HEARa | Hearing Rehabilitation and Education for Adults Hearing rehabilitation before and after obtaining hearing aids and cochlear implants. Hearing aids are an important in hearing rehabilitation, but hearing technology is not the only step. You may have hearing loss, but are not ready for hearing aids yet. Did you know that you can rehabilitate your hearing through your own efforts? The HEARa approach will also benefit anyone who has hearing aids or cochlear implants who wants to hear better in noise (with auditory training), learn to lipread, and learn key strategies to improve communication.
It is important not to focus solely on hearing loss or hearing aids because dementia risk may be attributable to many other health factors that intersect with hearing loss and communication. There is still no evidence based on randomized, controlled trial (RCT) studies that treating hearing loss reduces the risk of dementia. ACHIEVE is the first RCT to investigate if comprehensive audiologic rehab (AR), not just hearing aid use, could reduce the rate of decline in cognitive performance. The ACHIEVE results released in July 2023 showed no significant overall effect of AR on the rate of cognitive decline. There was slower cognitive decline in a specific higher risk sub-group, that began the study with poorer cognitive performance and other risk factors for dementia (smoked more, less education, more often lived alone, more likely to have diabetes and hypertension). Hearing loss is only one of a growing set of risk factors for dementia. For example, sleep disturbances, LDL cholesterol, and vision loss have been added to the list over time. People living with hearing loss may find it worthwhile to learn about the importance of non-audiologic risk factors. For example, the management of health conditions (depression, hypertension, obesity, diabetes) and making lifestyle changes (more physical activity, more social engagement, not smoking, not consuming excessive amounts of alcohol). Most importantly, hearing solutions may improve communication abilities conducive to increasing physical and social activities. From “The Risks of Explaining Hearing Loss as a Potentially Modifiable Risk Factor for Dementia-Summer 2024 Update on New Global and Canadian Population Attributable Fractions” in Canadian Audiologist, by Dr. Kathy Pichora-Fuller, PhD, Aud(C), RAUD, FCAHS: canadianaudiologist.ca/issue/volume-11-issue-5-2024/the-risks-of-explaining-hearing-loss-as-a-potentially-modifiable-risk-factor-for-dementia-summer-2024-update-on-new-global-and-canadian-population-attributable-fractions-pafs/
Climate change forced me into warehouse work for most of my youth. It caused procrastination and girl chasing in school. Luckily, Im 10 years gullable now after getting out of that lifestyle and looking forward to our voluntary taxes we said we'd pay to help out our economy recover from 1 and world war 2 go way the hell up before the digital currency gets forced upon a country that should have nothing forced on it. We the people agreed on that and how the fuck em I still typing, is this not tik tok and its 33.6 character limit. It's like I can finish a thought now, wow, and that's not a good thing. No worries, thoughts will he banned right after gardening your own food does, but not before the regulation of anticipation hits. Yes thoughts, food, anticipation, will all be lost forever. If you made it this far reading this I want to apologize to you and the time you gave to end up here.
It’s a common experience-entering a room, only to realize you've forgotten what you went there to do. It’s been documented in research studies, too. Memory is worse after passing through a doorway than after walking the same distance within a single room. Did you know that the “doorway effect” is actually a good strategy to optimize memory? Some forms of memory seem to be optimized to keep information ready-to-hand until its shelf life expires, and then purge that information in favour of new stuff. Walking through a doorway is a good time to purge your memory because whatever happened in the old room is likely to become less relevant now that you have changed rooms. We can’t keep everything ready-to-hand, and most of the time this strategy functions beautifully. It’s only when it doesn’t work for us, that we become aware of it.
I have tinnitus. It was a struggle at first but trined myself to embrace and consider it as a comfort blanket. Strange I know, but it is the only way I can find to accept it.
In this case, the signal is the radio. The noise is the noise of the car. The volume of the signal compared to the volume of the noise is the signal-to-noise ratio.
