Table 1.
Demographic characteristics for children with mild bilateral hearing loss (MBHL) and children with normal hearing (NH).
| Variable | Children with MBHL (n = 60) |
Children with NH (n = 69) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | M (SD) | Range | n | M (SD) | Range | |
| Chronological age (years) | 60 | 10.38 (0.35) | 9.75–11.52 | 69 | 10.37 (0.37) | 8.96–11.08 |
| Maternal education level (years) | 60 | 15.65 (2.34) | 12–20 | 66 | 15.73 (2.97) | 8–20 |
| Better-ear PTA (dB HL) a | 60 | 33.40 (7.38) | 18.75–43.75 | 69 | < 20 | |
| Better-ear unaided SII | 58 | 0.64 (0.18) | 0.32–.098 | N/A | ||
| Better-ear aided SII b | 59 | 0.88 (0.08) | 0.56–0.99 | N/A | ||
| Age at confirmation (months) | 59 | 27.00 (23.70) | 1.00–64.00 | N/A | ||
| Age at HA fitting (months) | 56 | 32.42 (27.80) | 2.00–108.00 | N/A | ||
| Age at early intervention (months) | 36 | 11.28 (10.31) | 1.00–36.00 | N/A | ||
| Amount of daily HA use (hours) | 60 | 9.74 (4.42) | 0–16 | N/A | ||
Note. PTA = pure-tone average; SII = Speech Intelligibility Index; N/A = not applicable; HA = hearing aid.
a
The criteria for study enrollment for children who were hard of hearing was better-ear PTA of no better than 25 dB HL. Exceptions were made to include children with mild high-frequency HL (3-frequency PTA less than 25 dB HL in the better ear, but thresholds greater than 25 dB HL at 3, 4, or 6 kHz).
b
For children with MBHL who did not have hearing aids (n = 4), unaided SII is included. For children with hearing aids, aided SII is included.