Day One of Hearing Aids

So it has been a long journey since Carli failed her 6 month hearing test way back in October to this point. 

Here is the letter Breena sent to Carli's ENT. It has some good information. When you look at her audio-gram it doesn't look that bad but when you see how much her hearing aids help it is pretty amazing. Ages 0-3 hearing is so important for language development that I am hoping it really helps. She did great the first day. It was fun to see her turn her head when they were turned on. 


Here is what Breena has to say: 

We were able to complete further hearing tests for Carli Fors on Monday and Thursday of this week.  Carli did a GREAT job for us in the soundbooth and gave us consistent responses on both days.  Her test results showed a mild loss in the right ear and a mild to moderate hearing loss in the left ear.  Her bone conduction results confirmed that her hearing loss is purely conductive (middle ear problem) in nature for at least one ear, likely the right.  These results were in best agreement with her Spectrum BAER done 12-20-12, which indicated a mixed loss (partly sensorineural/inner ear, partly conductive/middle ear) in her left ear.  Fortunately, her ear canals were clear and dry for testing.

Based on these test results, we fit her binaural hearing aids and she had a very good initial reaction to the new sound from them.  We also fit a personal FM system for her that can be worn as desired by family.  It would be helpful whenever she needs to hear a speaker outside her "listening bubble" of about 9 feet.  It's particularly helpful in the car and crowds.  She has only one listening program in her hearing aids that works with or without her FM, so the push button on her hearing aids is deactivated.  Her volume control is pres-set and does not change.  

Based on our speechmapping testing, Carli's unaided scores for the left ear indicated she heard 41% of avg speech and 6% of soft speech.  Right ear unaided scores were 57% for avg speech and 14% for soft speech.  Her aided scores were 86% for avg speech and 85% for soft speech left and 93% for avg speech and 94% for soft speech for the right ear.  

Breena L. Scharrer, M.A., CCC-A, FAAA
Educational Audiologist