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

Principle Investigators

Richard Seewald, PhD

Dr. Richard C. Seewald is a Principal Investigator at the National Centre for Audiology in London, Ontario, Canada and holds the Canada Research Chair in Childhood Hearing. He is also a Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario. For the past 25 years, Dr. Seewald's work has been focused on issues that pertain to the selection fitting of amplification in infants and young children. He is known internationally for his work in developing the Desired Sensation Level (DSL) Method for pediatric hearing instrument fitting. He has been honoured with several awards including the Career Award from the Canadian Academy of Audiology and the International Award of the American Academy of Audiology.

Susan Scollie, PhD

Dr. Susan Scollie is Principal Investigator at the National Centre for Audiology and an Assistant Professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. Together with her collaborators, she developed the recently released DSL m[i/o] algorithm for hearing aid fitting. Her current research focuses on the evaluation of novel digital signal processing for high frequency hearing losses, the Speech Intelligibility Index, and sound localization in children with hearing losses.