Amplification Considerations for Children With Minimal or Mild Bilateral Hearing Loss and Unilateral Hearing Loss

Children with minimal or mild bilateral hearing loss and unilateral hearing loss are at higher risk for academic, speech-language, and social-emotional difficulties than their normal hearing peers. The choice to fit infants with moderate or greater degrees of bilateral hearing loss has been standard practice for most clinicians, but for those with minimal or mild bilateral hearing loss or unilateral hearing loss, the fitting of hearing technology must be based on limited data. Evidence does not yet exist to support all the management decisions that an audiologist must make upon identifying an infant with minimal or mild bilateral hearing loss or unilateral hearing loss. It is not yet known which children are at the greatest risk for educational problems nor is it known if the provision of early amplification in this population will help a child avoid later difficulties. Some of these considerations and current hearing technology options for children with minimal or mild bilateral hearing loss or unilateral hearing loss are reviewed in this article.