Age at fitting of hearing aids and speech intelligibility.

This paper reports on the effect of age at fitting of hearing aids on subsequent achievements in speech intelligibility among hearing-impaired children. Four groups of hearing-impaired children were included in this investigation. Group A (n = 32) started using hearing aids in their first 6 months of life; Group B (n = 32) in their second 6 months of life; Group C (n = 38) in their second year of life and Group D (n = 51) in their third year of life. The children in each group were matched with regard to age, sex, age at onset of deafness, degree of hearing loss and educational establishment attended. The speech intelligibility of each child was rated by his/her class teacher on a 7-point scale. It was found that the speech intelligibility of the children in Group A was significantly superior to the speech intelligibility of the children in the other three groups. All other differences in speech intelligibility obtained between groups (Group B v. Group C v. Group D) were small and none proved to be statistically significant.