Much of the hospital's success in identifying and treating children with hearing loss is the result of the rapid transfer of research findings from laboratories to clinic and bedside.
Areas of Research - Clinical and Behavioral Studies of Human Communication - Hearing Aid Research Laboratory
Situational Hearing Aid Response Profile (SHARP)
SHARP is a computer program designed to assist clinicians in the selection and fitting of hearing aids to children and to provide information to parents, educators, and therapists on signal audibility under typical listening conditions. While the program utilizes concepts and transforms that were developed and/or included in the Desired Sensation Level procedure ( Seewald et al., 1997), any selection procedure can be used to select and fit the hearing aids. The primary purpose of SHARP is to display the aided results in a format that allows the audiologist to evaluate audibility and dynamic range over a range of typical listening levels. Multiple speech spectra are available. The Aided Audibility Index (AAI) is a numerical value that allows a relative comparison of audibility across listening conditions and hearing aid settings.
The user can select from 13 long-term average speech spectra (LTASS) depicting a variety of listening situations (e.g., average conversation, classroom teacher, own voice). SHARP provides a graphic representation of the amplified LTASS that allows a comparison across different amplification systems and different listening situations. In cases where “target” gain and SSPL90 values cannot be achieved, it can provide additional information that will assist in decisions regarding changes in hearing-aid frequency response, input/output characteristics, and maximum output. Data are displayed in the format shown below:
Fig. 1. Amplified LTASS in four listening environments. X's: auditory thresholds; solid line: amplified LTASS; dotted lines: +12/-18 dB range of speech; *: real-ear saturation sound pressure level, blue region: audible portion of signal; red region: portion of signal that has been peak clipped. The AAI and the overall rms of the amplified LTASS for the different listening conditions is given in each panel.
Download description of SHARP for parents, teachers, and therapists