Background: The Parents' Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH) is a caregiver
report questionnaire that is suitable for use with children who wear hearing aids.
It is available in both a Diary format and a Rating Scale format. Following a critical
review of subjective outcome evaluation tools for infants, toddlers, and preschool
children (Bagatto, Moodie, Seewald et al, 2011), the Rating Scale version of the PEACH
was included in a recently developed guideline for monitoring real-world auditory
performance of children who have hearing loss (Bagatto, Moodie, Malandrino et al,
2011). Normative data exist only for the PEACH Diary, not the Rating Scale.
Purpose: This article evaluates whether published normative data for the PEACH Diary (Ching
and Hill, 2007) are replicated on a different sample of children using the PEACH Rating
Scale.
Research Design: Fifty-nine children with normal hearing aged 2 mo to 83 mo and their primary caregivers
participated in the study. Caregivers completed the PEACH Rating Scale for each child
with normal hearing.
Results: Results indicated close agreement to existing normative data collected with the PEACH
Diary, with no differences in scores between males and females and good internal consistency.
Age-related trends published for the Diary version were replicated using the Rating
Scale version, as significantly lower scores were observed for children 20 mo of age
and younger compared to those older than 20 mo of age.
Conclusions: The currently published norms for the PEACH Diary are valid for use with the PEACH
Rating Scale with caregivers of normal hearing children. This validation work adds
to the evidence base of the PEACH Rating Scale and supports its use in clinical practice.
Key Words
Children - hearing aids - infants - outcome evaluation - validity
