Parent experience of CROS hearing aid for child with UHL
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How do parents of children with unilateral hearing loss experience a CROS hearing aid management option?
IRAS ID
226844
Contact name
Amanda Hall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Aston University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 18 days
Research summary
Unilateral hearing loss (UHL) is a term used to describe impaired hearing in one of a person’s ears when the hearing in their other ear is within the normal range. UHL has been reported to be present in as many as 3-6% of school-aged children and there is evidence that it may be associated with delayed language development, educational problems and larger variability in social functioning.
A recently developed option for managing UHL is a CROS (contralateral routing of signal) hearing aid. This hearing aid is designed to pick up sound signals from the wearer’s side with the hearing impairment and transmit the signal to the normal-hearing ear, thereby increasing the wearer’s awareness of sound from all directions. However, evidence for CROS hearing aid benefit to children with UHL is scarce/mixed.
We are interested, firstly, in how parents come to a decision about whether to trial a CROS hearing aid for their child, and secondly, how they experience their child’s use of the aid. It is known that making decisions about your child’s care can be stressful and that parents require support when caring for a child with hearing aids. However, we don’t know, at parents’ individual levels, what the specific issues are surrounding CROS hearing aids.
In this study, we will interview three parents of children with UHL, that have experienced a CROS aid management option. The interview questions will be open questions designed to allow the participants to freely narrate their experiences and offer individual insights and meaning. Our aim is to better understand these parents’ personal perspectives. The study findings will inform the design of future studies that aim to identify common aspects of parents’ experiences of CROS aid provision for children with UHL. This has implications for the quality of care that is provided to families.
REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/2013
Date of REC Opinion
6 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion