AT for Hearing Loss

What is OT role in hearing?

procuring, using, cleaning, and maintaining personal care devices

Tips for interacting with individuals with hearing loss:

- Maintain eye contact when speaking

- Angle towards unaffected ear

- Adequate lighting

- Facial expressions

- Speak clearly (add pauses, enunciate)

- Provide closed captioning or AT when needed

Hard of hearing

Mild to moderate hearing loss

Very little or no functional hearing

deaf

Hearing Impaired may be __________ to many individuals

offensive

- Age related hearing loss (ARHL)

- Hair cells die naturally over time

- Occurs equally in both ears

- Loss of high pitch

Presbycusis

- Hair cells die due to exposure to loud sound for too long

- Associated with complaints of hearing changes such as muffled sound and tinnitus

- Difficulty with clarity of sound

- Usually unilateral

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL)

unit to measure the intensity of sound

decibel (dB)

______ is the approx. point at which extended exposure can cause hearing damage

85 dB

To protect hearing, you can modify the acoustic environment by:

- removing sound

- absorb sound (heavy curtains/bookshelves/houseplants)

What are some protective hearing wearables?

- formable foam earplugs

- pre-molded earplugs

- protective earmuffs

Who prescribes hearing aids?

audiologist

How do OT assist patients with hearing aids?

- battery replacement

- donning/doffing

- cleaning/care

Left ear

blue

right ear

red

What features do alerting devices have?

- loud tone

- flashing light

- vibration

What are examples of telecommunication devices?

- amplified ringers

- amplified telephone (listening)

- Portable phone amplifier (listening)

Keyboard with a visual display screen that allows communication by typing and reading

TTY or TDD

can be used to interpret the sign language

video relay service (VRS)

- Relay service required

- Hard of hearing person uses voice, but reads the response of the other person (which is typed by the relay service)

Voice carry over (VCO)

A personal listening device which receives signals from the person speaking, amplifying the sound

- Can be used with an existing hearing aid, but limits background noise

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs)

This system consists of a transmitter microphone used by the speaker and a receiver and headphones or neck loop that user wears. Personal FM Systems are compatible with cochlear implants. The sound is broadcast directly and works well in larger settings, such as classrooms and meeting rooms

Personal Frequency Modulation (FM) System

- Wireless system transmits sound via invisible IR light

- Receiver must be in direct line of sight of the transmitter

- Often used for home television listening

Infrared system

- Portable

- Used for one-on-one conversations or TV listening

Personal Amplified system

(pocketalker)

- Captions on TV programs and DVDs

- Activating closed captioning and options vary by TV model

Closed captioning

Captions are a permanent part of the picture, rather than an option

Open captioning

- Captions are simultaneously prepared and transmitted at the time of the presentation

- trained real-time captioners using a stenotype machine

Real time captioning