RP210 - Optimizing National Acoustic Laboratories and Desired Sensation Level Prescriptions for Children with Adaptive Low-level Gain

Abstract: This study examined outcomes in children as they relate to differences in the NAL and DSL pediatric hearing aid prescriptions. Also examined was a hearing aid feature that adaptively increases gain for low-level speech at .3 to 3kHz. Children with bilateral hearing losses completed seven listening and learning tasks administered at low and high presentation levels while wearing hearing aids fit to DSL targets and NAL targets. Significant differences between prescriptions emerged for only two tasks at the low presentation level. The adaptive gain feature decreased the difference in prescriptions further while improving the retention of newly learned words.