Audiological assessment modalities in children with multiple handicaps and parents′ perception

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Aim: Children with multiple disabilities have combination of various disabilities. Accurate hearing evaluation is difficult in this population. Audiologists, generally employ a test battery approach, which includes combining findings of parent impression with behavior observation audiometry (BOA) as well as auditory brainstem evoked responses (ABR) findings. This study was carried out to find if there exists a correlation among various steps in the test battery for children with multiple handicaps as well as to find out, which disability is the most common among this population. Methodology: A total of 103 numbers of children with multiple handicaps were chosen at random who were referred to C U Shah Institute of Audiology and Speech Therapy for audiological assessment. The three steps involved in assessment that is parental impression, BOA and ABR findings were taken into account. The relationship was obtained using data analysis. Results: It was found that among children with multiple handicaps referred for audiological assessment, mental retardation was the most common (32.03%). Furthermore, it was found that there were more contradictory findings between parent impression and ABR (48%) when compared with parent impression with BOA (38%). In between BOA and ABR contradictory findings were found in 41% of cases. Conclusion: There are wide contradictions among various steps involved in assessment of children with multiple handicaps. Implication: Audiologist should use a test battery approach to assess hearing ability of this population and audiologists should interpret findings carefully at each level.