Development and Evaluation of Pediatric Versions of the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale for Children With Hearing Loss.

The vast majority (92%) of children completing the self-report were 11 years or older. The scale's usability for children aged 6–10 is less certain and may require adult assistance. The study did not directly assess the reading or vision abilities of participants, so literacy or visual impairments could affect self-report accuracy. The scales measure listening-related fatigue but do not establish specific cut-point scores that indicate when clinical intervention is required. The stronger-than-expected correlation between fatigue and depression scores suggests these constructs may overlap in children, making it difficult to isolate fatigue as a distinct clinical target without further study.

Funding was provided by the Institute for Education Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not assume the child self-report scale is equally accurate for all ages. It was primarily validated in children 11 and older. For younger children, rely on the parent or teacher proxy scales, but note that the parent scale requires separate mental and physical subscores, unlike the single-score child and teacher versions.