We all need a favourable signal-to-noise ratio to hear well in noise. But did you know that it is particularly important for children? Children don't hear as well as adults do when there is background noise in the listening environment. In a typical, noisy classroom, the signal-to-noise ratio will vary from + 5 to - 7 dB. At a 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio, speech intelligibility is about 60% for 6-7-year-olds with normal hearing.
What are two other words that look like fail and veil? Keep the same vowel sound. Get more substitution practice with my free Lipreading Challenge on RU-vid! ru-vid.com/group/PL2wmJoBE5kkLSYV6zsS5Y16N1M73LhpHu
An here's me all these years, wasting my time going upside down to see upside down like a fool. All I needed to do was turn my sunglasses upside down. Thanks 👍
The ACHIEVE trial results published in 2023 provide evidence that comprehensive aural rehab, with hearing aid use, effectively improves communication outcomes. However, there was no significant overall effect of aural rehab on the rate of cognitive decline. A reduction in the rate of cognitive decline was only observed for a subgroup who had other risk factors for dementia, insofar as they were older, had poorer health, and started the trial with poorer cognition. For those living with hearing loss who are concerned about cognitive decline, a discussion of multiple ways to reduce the risk of dementia may be appropriate. From Canadian Audiologist Quick Answers by expert Dr. Kathy Pichora-Fuller, PhD, Aud(C), RAUD, FCAHS
Can I help? 😮 Write down on a piece of paper, P=B=M. Then go through the exercise again. If the error is an M, (BBQ rims), then cover up the M with your finger. Keep the same vowel sounds. The other possibilities are rips and ribs. Only “ribs” go with the word “BBQ.”
In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker hesitantly says he will ‘try’ to complete a task. Yoda, the warrior mystic, replies: ‘No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.’ Anytime you say that you will ‘try’ something, your words imply a lack of commitment. They suggest that you feel that you won’t be able to keep your commitment. Do it or don’t do it, but don’t just try. If Yoda decided to get hearing aids, he’d give it his best shot. Here is what Yoda would suggest: Find the right hearing healthcare professional. Ask your friends, co-workers, and acquaintances about their hearing healthcare professionals. Favourable word-of-mouth referrals are golden, and the professionals who work for them deserve your business. Bring your significant other to your appointments. You’ll need support. It’s also important for your significant other to have realistic expectations about your new hearing aids. Get two hearing aids. If two hearing aids are recommended, follow that recommendation. Wear your hearing aids consistently. Wear your hearing aids full-time during your trial period (and beyond). Make and keep follow-up appointments. Adjusting to hearing aids is a process, and your follow-up appointments are a crucial part of the process. Start an auditory training program. There are some key changes in our brain as we get older that affect our ability to hear in challenging listening environments-even for people with normal hearing. Even older adults with normal hearing have difficulty in challenging listening environments, so hearing aids are not the whole solution. Auditory training helps to address these brain changes and make it easier to communicate. Chances are that the reason you wanted hearing aids in the first place is that you’re having difficulty communicating. Getting new hearing aids is a big step. Are you ready to give it your best efforts?
I have enjoyed these classes very much and know now how difficult it is .Some words/sentences are easier to understand, others almost impossible. Needs more work!
Wonderful! So glad you found it helpful. The main thing you’ve gained is a foundation in the theory. Now you know how to make educated guesses (with homophene substitution), and which sounds are invisible or difficult to see. After that, it’s all a matter of practice. Keep going! And thanks for the feedback. 🤩
Cognitive dissonance happens when you hold two conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time - Like denying hearing loss while still being aware of having communication difficulties. Canadian Audiologist published an article by Bill Hodgetts, PhD, called “Psychological Dimensions of Hearing Healthcare: Audiology is More Than Just Diagnoses and Devices” in Canadian Audiologist (Vol 11, Issue 3, 2024). I wanted to bring Bill’s ideas to life by creating a reel about cognitive dissonance. When a person denies hearing loss, this narrative creates tension because it conflicts with awareness of having difficulties. I realized after watching the reel that these thoughts conflict with themselves and each other. What we know to be true and what we want to be true can co-exist. One isn’t necessarily true-er than the other! “Resolving a patient’s cognitive dissonance for various factors is a huge part of our job. Addressing cognitive dissonance in audiology involves education, counseling, and support to help reconcile conflicting beliefs.”
