| Title: |
'Pediatric Hearing Aid Orientation in Rural Guatemala' |
| Track: |
2 - Audiological Services
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| Keyword(s): |
Guatemala, hearing aid orientation, culturally sensitive |
| Learning Objectives: |
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Abstract: |
Parents are responsible for learning the proper care and use of hearing aids to ensure that their child is a successful hearing aid user and ultimately, has improved auditory access for development of speech and language skills. Audiologists must provide an adequate orientation and ongoing follow up care to ensure that parents have proper hearing aid knowledge. Children with hearing loss living in countries with limited audiological services are often identified as having a hearing loss and fit with amplification later into childhood. This study focuses on hearing aid services in rural Guatemala. Audiologic services in Guatemala are largely centralized in the capital, leaving the rural parts of the country with limited access to hearing healthcare, however, a few rural clinics are run by trained audio technicians who have acquired skills over the course of years by hosting visiting audiologic outreach teams.
The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of hearing aid orientations for families in rural Guatemala. The author, a 3rd year audiology graduate student from the University of Washington, spent a month visiting three rural clinics conducting this study and providing further training to audio technicians. A questionnaire was administered to two groups of families before and after hearing aid orientations: the test group received culturally sensitive orientation materials modeled on the orientation provided at the University of Washington and the control group received the standard orientation they received when their child’s hearing aid was initially fitted. The questions addressed a range of topics including: motivation to use hearing aids, device knowledge and troubleshooting, and realistic expectations of hearing aid use. Improved outcomes were observed for the families receiving the culturally sensitive hearing aid orientation. As a result, audio technicians received tailored training based on the areas of weakness shown in the post-test scores. This study supports that rural audiology clinic in Guatemala could benefit from further training; visiting outreach teams could focus on providing training to the technicians to maximize families use of hearing aid technology with their children
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| Presentation: |
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| Handouts: |
Handout is not Available
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