COMPARISON OF SEVERELY AND PROFOUNDLY HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDRENS AMPLIFICATION PREFERENCES WITH THE NAL-RP AND THE DSL-3.0 PRESCRIPTIONS

Prompted by a recent paper in this journal (Snik et al., 1995), this c ommunication compares the gain and frequency response preferred by a g roup of 21 severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children (37 test ears) to the NAL-RP and the DSL 3.0 hearing aid prescriptions. The res ults support the findings of Snik et al. (1995) that the NAL-RP proced ure provides an adequate prescription or amplification on average. The individual discrepancies between prescribed and preferred characteris tics imply that fine-tuning with an evaluation tool is necessary for s ome children. It is uncertain whether previous listening experience af fects listeners' preferences, and it is suggested that further studies be carried out to address this issue.