(PP1309) Retention of Gains from Listening Training After 4-6 Weeks in Children with Hearing Loss

For speech perception training to be considered effective the benefits seen at the end of training must be permanent.  The primary purpose of the study was to measure the retention of gains 4-6 weeks after a 16-hour formal listening training protocol was stopped in elementary school children with hearing loss.  A secondary goal was to measure potentially added benefits from extending the training to include computerized home-based training during the 4-6 week interval before the follow up assessment.

Summary: 

Purpose:   Very few studies of either auditory or speechreading training have assessed whether benefits realized during training are maintained over time and very few if any have questioned whether benefits continue to accrue if training is continued beyond a formal training program. The goal of the investigation was to assess whether children retained training-related gains 4-6 weeks after they completed 16 hours of formal speech perception training.  Training was comprised of either auditory or speechreading training, or a combination of both.  In addition to assessing the retention of gains, a secondary goal was to assess the benefits of including an additional 16-hours computerized home training following the formal in-lab training. 

Method:   Eighty-four elementary-school aged children with hearing loss who had participated in a randomized control study returned 4-6 weeks after the training stopped to take a follow up speech perception assessment.  The children were included in one of two groups.  A home-training group included 40 children who completed an additional 16 hours of speech perception training at home during a 4–6-week interval before the follow-up speech perception assessment.  The home-based speech perception training was a continuation of the same gamified training that was received in the lab, only formatted to work on a tablet PC with a portable speaker.  The other group, the no home-training group, did not train at home.  The follow-up speech perception assessment included measures of listening and speechreading, with test items spoken by both familiar and unfamiliar talkers. 

Results: Overall, both groups retained the benefits to listening and speechreading shown during after the in-lab training.  The home-based training group improved slightly on the listening portions of the assessment. 

Conclusions:   The findings provide continued support for the practice of providing children who have hearing loss with speech perception training and suggest that benefits of training are maintained for at least 4-6 weeks after training.  Additional support is also seen for the inclusion of a self-paced training using home-based digital training methods.  Future aural rehabilitation programs might include maintenance training at home to supplement the speech perception training conducted under more formal conditions at school or in the clinic.

Learning Objective: Upon completion, participants will be able to demonstrate the need for assessing long term gains from listening training and the need for home-based maintenance training as a method for retention of gains made following formal training.