"Only relatively recently, in hearing impaired children the use of sophisticated acoustical and electrical hearing devices enables swift progress of the development of auditory speech perception. Effectiveness of different types of hearing devices is influenced by the etiology, type and degree of hearing loss of the hearing impaired subject. There are, however, no clear, decisive, indications available for the device choice in subjects, while, early provision and fitting is of the utmost importance to optimize the speech and language development of deaf children. The device choice is even more complicated because the invasive nature of implantable devices permits no trial phase. Low prevalence of hearing impairment complicates nation based research. Comparison of international results on the other hand is complicated partly due to language differences and the different test materials and procedures. The present proposal, therefore, aims to provide a robust, cross-lingual, intra-European Equivalent Hearing Loss standard. Computerized auditory speech perception tests will be carried out in German, Dutch, Belgian and French children in order to develop a standard that expresses the auditory speech perception skills on a functional level. An intra-European EHL will enable the development of cross-lingual normative data that can be used for the analyses of the efficacy of the device choice. Overall analyses, therefore, will focus on the differential diagnostic value of the intra-European EHL standard as a decisive measure in the indication process to select and fit the most appropriate device in hearing impaired subjects in all the participating nations/linguistic areas in this Euregion. The study aims to determine the audiometric features that indicate the suitability of a type of hearing device / hearing implant. Furthermore, analyses of subsets of data can identify influences of linguistic factors on speech perception."