Blog 7 - Clinic week 7

This week I did not see anybody in clinic. It was a slow last week. I decided to research and find an article of something I was interested in....cochlear implants. This article talks about a child who received a cochlear implant. She was the youngest of 4 children and only her oldest sister could communicate with her. Her parents both worked a lot and did not spend much time with the family. It describes the process of her cochlear implant and how well she did. I think it is important to realize our role when dealing with parents of children who are receiving a cochlear implant. It is important to work with the parents, teachers, etc. I enjoyed reading the article, hope you guys like it :)

Have a good few weeks off and see ya soon :)


Spencer, L., Tye-Murray, N., Kelsay, D., & Teagle, H. (1998) Learning to Use the Cochlear Implant: A Child Who Beat the Odds, American Journal of Audiology, 7, 24 - 29.

Clinic Blog 6 - Week 6

This week I did not see anything very interesting. On Monday Nicole saw a physical plant worker with a severe high frequency hearing loss and on Thursday I also tested a physical plant worker with a moderate high frequency hearing loss. I think we need to use our knowledge about hearing loss and stress the importance of ear protection, especially for younger children and high school kids who blast their music 24/7. I get on my sisters every time I go home and they have their iPODs so loud that I can hear what song is playing!! (they are little 12 and 14, so hopefully they listen to me even when I'm not around, haha)

I did some research on noise induced hearing loss and iPODs. I found this article from Harvard that tested 3 different ear phones/ear buds and the apple bud was one of them. I also found many other articles about the insane number of iPODs that have been sold (i believe 50 million) and the amount of time people spend listening to them. I have listed a few of the articles below....check them out, and remember not too loud !!!!!

Fligor, B, & Ives, T. Does Earphone type effect the risk for recreational noise induced hearing loss?
http://www.hearingconservation.org/docs/virtualPressRoom/FligorIves.pdf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011601100.html

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=11524&Page=1&pagePos=1

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060202-6100.html

Clinic Blog 5 - Wk. 5

Today in clinic i saw a 20 year old male with down syndrome. He had severe stensosis and had bilateral surgery to expand his ear canals. Otoscopy revealed some debris in his right ear that made visualizing the TM tricky. The left ear was clear. Tymps were normal in the right ear with some negative pressure in the left, resulting in a Type C. Speech awareness thresholds were found to be around 35 for both ears. Puretones were also done. He was right along the boarder of a flat, mild hearing loss. The option of amplification was mentioned and explained to his mother. She said at this time, if he was "on the fence" she would like to wait since he had so many other things going on. It was recommended that he return so we are able to monitor his hearing loss in the future. A second audiogram should be performed if he does return for amplification in order to make sure our test results were reliable. He was an absolute joy to have in clinic. At the end of the evaluation his mom asked him which girl he wanted to go with (the speech girls were there to take him back upstairs) and he pointed to Dr. Payne. He made everybody laugh and was a great client !!!!

Here is an article I found on audiologic assessment of children with down syndrome. Check it out :)

Kile, J. (1996). Audiologic Assessment of Children With Down Syndrome, American Journal of Audiology, 5, 44-52.

http://aja.asha.org/cgi/reprint/5/1/44?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=down+synrome&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

Clinic Blog - Week # 4

Today in clinic a man came in to pick up his in-the-ear hearing aid that had been sent away for repairs. Upon putting it back in, he found that he could not turn it on without it "squealing." The hearing aid was manipulated and the settings were changed in order to try to eliminate the feedback. We were not successful. Mrs. Neldon explained that after wearing hearing aids for a long time the ear canal stretches out and the hearing aid does not have a tight fitting like it did when it was initially fit. We ordered "paint" to paint on the hearing aid to make a better fit. This was significantly cheaper than paying to recase the hearing aid. He said he was willing to try this first, and if it didn't work, then we could look into recasing the hearing aid. He took his hearing aid with him and was told he could try a small piece of medical tape for temporary relief from the feedback. He will return when the "paint" comes in and hopefully we can help and get a better fit to eliminate the feedback problem.

This article talks about the guidelines for hearing aid fittings for adults. We should always aim for the best possible fitting for our client in order to prevent feedback and for the comfort of the client :)

ASHA Ad Hoc Committee on Hearing Aid Selection and Fitting
Guidelines for Hearing Aid Fitting for Adults (1998). American Journal of Audiology, 7, 5 - 13.
http://aja.asha.org/cgi/reprint/7/1/5?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=+feedback+&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=20&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT