The Laboratory of Phonetics leads the creation of an assessment tool for Catalan-speaking children with hearing loss
The Laboratory of Phonetics of the Faculty of Philology of the UB has led the research project that resulted in the publication of the manual Logoaudiometries infantils en català oriental central, a tool created for the first time in Peninsular Eastern Catalan and which aims to support the process of diagnose and clinical monitoring of kids with auditory problems. Carried out together with Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Barcelona) and the Resource Center for Auditory Deficency (CREDA) Jordi Perelló in Sabadell, this tool is aimed at children with hearing problems and people with auditory prosthesis (hearing aids).
The Laboratory of Phonetics of the Faculty of Philology of the UB has led the research project that resulted in the publication of the manual Logoaudiometries infantils en català oriental central, a tool created for the first time in Peninsular Eastern Catalan and which aims to support the process of diagnose and clinical monitoring of kids with auditory problems. Carried out together with Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Barcelona) and the Resource Center for Auditory Deficency (CREDA) Jordi Perelló in Sabadell, this tool is aimed at children with hearing problems and people with auditory prosthesis (hearing aids).
Some of the participating experts in the study are Ana María Fernándex Planas, Silvia Marro Cosialls, Paolo Roseano, Pilar Calvo Soler, Wendy Elvira García and María Antonia Clavería Puig. The results of this study show a significant progress in the assessment and treatment of children with several degrees of sensorineural hearing loss and people with hearing aids. According to Paolo Roseano, member from the Laboratory of Phonetics of the Faculty of Philology, this study “is one of the most satisfying studies carried out in the Laboratory, due its repercussion in the clinical practice for many professionals , and also, for having contributed to improve the quality of life of many people with hearing loss”. In this sense, they highlight the “creation of this tool fills a void, since there were no diagnostic tools so far regarding the phonics of the central Catalan”.
The series of trials the test that build the manual up allow assessing the verbal prosthetic performance of the kid and monitoring the treatment. During the research, conducted in 2016, the Laboratory of Phonetics of the Faculty of Philology designed the assessment tools, and CREDA Jordi Perelló tested the tests in groups of children. The research study was supported by the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, a distinguished center in Catalonia regarding the monitoring of kids with hyperacusis.
Knowledge transfer to society
Three out of a thousand kids in Catalonia suffer from some degree of hyperacusis. With this manual in Peninsular Eastern Catalan, there is now a response to a significant demand from the professionals of the field of logaoedics and audiology. It also steps forward in audiological assessment, since the volume, aimed at children, gathers words from children vocabulary and shows phonetically balanced sentences, that is, with all the sounds of the language we can hear in real life.
The creation of this diagnostic tool has been possible thanks to the funding of the Otolaryngology Service of Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and the University of Barcelona.