Chronicles of a deaf Audiologist
Rehabilitation beyond hearing aids and cochlear implants: lipreading instruction, brain/auditory training and communication strategies.
Success for Hearing Better
HEARa is dedicated to the idea that people need the right information, at the right times, to be successful with hearing loss. HEARa’s mission is to reach out to adults with hearing loss and say—keep going. Learning about your hearing loss should be a lifelong process.
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From the chronicles
How Does Auditory Training Help?
How does auditory training help? Research has shown that there are three key factors in our ability to understand each other: processing speed, memory, and the presence of distractors. Let’s take a closer look at each one and examine how they impact our ability to understand what’s happening around us. Processing Speed: A key change […]
Lipreading Is A Critical Skill
In 2002, when the Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, Wayne Gretzsky was the head of the Canadian men’s hockey team, and they won a gold medal. After the game, the crowd went wild, and Wayne and Janet Gretzsky were watching with pleased grins on their faces. I followed a part of their […]
Hear Better at Holiday Gatherings
Holidays can be a difficult time for people who have hearing loss. Social situations with challenging levels of background noise, cocktail party babble, and music in the background can be frustrating. Here are some tips for holiday gatherings: Meeting friends at a restaurant? Seven tips for eating in restaurants may help. Do you forget people’s […]
Train Your Brain to Hear Better in Noise
Your brain is constantly changing. There’s no “off” switch—even when you’re sleeping! Everything that you do in your day-to-day life will affect how the brain changes. The notorious study of London cab drivers found that their intensive on-the-job training resulted in larger-than-average memory centres. Likewise with practicing the guitar or other musical instruments. “Everytime you […]
Hearing Loss: There Are No Universal Truths
Why are we more likely to believe something if it’s in a bold type face? The answer is in the book, Thinking Fast and Slow, by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman. According to Kahneman, there are many common biases that play a role in shaping our view of people and of situations. Another one is the […]
Disclosing Hearing Loss Can Help
In her blog post, Getting Hired, Gael Hannan talks about the importance of disclosing hearing loss in a job interview. This took me back to my university days. I showed up for my first day of work at a summer job, where I would be a chambermaid at a Bed and Breakfast. A main appeal […]
Are Restaurants Way Too Loud?
A friend of mine recently came back from Vegas—with a sore throat. The cause? Having to talk over the loud music in a bar, for several nights running. The New York Times published an article about the trend for bars, restaurants, health clubs, and even shops to play loud music. Why do they do this? […]
Hearing in Noise: The Holy Grail
In a recent Final Word article by Dennis Van Vliet, called “Technology Bites Back,” Dr. Van Vliet said, “Dealing with the noise problem is the Holy Grail of hearing aid fitting.” “[Hearing aid] technology will not solve our problems. It is a tool that helps us do our job better…If we expect to provide better […]
What? Pardon? Sorry?
Three Times, You’re Out! In a Hearing Strategies class recently, I gave the class some homework. I asked people to observe why and when they wing it (pretend to understand). A week later, when the class re-convened, one of the class members said, “I had no choice. What else could I do? I said […]
Can’t Hear When People Mumble?
Get help from the chameleon effect! Is there a person in your life who talks way too fast? Or mumbles? Or becomes practically inaudible at the end of the sentence? There is a way you can influence them to do otherwise. It’s called the chameleon effect. The chameleon effect is at play when you […]