Performance of Malayalam Speaking Children Fitted with Hearing Aids on PEACH Scale

Abstract

Abstract: Parental questionnaires impart a better understanding of hearing technology utilization by children with Hearing loss(HL). They provide insights into the functional abilities and accomplishments of children equipped with Hearing Aids (HA). The present study aimed to translate and adapt the PEACH questionnaire into Malayalam language and evaluating its effectiveness in discriminating the functional hearing abilities of Malayalam speaking children with HL fitted with HAs at various stages of life. The Malayalam PEACH questionnaire was aPdministered to parents/caregivers of 40 Malayalamspeaking children aged 3 to 6, divided into two groups based on whether they received HA before or after the age of 2. Results revealed that children fitted with HA before 2 years of age demonstrated superior performance in quiet, noisy, and overall situations compared to those fitted after 2 years of age highlighting the importance of early identification of HL in children. Additionally, the questionnaire exhibited high reliability upon retesting across all of the three hearing situations (quiet,noise and overall). Therefore, the Malayalam PEACH questionnaire emerges as a dependable and effective tool for evaluating and monitoring the functional hearing abilities and communication skills of children fitted with HA or Cochlear Implants (CI) in their everyday lives