About the Child Amplification Laboratory

The Child Amplification Laboratory studies the process of selecting and fitting hearing aids and assistive listening devices, with a particular focus on infants, toddlers, and children. We study improved techniques for relating the hearing test to hearing aid fitting, and for measuring and prescribing hearing aid performance. The techniques developed in this laboratory are now being applied to select and fit hearing aids in clinics throughout the world. The results of this research are disseminated to the broad community of audiologists and hearing aid specialists through scientific publications and the distribution of the Desired Sensation Level (DSL) software system and method for hearing aid prescription and fitting.

Support

We receive operational funding for projects from various sources. The infrastructure in our laboratory has received recent support and upgrading from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and from the Ontario Research Fund.

In our research, we strive to achieve the following goals:

• Respectful, kind treatment of our research participants
• The use of sensitive, relevant outcome measures that inform the clinical practice of pediatric audiology whenever possible
• Data collection procedures that ensure integrity of findings
• Prevention of loss of data through regular, comprehensive backup
• Data analysis strategies that are appropriate and informative
• Dissemination through accurate, clear writing as well as useful and accessible presentations