May is Speech and Hearing Awareness Month, the one month in the year when thousands of professionals involved with the treatment of speech, language and hearing disorders come together to participate in a public awareness campaign that encourages early detection and prevention of communication disorders, and seeks to increase the public's sensitivity to the challenges faced by individuals experiencing them.
Please let us know any topics you are interested in hearing more about!!
blogger/author: Sarah Helmel
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Communicating with people with hearing loss
TIPS FOR SPEAKING WITH PEOPLE WITH HEARING LOSS WITH OR WITHOUT A HEARING AID ON
• Don't shout. Speak normally, but slower and more clearly.
• Get the person's attention before speaking.
• Make sure the person has a clear view of your face whenever possible.
• Reduce background noise whenever possible (e.g. turn off the television, move away from the dishwasher, washing machine, etc.).
• If the person does not understand the first time, try rephrasing rather than repeating.
• Don't shout from another room or speak with your back turned. Face-to-face communication is best.
• Be patient. People with hearing loss likely aren't trying to ignore you, they just have more difficulty hearing and understanding what you are saying.
• Use full, simple sentences when communicating.
• Encourage use of hearing aids or assistive listening devices if the person has any.
• Try to engage the person in communication and social activities as much as possible to help improve their quality of life and help prevent the person from feeling isolated.
blogger/author: Sarah Helmel
• Don't shout. Speak normally, but slower and more clearly.
• Get the person's attention before speaking.
• Make sure the person has a clear view of your face whenever possible.
• Reduce background noise whenever possible (e.g. turn off the television, move away from the dishwasher, washing machine, etc.).
• If the person does not understand the first time, try rephrasing rather than repeating.
• Don't shout from another room or speak with your back turned. Face-to-face communication is best.
• Be patient. People with hearing loss likely aren't trying to ignore you, they just have more difficulty hearing and understanding what you are saying.
• Use full, simple sentences when communicating.
• Encourage use of hearing aids or assistive listening devices if the person has any.
• Try to engage the person in communication and social activities as much as possible to help improve their quality of life and help prevent the person from feeling isolated.
blogger/author: Sarah Helmel
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
UNILATERAL HEARING LOSS
UNILATERAL HEARING LOSS
Unilateral hearing loss is a type of hearing impairment where there is normal hearing in one ear and impaired hearing in the other ear.
Patients with unilateral hearing loss have difficulty:
· hearing conversation on their impaired side
· localizing sound
· understanding speech in the presence of background noise.
In quiet conditions, speech discrimination is approximately the same for normal hearing and those with unilateral deafness; however, in noisy environments speech discrimination varies individually and ranges from mild to severe.
Causes include physical trauma, acoustic neuroma, microtia, meningitis, or mumps.
It is known to cause:
· Irritability
· Frequent headaches, stress, fatigue
· Social isolation
· Trouble figuring out where sounds are coming from (localizing)
· Variable light dizziness
· Attention difficulties
· Inability to filter out background noise or selectively listen to only the
important portion of the noise in the environment.
· Educational difficulties, academic delays, and speech and language delays
for school aged children
Treatment Options (dependent on the degree of hearing loss)
Hearing aid
The hearing aid amplifies sound to a near normal level in the hearing loss ear. The hearing aid typically can be of any style (aka. BTE, CIC) but essentially depends on the degree of hearing loss present and the size of the ear.
FM system
System whereby a person wears a microphone (a transmitter) and the hearing impaired person wears a receiver ( either headphones or a hearing aid with a FM receiver) that receives the speech signal directly from the person with the microphone at a comfortable level even at a distance and in the presence of noise. Useful for school aged children in the classroom environment to help hear the teacher better when the teacher is often further away from the child and there is often a lot of background noise present.
CROS hearing aid
A hearing aid that takes sound from the ear with poorer hearing and transmits to the ear with better hearing. This kind of hearing aid can involve two behind-the-ear units connected either by wire or by wireless transmission.
Bone Anchored Hearing Aid
Transfers sound through bone conduction and stimulates the cochlea of the normal hearing ear.
blogger/author: Sarah Helmel
Unilateral hearing loss is a type of hearing impairment where there is normal hearing in one ear and impaired hearing in the other ear.
Patients with unilateral hearing loss have difficulty:
· hearing conversation on their impaired side
· localizing sound
· understanding speech in the presence of background noise.
In quiet conditions, speech discrimination is approximately the same for normal hearing and those with unilateral deafness; however, in noisy environments speech discrimination varies individually and ranges from mild to severe.
Causes include physical trauma, acoustic neuroma, microtia, meningitis, or mumps.
It is known to cause:
· Irritability
· Frequent headaches, stress, fatigue
· Social isolation
· Trouble figuring out where sounds are coming from (localizing)
· Variable light dizziness
· Attention difficulties
· Inability to filter out background noise or selectively listen to only the
important portion of the noise in the environment.
· Educational difficulties, academic delays, and speech and language delays
for school aged children
Treatment Options (dependent on the degree of hearing loss)
Hearing aid
The hearing aid amplifies sound to a near normal level in the hearing loss ear. The hearing aid typically can be of any style (aka. BTE, CIC) but essentially depends on the degree of hearing loss present and the size of the ear.
FM system
System whereby a person wears a microphone (a transmitter) and the hearing impaired person wears a receiver ( either headphones or a hearing aid with a FM receiver) that receives the speech signal directly from the person with the microphone at a comfortable level even at a distance and in the presence of noise. Useful for school aged children in the classroom environment to help hear the teacher better when the teacher is often further away from the child and there is often a lot of background noise present.
CROS hearing aid
A hearing aid that takes sound from the ear with poorer hearing and transmits to the ear with better hearing. This kind of hearing aid can involve two behind-the-ear units connected either by wire or by wireless transmission.
Bone Anchored Hearing Aid
Transfers sound through bone conduction and stimulates the cochlea of the normal hearing ear.
blogger/author: Sarah Helmel
Vancouver Hearing Centre
Welcome to the Vancouver Hearing Centre!!!!! We are happy to be here now and would like to help answer your questions about hearing loss, hearing technology, and any related matters. Please let us know if you have any questions or things that you would like to discuss here.
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