Several research studies have looked at the ability to recall a sequence of items in the presence of background noise. Noise was particularly impactful when the children were exposed to “irrelevant sound,” especially when the sound had a changing-state characteristic (e.g., background speech, as opposed to steady-state white noise). An example of this in practical terms would be the high levels of noise present when students are involved in group work (irrelevant sound), which could be said to have a greater effect on memory than the background noise of a fan (steady-state sound). Once again, age was associated with poorer results. Recall performance dropped by 39% in the presence of noise (relative to quiet) in the second graders, compared to an 11% decrease in adults. Klatte M, Bergström K, Lachmann T (2003). Does noise affect learning? A short review on noise effects on cognitive performance in children. Frontiers in Psychology, 4(578). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00578. PMID: 24009598; PMCID: PMC3757288.
Ha, I am starting to understand things! This is so encouraging. I repeat your lesson after I listen and listen to it again the next day, before starting the next one. There is improvement. Do NOT give up!
This is excellent but VERY difficult! But I am certain that I shall learn a lot. Just keep on following these lessons, even repeating them several times.
@@myrnavanhinloopenlabberton7606 Thank you! That’s exactly how I was hoping people would use it. Finding that appropriate level of difficulty is paramount. Hopefully you don’t feel discouraged but empowered to keep going.
Beethoven died from liver and kidney disease at age 56. He expressed a wish that his ailments be studied and shared so “as far as possible at least the world will be reconciled to me after my death.” Analysis of Beethoven’s hair suggests that he had lead poisoning, which may have contributed to ailments he endured throughout his life, such as hearing loss, G.I. issues, muscle cramps, and renal abnormalities. The analysis detected incredibly high levels of lead, consistent with lead poisoning. Nader Rifai, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and director of clinical chemistry at Boston Children’s Hospital, said, “If you walk into any emergency room in the United States with these levels, you will be admitted immediately and you will undergo chelation therapy.” Why did Beethoven have such high levels of lead (as well as arsenic and mercury) in his body? It was likely accumulated over decades of the composer’s life through food and drink, Rifai said. Beethoven was known to favour wine, sometimes drinking a bottle a day, and he drank plumbed wine. Plumbed wine involves adding lead acetate as a sweetener and preservative. At the time, lead was also used in glassmaking to give glassware a more clear and appealing appearance. William Meredith, a Beethoven scholar and study coauthor, said that Beethoven had been inspired as he worked on the Ninth Symphony in part by Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” and the themes of the symphony include living in peace and harmony with one another. But above one sketch Beethoven did for the Ninth Symphony, he included the French word for despair. “When you look back at his life, it’s a life that is so full of despair. He went deaf. He never found a woman that he could settle down to love. He had terrible abdominal problems ever since he was a child. He really had a hard time sustaining relationships with people,” Meredith said. “If you understand how much pain he was in and the paranoia he experienced from the deafness, it makes that whole story of the Ninth Symphony much more complex.” From: www.cnn.com/2024/05/09/world/beethoven-lead-poisoning-scn/index.html#:~:text=High%20levels%20of%20lead%20detected,deafness%2C%20according%20to%20new%20research.?.com&
In 2019, a study looked at how noise affected the well-being of children in classrooms. Over three hundred first graders across 10 different schools were involved in the study. Room acoustics of the various classrooms were measured. Questionnaires were given to the students to determine their state of well-being and perceived disturbance by noise. Students were then divided into groups of “happy” and “unhappy” children based on their answers. Happy students reported disturbance in classrooms with bad acoustics. However, the complaints from unhappy students in the same acoustic conditions related to feelings about themselves, such as whether they perceived themselves as fitting in at school. Higher noise and reverberation levels reduced the children’s perception of having fun and being happy with themselves.
