Chapter 9: Clinical Application Evaluation and Treatment of Disorders Related to Hearing Impairment

conductive hearing loss

hearing loss caused by problems in the transmission of sound to the inner ear

sensorineural hearing loss

hearing loss due to disease or damage to the inner ear or auditory nerve

immittance

measure of how easily a system can be set into vibration by a driving force; includes the admittance and impedance of a system

ohms

unit of electrical resistance

acoustic-admittance meter

same as tympanometer

tympanometer

instrument that measures and displays the immittance of the middle ear

probe tip

device inserted in the external auditory meatus to measure immittance of the middle ear

tympanogram

graph of the immittance of the middle ear

otitis media with effusion

buildup of fluid in the middle ear, caused by infection

audibility

refers to whether a specific speech cue is presented at a level that a hearing-impaired person can hear

suprathreshold level

level at which a hearing-impaired person can hear a specific speech signal

suprathreshold discriminability

ability of an individual with hearing loss to recognize a sound when it is presented at an audible level

m-of-n strategy

type of signal-processing strategy used in a cochlear implant in which n equals the overall number of frequency bands represented in the acoustic signal, and m represents a smaller number of channels with the highest energy peaks in a particular processing cycle

F0F1F2 strategy

type of signal-processing strategy used in a cochlear implant, based on estimates of F1 and F2 frequencies, at a rate based on the F0 of the signal or on a random rate around the F0

MPEAK strategy

type of signal-processing strategy used in a cochlear implant, in which electrodes representing F1 and F2 are stimulated, as well as two of three other electrodes representing the higher formant regions

specific language impairment (SLI)

disorder in which children show a significant problem with language, in the face of normal hearing, normal nonverbal intelligence, and no known neurological problems

temporal processing problem

difficulty processing the rapid changes in frequency and intensity that are characteristic of speech

developmental dyslexia

disorder in which a person's reading ability is significantly lower than what would be predicted on the basis of age and intellectual ability