Audiological Therapies and Treatments for Children
Hearing Aids/ALDs/Access
ALDs are devices, other than hearing aids, that can help you hear better in specific situations by either amplifying sounds or transmitting sounds directly to your hearing aids. For example, some ALDs wirelessly transmit your TV’s audio signal to amplified headphones that can help you hear the TV better. Other ALDs can wirelessly transmit a person’s voice across a room to your hearing aids. By decreasing the distance between you and the speaker, the intelligibility of the speech signal is enhanced.
Personal TV Amplifiers
These headphones can be worn to amplify the sound from the TV or radio. The sound is sent wirelessly to the headphones via a transmitter, so someone else can listen through the standard speakers as well.
Amplified Telephones
The telephone is amplified either by a built-in amplifier or by one that attaches to your telephone. Many amplified telephones have lights that flash when the phone rings, larger buttons for the visually-impaired, and other customizable features.
Captioned Telephones
Some telephones can connect to the internet and provide live captioning of your telephone conversation. These can come with lights, touch screens, and other customizable features like amplified phones.
Personal Amplifiers
A microphone, wired to an amplified headset, can be carried in your pocket, placed on a table, or pointed toward a speaker to help you understand.
Remote Microphones
These microphones can be held or worn by someone else. As they speak into the remote microphone, the sound is transmitted wireless to a headset or to your hearing aids.
FM Systems
These systems are typically used in group or classroom settings. The presenter wears a microphone and transmitter. The transmitter sends the signal out to anyone nearby with a receiver. The receiver is typically a small device that attaches to the bottom of your hearing aid.
Loop Systems
These systems transmit sound over an electromagnetic signal that can be picked up by any device with a T-coil. Many hearing aids have T-coils built into them, allowing you to listen to audio over a loop system.
Other
We can find an ALD or other device to suit almost any need – there are doorbells that make your lights flash, alarm clocks that vibrate your pillow, and more. Please ask us if you would like any additional information.
Aural Rehabilitation
What is aural rehabilitation and who may benefit from it?
Aural rehabilitation is a program that helps you better use the sound that you hear. This is an important component when treating hearing loss, especially for those that have gone untreated for a long time. After having hearing loss for a while, the brain forgets how to correctly use the sounds that were lost. When those sounds are restored through amplification, you may have difficulty adjusting because the brain doesn’t know what to do with those sounds anymore.
There are a variety of aural rehabilitation techniques, including computer programs (LACE, Fast ForWord), games, group sessions, and more. We select from these various techniques and adjust them for each patient, to create an individualized aural rehabilitation program that suits each patient’s needs.