Some people with hearing loss (PWHL) have vastly different word discrimination scores (WDS) between ears.

If one ear is significantly poorer for WDS, I recommend initially training with the poorer ear only when using LACE AI. After 12-15 hours of training (roughly a month) with the poorer ear only, is there any improvement in Speech in Noise and Rapid Speech? Does the client perceive a change in listening effort? If so, I would continue training with the poorer ear only.

The reasons for my recommendation:

• The better ear “takes over” when both ears are amplified.
• We don’t know whether the poorer ear WDS can improve with training.
• During training, if the PWHL alternates between the poorer ear only and both ears, it will be harder to see the training effects on the poorer ear because the contribution of the better ear will skew the training data. (The program will also take time to adapt to the change in performance from one condition to the other. Time would be better spent at the threshold for the task, rather than at finding the threshold for the task.)