To date, most studies of bone anchored hearing Aid (BAHA) fitting in children have focused on long-term maintenance of osseointegration and objective audio- logical outcomes, with little attention given to more qualitative outcomes relating to day-to-day use. This study involved 8 participants, aged between 12 and 21 years, all of whom had worn a unilateral BAHA for at least 1 year. The aims of the study were to examine audiological, physical and psychosocial outcomes. Evaluation included audiometric testing, a semistruc- tured interview, and two questionnaires (i.e., Glasgow Benefit Inventory and International Outcomes Inventory–Hearing Aids). Results revealed improve- ments in speech discrimination, sound quality and comfort for all participants. Improvements in confi- dence, self-image, and socialisation were also experi- enced. Participants expressed some dissatisfaction with localisation abilities, phone usage, and the lack of availability of ongoing service and support. Findings indicate that the BAHA offers audiological, physical and psychosocial benefits for paediatric wearers, resulting in high levels of satisfaction. Bone conduction hearing aids are a means of providing amplification to people with hearing impairment who are unable to wear air conduction aids. In general, such people fall into two groups, those who are unable to wear air conduction aids because of ear malformations, and those who have a medical condition, such as chronic suppurative otitis media, that prevents the use of air conduction aids. Conventional bone conduction aids require the user to wear a tight-fitting headband, which holds the amplification device firmly against the mastoid bone. There are three major drawbacks to this type of aid. First, there is the cosmetic issue of the steel headband. Second, there are problems of discomfort and poor circulation at the skin site of the aid, and third, amplification is often inadequate and of poor sound quality (McDermott, Dutt, Reid, & Proops, 2002). In recent decades, the bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) has become increasingly popular as an alternative to the conventional headband bone conduction aid. In 1977, Hakansson adapted the technique of osseointegration implantation and in 1985 developed the first percutaneous bone conduc- tion hearing aid — the BAHA (Hakansson, Tjellstrom, Rosenhall, & Carlsson, 1985). In the BAHA surgical procedure, a small titanium fixture is implanted behind the patient’s ear, where it osseointegrates, or bonds, with the living bone. After healing, a percutaneous abutment is attached to the fixture through the skin. A sound processor can then be attached (Tjellstrom, Hakansson, & Granstrom, 2001). Initially, children were not fitted with BAHAs, as there was uncertainty about the long-term implications of implanting into the growing temporal bone (Granstrom & Tjellstrom, 1997). However, newer techniques 75 THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF AUDIOLOGY VOLUME 28 NUMBER 2 NOVEMBER 2006 pp. 75–89 The Outcomes of Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) Fitting in a Paediatric Cohort LOUISE HICKSON, 1 DEBORAH MACKENZIE, 2 JULIET GORDON, 1 VANESSA NEALL, 1 DESMOND WU 1 AND JANICE WU 1 1 The University of Queensland, Australia 2 Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Australia Correspondence and reprint requests: Professor Louise Hickson, Division of Audiology, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia QLD 4072. E-mail: l.hickson@uq.edu.au