Table 2.
Audiologic characteristics for 5-year-olds and second graders who are hard of hearing.
| Variable | 5 years old |
Second grade |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | M (SD) | Range | n | M (SD) | Range | |
| BEPTA (dB HL)* | 142 | 46.98 (14.41) | 6.25–87.50 | 80 | 47.00 (15.5) | 7.5–90.00 |
| Aided BESII | 140 | .78 (.14) | .27–.99 | 80 | .79 (.13) | .35–.99 |
| Age at confirmation (months) | 140 | 14.93 (17.68) | 0.25–61.00 | 78 | 16.90 (20.1) | 0.25–67.00 |
| Age at HA fitting (months) | 134 | 17.65 (17.78) | 2.00–63.00 | 77 | 19.43 (19.7) | 2.00–68.00 |
Note. BEPTA = better ear pure-tone average in dB hearing level (HL); BESII = better ear Speech Intelligibility Index; HA = hearing aid.
The criteria for study enrollment for children who were hard of hearing was BEPTA no better than 25 dB HL and no poorer than 75 dB HL. Exceptions were made to include children with mild high-frequency hearing loss (three-frequency pure-tone average less than 25 dB HL in the better ear, but thresholds greater than 25 dB HL at 3 kHz, 4 kHz, or 6 kHz). Children with BEPTA greater than 75 dB HL in this study met the criteria at their initial test visit but had progressive hearing loss resulting in BEPTA of up to 90 dB HL at the time of false belief testing.