Who can benefit

Anyone who has difficulty with hearing, listening, or communicating can benefit from LACE Training. Hearing aids are not required, but if you have hearing aids, you should wear them during your training. If you are concerned that your difficulties in communication are so severe that you can’t improve, don’t worry. People who have the most difficulty with their hearing loss will benefit the most from auditory training.

The program is easy to use and is suitable for computer novices.

There are two versions of the LACE program. LACE U.S. features voices with an American English accent; LACE U.K. features voices with a U.K. English accent.

When to Start

Now! Start now. Whether you’ve just received your hearing aids, or worn hearing aids for decades, you can benefit from auditory training. If you don’t have hearing aids, but notice difficulty hearing, listening, or communicating, you can also benefit from LACE.

What Does LACE Training Involve?

There are 11 LACE sessions. I recommend setting a goal of approximately one month to complete the sessions. Sessions take 20-30 minutes to complete. For best results, train when you feel fresh and alert.

You’ll work on four different skills:

1. Speech in Noise: You will hear a person talking with “cocktail party” noise in the background. The amount of noise will progressively increase as you progress (and you will improve).
2. Competing Speakers: In this task, you’ll be given a voice to focus on—either a man’s, a woman’s, or a child’s. There will be voices in the background that you do your best to ignore. The background voices will get louder as you progress.
3. Memory: The auditory memory task is a challenging way to improve your ability to “hold on” to what you’ve heard and answer questions about it.
4. Rapid Speech: The pace of the speaker’s voice gets faster, and information is removed as well. You’ll find that you can understand at a pace that you previously found too fast. It takes practice—and the training pays off.

Equipment Needed

You can use any device that allows you to access a web browser (computer, tablet, mobile phone).

Expensive computer speakers are not required for LACE training. If  you can hear speech clearly through your device’s speakers, your speakers are sufficient.

Otherwise, external speakers are recommended.

Even better, listen through headphones or directly connect to your device via Bluetooth or direct audio input with your hearing aids. Ask your hearing healthcare professional if you are not sure if you can directly connect to the computer with your hearing aids.

When you are ready, the next step is to purchase a registration code from  Neurotone. Then you can get started on your training!

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