Page Ten September 2006 • Vol. 59 • No. 9 O kay, here’s a little quiz for you older readers. Imagine this scenario: You’re driving your newly released Ford Taurus, drinking your first can of New Coke, listening to We Are The World on the radio on your way to the movie Back to the Future. And the year was? That’s right,1985. If you were fitting hearing aids back then, you probably sat down at your newly purchased probe-mic equipment and became a little overwhelmed at the prescriptive fitting options. On this equipment alone there was the Lybarger 1/2-gain, the Berger method, and POGO. But wait, you also just read about the Libby 1/3-gain method and a year or so ago you learned about Pascoe’s research and Cox’s MSU procedure. And then there was this Australian fitting method that people were starting to talk about. It was all so confusing. But something else was happening on the prescriptive fitting front in 1985 that only a few people noticed. A fellow named Richard Seewald, writing in Ear and Hearing, introduced a new procedure for children called the Desired Sensation Level method, or simply DSL. While most of the prescriptive methods of the 1980s are now long forgotten, the DSL has become the standard for pediatric amplification and is one of the few validated prescriptive methods in use today. The procedure and the software have evolved over the years, and another revised version is being launched this year. We’re pleased to celebrate the DSL’s 21st birthday here on Page Ten, and provide you with a preview of the DSL v5.0 prescriptive fitting procedure. Our Page Ten author this month is Susan Scollie, PhD, assistant professor at the National Centre for Audiology and the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Health Sciences, at theUniversity of Western Ontario. Dr. Scollie also serves as co-director of the Child Amplification Laboratory at the Centre. In addition to her previous contributions here on Page Ten, you probably know Susan from her many publications in the area of hearing aid selection and fitting. She also has conducted workshops worldwide on hearing aid fittings for infants and children, and serves on several related committees. On the next few pages, Dr. Scollie describes the new features of DSL v5.0 and provides a review of the supporting research. While the introduction of New Coke didn’t fare very well back in 1985, the flavor of the DSL always has been tasty, and it just keeps getting better. For that, many audiologists and hearing-impaired children and parents are thankful.