Hearing Aids
What are Hearing Aids?
Hearing aids are electronic or battery-operation devices that amplify and change sound.
Here is a schematic of how a hearing aid works.(Tye-Murray, N2004)
What SHOULD hearing aids do?
A properly fitted hearing aid should:
- amplify sound to a level that can be heard by the child
- adjusted to the child’s unique hearing loss (amplify the frequencies needed only)
- be worn comfortably
- amplify enough to be useful, but not too loud to further damage the child’s hearing
What CAN’T hearing aids do?
Even though hearing aids make sounds louder, they do not fill in the parts of the sound that are missing or distorted as a result of the hearing loss.
How much of a word is missing for a person with hearing loss is affected by things such as:
- condition of the inner ear
- auditory fatigue
- listening experiences
- prior exposure to the word
- condition of the earmold
- condition of the hearing aid
- background noise
In other words…
Hearing aids cannot restore lost hearing!
Hearing aids are not like glasses!
How to do a Listening Check on a Hearing Aid
- Listening check
- Check the battery
- Open the battery door
- Remove the battery, place in the appropriate slot of a battery tester, and determine if battery has sufficient voltage
- Obtain new battery if indicator on tester says that battery is dead
- Replace battery into the hearing aid
*** The battery usually only fits one way-DO NOT FORCE***
Listen to the Hearing Aid
- Place stethoscope in ears
- Place the end of the tube over the opening of the earmold (if behind-the-ear hearing aid)
- Place the end of the tube over the receiver port (if in-the-ear hearing aid)
- Adjust the volume of the hearing to number 2 (if BTE) and turn hearing aid on. “M” stands for microphone on the BTE. With an ITE, turn the hearing aid via the volume control to a comfortable level.
- Rotate the volume wheel up and down. Listen for any crackling sound, cutting in or out, or no sound at all.
- If any of these problems exist, contact the audiologist.
- While listening to the aid, say the sounds “OO, EE, AH, S, SH, MM” or “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc” or “Baseball, ice cream, outside, sidewalk”.
- They should be clear and the hearing aid should not cut off and on. No buzzing or hissing sound should be present
- Shake and squeeze the hearing aid to see if the aids cuts off
- Check for cracks in the case of the hearing aid, the earmold and the tubing.