Paediatric audiology measures for Spanish-speaking patients: current practice & state of knowledge.

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to obtain an understanding of audiologists' knowledge of Spanish speech perception materials for the paediatric hearing loss population.

Design: An electronic survey, the Knowledge of Spanish Audiology & Speech Tools (KSAST) was distributed via Qualtrics to audiologists who worked with Spanish-speaking children.

Study sample: One hundred and fifty-three audiologists practicing in the United States completed the electronic survey over a period of six months.

Results: Audiologists lacked knowledge of current Spanish measures and there was no consensus on what providers were administering for the paediatric population. The largest gaps in knowledge existed for the infancy through early childhood age groups. Notably, even when Spanish measures exist, audiologists reported feeling uncomfortable using them in clinic due to a variety of reasons (e.g., did not know how to access measure, did not know how to administer).

Conclusions: This study highlights the lack of consensus in managing Spanish-speaking patients with hearing loss. There is a lack of validated age-appropriate measures to accurately assess speech perception for Spanish-speaking children. Future research should focus on improving training on management of Spanish-speaking patients, as well as development of speech measures and best practice guidelines for this population.