The Chinese version of the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH) rating scale for infants and children with normal hearing

A validation and normative study of the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children plus (PEACH+) rating scale in Malaysia

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the present study was to (1) translate and validate the PEACH + Rating Scale in Malay and (2) establish normative curves as a function of age and examine test-retest reliability for the Malay and English versions of PEACH+.

DESIGN

This is a cross-sectional study that used a convenient sampling technique.

STUDY SAMPLE

One hundred and fifty-seven parents of typically developing children aged between 4 months and 7 years participated in the study. Forty-nine completed the Malay PEACH + in a pen-to-paper format (Aim 1). One hundred and eight parents completed PEACH + online (69 completed the Malay version and 39 the English version), and 20 of them completed the questionnaire twice (Aim 2).

RESULTS

The PEACH + in Malay showed high internal consistency and item-total correlation. The normative data revealed that scores for frequency of auditory behaviour increased rapidly with age until about 20 months and reached an asymptote of around 90% by about 40 months of age. A similar trend was observed for ease of listening scores, which asymptoted around 85%.

CONCLUSIONS

The validated Malay PEACH + Rating Scale can be used as a guide to monitor auditory functional performance and listening efforts of Malaysian children in real-world environments.

Validation of the Norwegian version of the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/ Oral Performance of Children (PEACH+) for children with typical hearing aged 12-72 months

BACKGROUND

The Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH+) is a parent reported questionnaire. It was first developed in Australia (2007) to assess the effectiveness of hearing devices in young children, and to register how oral children under the age of five hear and communicate with others.

OBJECTIVE

No validated version of the Norwegian translation of PEACH+ exists. This study therefore aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of a back-translated Norwegian version of the PEACH+, from a sample of Norwegian children with typical hearing.

METHODS

Parents of 255 children with typical hearing between 12 and 72 months were recruited through kindergartens and social media platforms. Participants were asked to fill in the PEACH+ questionnaire on behalf of their child, in a digital format.

RESULTS

High internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha = .917) and satisfactory item-total correlation were found (.342-.678).

CONCLUSION

The Norwegian translation of PEACH+ shows good psychometric properties that are similar to the original version (Ching and Hill, 2007) and that of other translations. The PEACH+ questionnaire is therefore valid to use in a Norwegian context.

Parental Reports on the Auditory Performance of Children With Normal Hearing and Children With Hearing Loss via the Hebrew Adaptation of the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children Scale

PURPOSE

The aims of this study were to adapt the Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH) scale into Hebrew, to explore the auditory performance of children with normal hearing (NH) or hearing loss (HL), to examine changes with age, and to investigate the effect of descriptive variables on the performance of children with HL.

METHOD

The PEACH scale was adapted into Hebrew using the "back-translation" method. The study included 260 parents of children with NH and 32 parents of children with HL. Children were between 9 and 72 months old. Inclusion criteria for children with HL are as follows: bilateral, congenital, or moderate-severe to profound sensorineural HL using bilateral sensory devices. Parents evaluated their child's auditory performance in real-life situations using the PEACH scale.

RESULTS

A Cronbach's alpha analysis (N = 292) scored medium-to-high values: α = .86, α = .74, and α = .78 for the entire scale and in quiet and noisy situations, respectively. Noise affected the auditory performance of both groups, with the effect being more pronounced than the hearing status, although it was more prominent in children with HL. The auditory performance of children with NH improved rapidly up to 18 months of age and then progressed more gradually to reach a plateau of 85% at 36 months of age. Chronological age contributed to auditory performance over the entire scale and in quiet situations for children with NH, whereas maternal education contributed to auditory performance in quiet situations for children with HL.

CONCLUSION

The Hebrew version of the PEACH scale provides a useful tool for evaluating the auditory performance of young children, although it is influenced by cultural differences beyond 36 months of age.

Simultaneous Bilateral Cochlear Implantation in Very Young Children Improves Adaptability and Social Skills: A Prospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the value of using the Gesell Development Diagnosis Scale (GDDS) to predict developmental outcomes in very young children who undergo simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation.

DESIGN

In this prospective cohort study, a repeated-measures investigation was conducted in a tertiary referral hospital. A total of 62 children receiving simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantations were enrolled from April 2017 to August 2018. They were divided into 2 groups depending on the operative age: "Infants" group (6 to 12 months, N = 38) or "Children" group (12 to 36 months, N = 24). Data on the surgical outcomes, auditory development, speech production, and developmental indicators were collected until 2 years after the initial fitting. The primary outcome measure was the GDDS, a neuropsychological development examination. Secondary outcomes included the following: complication rate, aided pure-tone average, Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale, Categories of Auditory Performance-II, Meaningful Use of Speech Scale, Speech Intelligibility Rating, and the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire.

RESULTS

The mean ages at implantation in infants and children groups were 9.2 ± 1.17 and 16.6 ± 3.60 months, respectively. Significant differences were found in the social skills ( p = 0.001) and adaptability ( p = 0.031) domains of GDDS. The younger the age of bilateral cochlear implants surgery, the higher developmental quotient of language, social skills, and adaptability the child could achieve after 2 years. The complication rates in the infants and children groups were 0% versus 2.1% ( p = 0.57). There was no surgical complication in the infants group. In the children group, 1 case with enlarged vestibular aqueduct and Mondini malformation had a receiver-implant misplacement on the right side (2%, 1/48). In the two groups, auditory performance and speech production had improved similarly. In the infants group, social skills developmental quotient at baseline had a significant positive relationship with Meaningful Use of Speech Scale after 2 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation in younger children improves adaptability and social skills. GDDS is a sensitive tool of evaluating short-term effect of bilateral cochlear implants in neuropsychological development and constitutes a reliable predictor of speech production for the very younger pediatric cochlear implant users.

A Review of Speech Perception of Mandarin-Speaking Children With Cochlear Implantation

Objective: This paper reviewed the literature on the development of and factors affecting speech perception of Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implantation (CI). We also summarized speech outcome measures in standard Mandarin for evaluating auditory and speech perception of children with CI.

Method: A comprehensive search of Google Scholar and PubMed was conducted from March to June 2021. Search terms used were speech perception/lexical tone recognition/auditory perception AND cochlear implant AND Mandarin/Chinese.

Conclusion: Unilateral CI recipients demonstrated continuous improvements in auditory and speech perception for several years post-activation. Younger age at implantation and longer duration of CI use contribute to better speech perception. Having undergone a hearing aid trial before implantation and having caregivers whose educational level is higher may lead to better performance. While the findings that support the use of CI to improve speech perception continue to grow, much research is needed to validate the use of unilateral and bilateral implantation. Evidence to date, however, revealed bimodal benefits over CI-only conditions in lexical tone recognition and sentence perception in noise. Due to scarcity of research, conclusions on the benefits of bilateral CIs compared to unilateral CI or bimodal CI use cannot be drawn. Therefore, future research on bimodal and bilateral CIs is needed to guide evidence-based clinical practice.