Lyric brochure

• stays in your ear for 3 months
• rests deep in the ear canal
• sleep, shower and do your everyday activities without removing it! 

Water-proof Hearing Aids

Siemens and Phonak have both released hearing aid models which are guaranteed dust-proof and water-proof (to one metre). These behind-the-ear devices are perfect for sailors, canoeists, joggers, bush-walkers, bike-riders, people working in heat and dust etc.  

‘Lyric’ Invisible Hearing Aid – coming soon to Adelaide Hearing Consultants

See ‘New Hearing Technology’ for more information.

For 6 year olds: ‘Listening and Learning Assessment’

Call Glenelg North office for more information

 Right hear. Right now. Edn 1 2012 (The newsletter of Adelaide Hearing Consultants) is now available. Be the first to read it, right here!

Past newsletters;

Right hear. Right now. Edition 2 2011

‘Right hear. Right now.’ Edition 1 2011

‘Right hear. Right now.’ Edition 2 2010

FREE INFORMATION SESSIONS IN 2012  Call 1300 789 988 for more information and to book

Adelaide Thursday 16^th February 

 Salisbury  Wednesday 7^th March

 Port  Augusta  Monday 19^th March

Sefton Park  Monday 2^nd April

 Noarlunga  Monday 23^rd April

 Fullarton Park  Monday 21^st May

Mount Barker  Tuesday 8^th May

 Semaphore Park  Tuesday 5^th June

 Minlaton  Friday 8^th June

She manages the front office in the City and is the person you speak to when making your appointments.

Virginia has worked in a number of different fields always in Office Management, Executive Assistant and Administration roles including working overseas in London for 5 years.

Language involves the correct use of sounds, words, and grammatical structures to express meaning. Spoken language skills need to develop before written language skills can be learned.

A spoken language problem can significantly interfere with a child’s ability to learn. Difficulties with understanding and using language tend to emerge in early childhood and can have life long consequences such as poor academic achievement, frustration and poor social skills.

Phonological (speech sound) awareness is also a necessary skill for learning English spelling. Before learning to read, children need to understand that sentences are made up of words, words are made up of syllables and sounds and these sounds and syllables can be represented by symbols. Some children have difficulties perceiving or making speech sounds or learning the sound rules, so they have problems learning to spell, e.g. with phonics.

(Central) Auditory Processing disorders can also add to the difficulties some children experience with understanding or using spoken language effectively.

A language assessment is recommended if your child is experiencing any of these difficulties.

• Puts words in the wrong order in sentences
• Often uses incorrect words to express meaning or having trouble finding the right word
• Uses shorter sentences than other children the same age
• Has difficulties using language suited to different settings, i.e. school talk versus home talk
• Finds it hard to answer questions
• Doesn’t seem to ‘listen’
• Has difficulty understanding complex sentences and instructions
• Has difficulty retelling stories or describing something that happened
• ‘Parrots’ words and sentences
• Frequently mis-spells words or learns words for a spelling test but quickly ‘forgets’ them

A language assessment explores a child’s ability to use expressive and receptive (comprehension) language skills appropriate to their stage of development.  A language assessment will detect any difficulties in your child’s ability to understand and use language. A phonological awareness assessment can identify particular speech-sound listening difficulties with contribute to spelling problems. Our Speech Pathologists can perform language and phonological awareness assessments on children from six years. Check this

If you would like more information or would like to discuss your child’s needs, please contact us.

If you child has been diagnosed with (C)APD by one of our clinicians, or by another Audiologist, we can provide a range of interventions.

Management of (C)APD targets the child, the listening environment and communication partners, including teachers. It can include:

• Individual listening training
• Use of a listening device to improve attention and understanding in the classroom
• Computer-based listening training with Earobics^® or Fast ForWord^®
• Information and training for school staff
• Reduction of extraneous noise in the listening environment
• Advice on classroom teaching strategies
• Group information sessions for families to improve and develop listening at home

If you would like more information or would like to discuss your child’s needs, please contact us.

Individual Listening Training

(C)AP therapy is available from an Adelaide Hearing Consultants Audiologist, Speech Pathologist or Educational Consultant. It aims to build the listening skills of children who have been identified as having a (C)AP disorder and subsequent learning difficulties.

(C)AP therapy gives children listening practice while developing their confidence to  ask for help and to manage their listening difficulties.  The therapy provides the child with knowledge of listening strategies and tactics while providing essential listening practice.

(C)AP Therapy consists of 1:1 structured auditory and listening practice, in five 30 minute sessions across a school term (intensive sessions are available for country residents, during school term breaks).  Times, dates and payment are arranged at the time of booking.  After each session a list of activities is given for use at home or in the classroom.  These exercises can be performed between sessions or at the end of therapy to consolidate and build listening skills over time.

