HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal My Folders Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ricketts, T. A. Articles by Galster, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ricketts, T. A. Articles by Galster, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Head Angle and Elevation in Classroom Environments: Implications for Amplification

Contact author: Todd A. Ricketts, Dan Maddox Hearing Aid Research Laboratory, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1215 21st Avenue South, Room 8310, Medical Center East, South Tower, Nashville, TN 37232-8242. E-mail: todd.a.ricketts{at}vanderbilt.edu.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine children's head orientation relative to the arrival angle of competing signals and the sound source of interest in actual school settings. These data were gathered to provide information relative to the potential for directional benefit.

Method: Forty children, 4–17 years of age, with and without hearing loss, completed the study. Deviation in head angle and elevation relative to the direction of sound sources of interest were measured in 40 school environments. Measurements were made on the basis of physical data and videotapes from 3 cameras placed within each classroom.

Results: The results revealed similarly accurate head orientation across children with and without hearing loss when focusing on the 33% proportion of time in which children were most accurate. Orientation accuracy was not affected by age. The data also revealed that children with hearing loss were significantly more likely to orient toward brief utterances made by secondary talkers than were children with normal hearing.

Conclusions: These data are consistent with the hypothesized association between hearing loss and increased visual monitoring. In addition, these results suggest that age does not limit the potential for signal-to-noise improvements from directivity-based interventions in noisy environments.

KEY WORDS: directional microphones, hearing aids, pediatric amplification

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. Y. C. Ching, A. O'Brien, H. Dillon, J. Chalupper, L. Hartley, D. Hartley, G. Raicevich, and J. Hain Directional Effects on Infants and Young Children in Real Life: Implications for Amplification J Speech Lang Hear Res, October 1, 2009; 52(5): 1241 - 1254. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]