test, while the subject wears his/her hearing aids. This was developed with the students at Mary Hare and gave results in a short amount of test time, without requiring high levels of exposure to noise.

Previous studies

A study was carried out in Taunton in 2003 with the help of 20 children and families and the local audiology and education departments. We looked at the use of different programmes in hearing aids worn by children and the ease with which the children can change between different settings. The hearing aids were supplied by Phonak hearing systems.

In 2004 we completed a study in Bedford with 30 children, looking at the speed of the hearing aid reaction times and the effect on speech understanding. The hearing aids were supplied by Oticon hearing aids, who also made a second researcher available to help with the testing and analysis, for the duration of the study.

We are always very grateful for the help and commitment of the families and children with hearing aids, who have plenty to do already, giving up time for these studies. Without them we would be unable to develop strategies of hearing aid amplification. If you have a hearing impaired child with hearing aids and are interested in taking part in a study, we will be very pleased to hear from you.

A secondary effect of this type of study is the development of new materials for use by clinicians in audiology.