The House Center for Pediatric Hearing Health Research is committed to furthering our understanding of the effects of pediatric hearing loss on development and improving interventions and hearing healthcare access for children and adolescents with hearing loss.
About Pediatric Hearing Health
Hearing loss is a condition that affects individuals of all ages, including an estimated 3-5% of children and adolescents in the United States. While hearing aids and cochlear implants can improve a child’s hearing and access to speech, these devices are not always available to children who may need them due to various barriers, including cost, absence of accessible care, and lack of information about treatment options. Furthermore, even well-programmed hearing devices that are fitted early are not able to restore typical hearing for children with hearing loss. Because hearing plays an important role in spoken language development, children with hearing loss who do and do not use hearing devices are at risk for difficulties in certain aspects of everyday communication.
Areas of Research
Located within the new House Children’s Hearing Center, the Center for Pediatric Hearing Health Research actively collaborates with clinicians and partner institutions to better understand the effects of pediatric hearing loss on long-term development and improve interventions for children and adolescents with hearing loss. We are committed to leveraging a wide range of methods and technologies toward cutting-edge research on pediatric hearing health.
Hearing Loss and Challenging Listening Conditions
Ongoing studies at the Center examine how hearing loss affects children’s ability to use and understand speech under challenging conditions. Current areas of interest include speech recognition in background noise, listening-related fatigue, and spoken emotion communication. Researchers at the Center also use eye-tracking technology to characterize the efficiency with which children process speech under various listening conditions. Findings from these studies will help to identify specific communication skills that can be particularly difficult for children with hearing loss, as well as how audiologic, language, and educational interventions may support the development of these skills.
Longitudinal Trends in Auditory Development
Another focus of the Center for Pediatric Hearing Health Research is to identify longitudinal trends in auditory development among children with hearing loss. In partnership with clinicians at the House Children’s Hearing Center, our researchers are compiling standardized clinical data to better characterize the long-term effects of clinical interventions, family factors, and individual child characteristics on communication outcomes.
Hearing Healthcare Access
In collaboration with community partners, the Center for Pediatric Hearing Health Research team is working to identify disparities in hearing healthcare access and awareness in rural communities. The ultimate goals of this line of research are to ensure that all families have access to appropriate and timely hearing healthcare, and to empower families in making informed decisions about the intervention options that best meet the needs of their children.
Our Team
Monita Chatterjee
PhD, Auditory Scientist, Boys Town National Research Hospital
Auitory Scientist–
Qian-Jie Fu
PhD, Research Professor, UCLA
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John J. Galvin III
PhD, Research Scientist
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Kelsey Klein
AuD, PhD
Pediatric Research Scientist
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Sean Lang
Clinical Research Coordinator I
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Aja Miles
Research Assistant
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Srikanta Mishra
MD, The University of Texas at Austin
Kevin Peng
MD, House Ear Clinic
William Slattery
MD, House Ear Clinic
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Contact Our Pediatric Hearing Health Research Team:
Kelsey Klein, AuD, PhD, CCC-A
Pediatric Research Scientist
kklein@hifla.org
Sean Lang
Clinical Research Coordinator I
slang@hifla.org