Self-Assessment of Hearing

Revised edition of: Self-assessment of hearing and related functions / William Noble. 1998. Self-Assessment of Hearing, Second Edition is about self-assessment of hearing loss and related dysfunctions in the various circumstances of clinical and research activity addressed to this aspect of human functioning. The author aims to display the place of self-assessment in the patchwork of audiological appraisal, argue certain positions with respect to the status and significance of self-assessment in research and clinical investigation, and challenge received positions on conceptual and nomenclatural matters. In the opening chapter, the author discusses matters of theoretical debate relevant to the self-assessment approach overall, as well as to technical points from the world of psychometrics, then considers the motive for using self-assessment - in effect, expanding on the above claim about measurement of disability. Chapter 2 focuses on the current WHO scheme and the one it superseded. The related discussion then follows about identifying communication disability, and the limits of normal hearing function. Chapter 3 records the known principal self-assessment measures concerning hearing loss that have emerged to date, plus subsequent published work developing or applying one or more of these scales. Chapter 4 solely focuses on an analysis of one measure, the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing scale. Chapter 6 covers studies in adults that have included self-assessment measures applied in the case of cochlear implants and in the case of middle-ear implants. In Chapter 7 the author reviews work that has involved one or another self-assessment approach to tinnitus in the context of research inquiry and/or clinical management. The final chapter addresses other areas of audiological and related practice and research where self-assessment has emerged.