Factors Influencing the Behavioral Assessment of Hearing During Infancy and Childhood
Funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH Grant Number R01 DC014460; PI: Emily Buss)
Behavioral data represent the gold standard for assessing hearing, but they are affected by many different factors (e.g., sensorineural encoding of sound, central/cognitive factors). At present we have very few techniques for differentiating these factors in infants and young children, which in turn undermines our ability to identify sensorineural hearing loss or to evaluate the maturation of central auditory processing. Basic and applied experiments in this grant funded by the National Institutes of Health aim to differentiate the factors responsible for immature auditory behavior, and to develop novel methods for the evaluation of particular functional hearing abilities.
Contact
If you have any questions about participation, please email HADL@boystown.org or call (531) 355-6625 and we will get back to you.
Participate
We are currently recruiting toddlers with normal hearing for these projects. Please fill out the form below if you would like to sign up.
Upon Your Arrival
Once you arrive at Boys Town National Research Hospital, one of our lab employees will greet you in the lobby and escort you to the laboratory. We will walk you through the details of participating in the study and will request that you (and your child if over the age of 7) formally give your consent to participate in the study.
During the Visit
The length of the visit varies depending on the child but is always less than 3 hours. The visit can be split into separate sessions if desired or needed. We ensure that children have frequent breaks. Measures that are conducted in our lab include:
- Hearing evaluation or hearing screening
- Hearing aid measurement for children who are hard of hearing
- Assessment of speech and language skills such as vocabulary
- Assessment of executive function and working memory
- Sound perception testing. Your child will listen to sounds presented from a speaker or headphones. The sounds are played in quiet or with noise in the background. Your child will tell us what they hear by touching a picture on a computer, by raising their hand, or by repeating back words or sentences that they hear.
- For parents of infants, your baby will sit on your lap and listen to sounds. We will observe your infant's responses to sounds.
- For parents of toddlers, we will teach your child to make a response to sound by using play activities, such as putting a toy in a bucket when they hear a specific sound.
- For participants who are unable to respond by raising their hand, repeating back words, or using play activities, we may use observational techniques to see how they respond to sound.
After the Visit
At the end of the visit, your child will pick out a small prize as our thank you for participating in the study. In addition, you will be compensated for your time on an hourly basis.
Important Reminders
We want to make this an enjoyable experience for you and your child, so if at any time your child needs a break or needs to end the visit, simply let us know. If you have any questions before, during, or following any of your visits to our lab, please ask!
