Evaluating the hearing potential of hearing-impaired children in Malaysia: the development of a hearing aid maintenance program and an adaptation of the auditory skills program

Master of EducationThe aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of hearing aids worn by a group of hearing-impaired children and to develop listening skills in a small group of children in one of the schools for the Deaf in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This study consisted of two parts; 1) a hearing aid maintenance program and 2) the auditory skills program. The hearing aid maintenance program consisted of 35 subjects and they were divided into two group, that is, the target and control group. The target group were involved in the hearing aid maintenance program, where their hearing aids were checked daily and the control group were not given any treatment. Then, four students with functional hearing aids were chosen to participate in an auditory skills program. The findings concluded that the overall performance of the hearing aid worn by students in the target group were increased compared to the subjects in the control group. The findings of this study suggests that the increases were due to the daily maintenance program carried-out by the class teachers involved in the program. In the auditory skills program, the listening skills of the four students were found to be improved but not as high as expected