I’ve created six how-to videos about remote microphone technology from an educational audiologist’s standpoint. To my surprise, I had fun while doing them. Pearce Socials, my social media partner, suggested ways to transition to different “scenes” in the videos and encouraged me to be myself. I hope they will be helpful to teachers this coming fall! Here’s the link for the RU-vid playlist, which includes the Phonak DM transmitters, the EduMic, and the MiniMic. ru-vid.com/group/PL2wmJoBE5kkICkOqR3rvwcWLENXcxtdb1&si=24MArDLqtDIrPWNP
I just found this channel and subscribed!!! I have bilateral otosclerosis. I had a stapedotomy in my left (worst ear at that time) and did not have the other side done because it was a very unpleasant surgery to recover from. I had prolonged period of months of vertigo and I was so afraid it would never go away. It did, and the surgery was a success in restoring a good deal of my lost hearing. However, the disease is progressive, and the boney plates are again overgrowing and stopping my eardrums from vibrating. My left ear has deteriorated once again. I'm just at the level where I now have a hard time understanding conversation. My father had the same disorder, and mine was exacerbated by pregnancy. I know quite a bit of signing, and I'm trying to learn speech reading because it's how my father got by in life. He only had 15% of his hearing left where mine is about 40. I've had hearing aids in the past, but would probably look for BAHA type aids as I "hear" sound conducted through the bone much louder than the eardrum. Anyway, I've subscribed and intend to watch these over and over, and practice. THANK YOU for making these great videos for people like me!!
Thank you so much. I’m doing your lip reading course all in readiness too! Loving it so far but not getting it all yet. But I will get there! Thank you for giving your time and expertise. 1:47
Thank you so much. I’m doing your lip reading course all in readiness too! Loving it so far but not getting it all yet. But I will get there! Thank you for giving your time and expertise.
The world is a noisy place. Unwanted noise is a problem in schools, in our homes, and in work spaces. An interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers from MIT developed a sound-suppressing silk fabric that could be used to create quiet spaces. An open-access paper* about the research appears in the Advanced Materials journal. Let's say your next-door neighbours are having a loud argument in the middle of the night. You hear them in your bedroom because the sound in their condo causes your shared wall to vibrate, which forms sound waves on your side. To suppress that sound, silk fabric could be placed onto your side of the shared wall. The vibrations in the silk fiber would be controlled, forcing the fabric to remain still. If vibrations are prevented, the sound is prevented from being transmitted. The researchers found that it could significantly reduce the volume of sounds up to 65 dB SPL (about as loud as an enthusiastic human conversation). BTW, the scarf is by Kindly, Jennifer at www.legaleriste.com/en/jennifer.boudewyn *doi.org/10.1002/adma.202313328
Thank you. It’s 28 June 2024. I wear hearing aids but am seeing someone next week about a cochlear implant. I’m learning as much as I can before I see him. Are there any questions I should ask or things to be aware of?
That’s exciting! If you Google “Questions to ask about Cochlear Implants” there’s a lot of great information. In particular the ones from UCSF Health and the cochlear implant companies (Advanced Bionics, Cochlear, and Med El). If you are a candidate and have to choose between devices, ask the audiologist to point you towards a way to talk to cochlear implant recipients who have the same hearing health history as you with each company.
Cognitive dissonance is a state of having conflicting feelings or beliefs. In an article called “The Psychological Dimensions of Hearing Healthcare: Audiology is More Than Just Diagnoses and Devices” in Canadian Audiologist, by Bill Hodgetts, PhD, (Vol 11, Issue 3, 2024), he said, “Resolving a patient’s cognitive dissonance is a huge part of our job.” I wanted to bring this to life in a couple of short videos. In Part 1, there are conflicting emotions around denial of hearing loss and stigma perception. After creating the videos, I learned something more about cognitive dissonance. I realized that it might be helpful to look at cognitive dissonance as different parts of ourselves expressing what they think. Which part of ourselves comes forward will depend on many factors. Addressing cognitive dissonance in audiology involves education, counseling, and support to help reconcile conflicting beliefs and make informed decisions.
