Exploring families’ lived experiences of their deaf and hard-of-hearing children’s hearing device use during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mrs Afyeda Rahman¹, Dr Rona Weerasuriya^1,2,3, Libby  Smith³, Dr Valerie Sung^1,3,4, Dr Peter Carew^1,3

¹The University Of Melbourne, , , ²Burnet Institute, , , ³Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, , , ⁴Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne,

This study explores families’ lived experiences of their deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children’s hearing device use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Families of DHH children from a Victorian community sample of 497 children, ranging from kindergarten to primary and high school-aged, were sent two online surveys at two-time points of the pandemic during which Victoria underwent several public health restrictions including stay-at-home lockdowns: May 2020 and September 2021. Of the 497 responses in the surveys, 52% provided free-text data about their children’s hearing device use. The free text data were coded inductively to develop themes, underpinned by a phenomenological approach to gathering insights into the participants’ lived experiences.

The key theme identified was “decreased use of a hearing device”. Several elements such as mode of learning (factors include learning from home versus in-person learning), environmental factors (factors include quiet environments such as the home in comparison to loud environments such as school), desire to use the device (felt the need to wear hearing devices at home was redundant) and use of other electronic hearing devices (examples include using headphones versus hearing devices),  reportedly influenced hearing device usage. Parents of children with cochlear implants consistently reported a continuation of device use, whereas parents of children with hearing aids often reported reduced device use.

This insight can help hearing health services provide appropriate advice within the context of factors known to influence hearing device use. This is of particular relevance when considering remote learning.

Biography:

I recently graduated from the University of Melbourne, and have finished the Master of Clinical Audiology course, I seek to complete my internship year in 2023-2024 and earn my QP in the field of Audiology. I aspire to be a great clinician who can indefinitely help those with issues with their hearing and contribute to the ever-growing field of Audiology in the future.