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Telecoils

Posted on by Jacqueline Wiley

Telecoils are an old technology from the late 1930s and most hearing aids have them. They were originally designed to help hearing impaired people hear clearly on the phone. Today, they are used more often in theaters with an induction loop. A room is “looped” with a wire that receives the sound signal from the stage and then transmits it to the hearing aid. This turns hearing aids into something like a custom headset. A California hearing aid impaired group recently tried to pass legislation requiring audiologists to include a telecoil in every hearing aid. I encourage everyone to choose one with a telecoil, but, for some people, they’d rather forgo the feature in favor of either a smaller hearing aid or another feature like rechargeable batteries. If you have hearing aids and aren’t sure if you have a telecoil, you’re welcome to come by and I’ll check. If it’s in the aid, but not activated, it’s pretty easy to do so. I have included a video explanation of how a looped room works with a telecoil in the Hearing In Noise section of this website. Ampertronic has a history of the induction loop on it’s website.

If This, Then That (IFTTT)

Posted on by Jacqueline Wiley

“If This, Then That”, or IFTTT is a cloud service that uses connections, called applets, to link internet enabled devices (like a TV, door bell, lights, or fire alarm).  It can also link devices to online services (like your email account, Facebook, or Twitter).  So hearing aids can now do some pretty useful and fun things you may never have imagined.

 

  • Your hearing aids can tell you when you get an email or when the door bell rings.
  • A mom can get an alarm on her phone when her daughter’s hearing aid batteries go low.
  • Your coffee maker can start when you close the battery doors on you hearing aids each morning.
  • You can hear a live music concert through your hearing aids.

 

Watch this video to see what I mean.

The website for the cloud service is www.ifttt.com.

Hearing Aid Batteries

Posted on by Jacqueline Wiley

Tips to Prolong Rechargeable Battery Life

Rechargeable batteries last about 1 year and cost about $30 each.  How long a charge lasts depends on how much you stream phone calls and media and how severe your hearing loss is.

18-19.5 hours      No streaming

16-17 hours          90 minutes of streaming

15-16 hours         4 hours of TV and 1 hour of phone streaming

1. Charging

Always fully charge the batteries, until the light in the charging dock is solid

green – it takes approximately 7 hours.

2. Out of power

If the batteries are drained and the hearing aids have switched off, never try to

get more use by opening and closing the drawer. Either:

a. Place the hearing aids in the charging dock and ensure it is powered on.

b. Insert disposable batteries and keep the rechargeable batteries safe for

charging later.

3. Not in use

If you are not using your hearing aids for an extended period of time, take the

batteries out.

Note: Avoid leaving the rechargeable batteries in the hearing aids with the

battery drawers open. This will compromise battery life.

4. Handling

Don’t keep the rechargeable batteries together with metal objects such as keys

and coins.

5. Maintenance

Wipe off any moisture on the hearing aids or charging dock before charging

using a soft tissue. Do not use rubbing alcohol or other chemical substances.

Tips to Prolong Non-rechargeable (Zinc Air) Batteries

Zinc-air batteries will last from 4 days to 2 weeks, depending on the size of the battery.  Prices vary dramatically.  At the drug store, you’ll pay about a dollar per battery.  At Costco or Amazon, it’s about 25 cents.  We have batteries too.  They’re about 90 cents each because we can’t buy in bulk.  We will mail them to you though.

1. Wait 5 minutes after you take off the tab before you put the batteries in your hearing aids.

2. Open the battery doors at night.

Unilateral Hearing Loss

Posted on by Jacqueline Wiley

Adults with Unilateral Hearing Loss

People occasionally ask if they really need two hearing aids. The answer is, yes, you do. If you need to save money, it’s much better to get two less expensive hearing aids than one high tech hearing aid.

There two reasons why, but first I have to explain that if one ear is at least 30dB better than the other, you brain ignores the poorer (unaided) ear. Even if the sound is loud enough for the unaided hear to hear, the brain can’t use it. Having explained that, unilateral hearing loss presents two problems:

1) Inability to tell where sound is coming from, which is a safety issue.

2) Significant difficulty hearing in noise. (For anyone who has normal hearing, I strongly recommend you experience this by putting one earplug deeply in one ear and have dinner at a loud restaurant. You’ll see how much harder it is to hear in noise with only one normal ear.)

 

 

Unilateral Hearing Loss in Children

For kids, unilateral hearing loss is an even bigger deal than doctors and teachers often think.

1) Kids with a hearing loss on one side are 10 times more likely to fail a grade or need help keeping up in school.

2) Kids with hearing loss in one ear are 5 times more likely to have some problems getting along with others. As Hellen Keller said, “Blindness separates us from things, but deafness separates us from people.”

It’s also more important to act as soon as possible than doctors and teachers may assume. Children pick up most of their language between ages one and five. The time between ages one and five is called the critical period.

Schools will set up special individual support for kids with hearing loss. It’s referred to as an IEP or a “504”. Here are a few typical accommodations, but there are many more:

1) Preferential seating
2) Extra time for taking tests.
3) FM amplification systems
4) Classroom noise reduction
5) Buddy system for notes and in class explanation
6) Dictation apps

Reference:
Karen L. Anderson, PhDSupporting Success for Children with Hearing Loss

Quiet Restaurants in Santa Barbara

Posted on by Jacqueline Wiley

It’s hard to find quiet restaurants in Santa Barbara.  If you wear a hearing aid, this is pretty important.  I posted this a while back, but a patient of mine just recommended a new one for the list, Louie’s. Email me if you have another for me to add: audiologyhome@protonmail.com

 

Louie’s (table # 8)
Rudy’s
Paradise Café (Veranda)
La Playa Azul (Veranda)
Scarlet Begonia (Patio)
Lure (in the back of the restaurant at 5 pm)
Rose Café
Stella Mare’s
The Patio Cafe
Meun Fan thai cafe
Tree House
Max’s (after 1pm)
Clementine’s
D’Angelo Bread

Maslow 2.0

Posted on by Jacqueline Wiley

Carol and her husband, Hal, started Interpersonal Communications in 1985. Hal, a psychologist, and Carol, a nurse, saw hearing aids as more than just a device that aids hearing. It’s about communicating and being close to friends and loved ones. Hearing loss isolates people. It affects cognitive health. Even more importantly, it affects emotional health.

Maslow’s famous “Hierarchy of Needs” was re-examined by Dr Ed Diener and I think the results support what Carol and I think: that connection with other people is a bit more important for happiness that Maslow’s theory says it is.

The Atlantic wrote an article about the study in 2011:

“As it turns out, the needs that are most linked with everyday satisfaction are interpersonal ones, such as love and respect.” The study author writes, “It shows clearly the importance in all societies of human connections and social supports, something that’s been ignored in recent years.”

Central Processing Disorder

Posted on by Jacqueline Wiley

Hearing starts with sound vibration, which becomes neural signals, which are brought up to the brain, where the sounds become all kinds of things we recognize, including words. Kids with hearing loss can be misdiagnosed. Without a hearing test, hearing loss can be confused with developmental delay, ADD, or defiance. And if there is a Central Processing Disorder, hearing can be difficult even when the standard pure tone hearing test is normal. That’s because the problem is higher up in the brain where speech sounds are decoded into words.

About Central Processing Disorder

Here is an online screening test:

Central Processing Disorder screening questionnaire

If there is any question about hearing loss, get it checked out by an audiologist and an ear, nose, and throat doctor.