With the use of Aural rehabilitation and auditory training, Speech & Hearing Associates can further improve your ability to communicate
Auditory training services will help you overcome hearing difficulties experienced while engaged in daily communication and will significantly improve your success with hearing aids.
Our goal is to help each patient identify the specific situations with which they have the greatest difficulty (for example, “I want to hear my wife when we go to a noisy restaurant for dinner,” or “I want to understand my grandchildren, but they talk so fast!).
We then work on developing skills to meet those needs by performing exercises to strengthen communication skills.
Managing permanent hearing loss starts with an appropriate and precise hearing aid fitting, to ensure that you can maximize your usable hearing. Hearing aid fittings are only possible following a hearing test by an audiologist. Our audiologists will then assess if you are a candidate for auditory training.
We like to think of Aural rehabilitation and auditory training sessions as “physical therapy for the ears.” When people get a knee replacement, first they are cared for by their physician to ensure the surgery and healing process are successful. They then go through a regimen of physical therapy to ensure they strengthen the muscles surrounding their new knee and learn techniques to walk appropriately with it.
Auditory training services are the same: first, we fit the hearing aids and ensure they are working well, then we tailor auditory training sessions to teach communication strategies and “exercise” the auditory system.
In most cases, a short term program of auditory training (3 to 5 sessions) in our office can make a world of difference.
As an added bonus, Medicare and most insurance companies agree that auditory training is crucial for better hearing ability, and thus will cover the sessions!
Permanent hearing loss is not “curable”. Hearing aids can greatly improve a hearing loss by helping to increase speech sounds and decrease background noise, but no hearing aid can “correct” a hearing loss. As such, even with the highest levels of hearing aid technology, there are still complex listening situations that remain challenging for people with hearing loss.
Everyone knows of someone who has hearing aids “in a drawer” because they were not happy with the performance, or they couldn’t get used to the sound. At Speech and Hearing Associates, providing services for patients with hearing loss doesn’t end with the purchase of hearing aids.
Contact Speech and Hearing Associates at 800-742-7551 for more information or to schedule and appointment.