Wireless Listening Devices

Using a wireless listening device is a simple way of enhancing speech listening by reducing the effects of background noise. Speech can be heard more clearly and easily, regardless of the listener’s distance from the speaker or other sound source. Many classrooms, lecture theatres and halls have high levels of background noise and a lot of reverberation (echo). A wireless listening system can overcome the noise and reverberation that interfere with the reception of a clear speech signal.

The benefits can include:

• Improved reception of the teacher’s voice
• Improved attention to and understanding of oral instructions
• Improved classroom behaviour
• Less distraction from outside noises
• Improved overall alertness and participation
• Improved attention span
• Increased student achievement
• Reduced fatigue for the student
• Reduced voice fatigue for the teacher

Children who could benefit are those with:

• Attention or (Central) Auditory Processing deficits
• Past or current history of ear infections
• One-ear or minimal hearing loss, not wearing hearing aids
• Moderate hearing loss, wearing hearing aids

With an FM or infrared listening system speech can be heard more clearly and easily, regardless of the listener’s distance from the sound source.

An FM or infrared system amplifies sound received via a microphone, such as a teacher’s voice, and sends it via a radio wave (FM) or infrared wave to the listener.

Personal System

The listener wears a receiver (which receives the FM or infrared signal) and earphones, earbuds or a tiny behind-the-ear ‘hearing aid’ to deliver the sounds.

Sound-field System

The receiver delivers sound via loudspeakers in the classroom to:

• increase overall speech intensity
• improve the speech/noise ratio
• produce a nearly uniform speech level in the room, unaffected by teacher position

FM systems are suitable for a variety of listening situations such as classrooms, lectures and meetings.

Adelaide Hearing Consultants offers Personal FM device rental and sales for children with language-listening problems.  We can also help low income families to source second-hand devices or funds to purchase a new device.

Computer-Based Listening Training

Reading Help and Phonological Awareness Using Earobics^®

EAROBICS^® is a computer software program for training phonological awareness and other auditory skills essential for reading. It helps struggling readers acquire the skills they need to be successful readers.  The student undertakes the program at home for 15-20 minutes, at least three sessions each week.

EAROBICS^® systematically controls important learning variables, including the amount of visual cueing and auditory feedback, the rate at which sounds are presented, the length of sound units and the amount of background noise. The software carefully guides students through learning, giving them more help when they need it and fading cues as their skills develop. There are three age-levels of the program, each with five or six interactive games.

See earobics.com for more information about the program.

Cognitive Training with Fast ForWord^®

Fast ForWord^® is a series of interactive computer programmes that train participants in order to develop and strengthen the essential cognitive skills called Learning Maps:

Memory – improves short and long term memory for information

Attention enhances the ability to maintain focus on multiple tasks

Processing – increases perception of subtle differences between words and improves understanding of verbal information

Sequencing – improves the ability to understand, remember and act on a sequence of information and instructions.

The programs use games to train and improve how the child’s brain processes auditory information. Children train for about 40 hours of intensive, individual therapy: 50 minutes per day (can be broken up), 5 days per week for 10-12 weeks.

Who can benefit from Fast ForWord?

All students can benefit from Fast ForWord. However, those students who experience these difficulties are most likely to receive greatest benefit:

• reading
• spelling
• comprehension
• getting ideas down on paper
• understanding or remembering multiple instructions
• trouble paying attention
• difficulties with listening

See scientificlearning.com for more information about the program.

Assessment of (Central) Auditory Processing – (C)AP – ability is useful for identifying auditory information processing disorders that may contribute to children’s poor verbal communication, their inattentive or disruptive behaviour in the classroom, or their slow school progress.  It can also help describe auditory function in adults who have suffered a brain injury or have other neurological issues.

(C)AP assessments can be performed on children, adolescents or adults who meet the following criteria:

• Have no known hearing loss
• Are aged seven years or older
• Have normal or near-normal intellectual ability
• Can repeat words and sentences

The (C)AP assessment takes approximately 1 hour 30 minutes to complete.  Different tests are used to investigate different areas of central auditory function.  Testing starts with a routine hearing test to check that the person has normal hearing sensitivity.  If hearing loss is present then the (C)AP assessment may need to be postponed and further investigation of the hearing loss may be recommended.

Many children referred for (C)AP testing have learning difficulties so they have seen other health or education specialists, e.g. Paediatricians, Speech Pathologists, Psychologists or Occupational Therapists. Parents are asked to bring reports of these assessments to the appointment. Parents and Teachers are also asked to complete questionnaires about the child’s listening behaviours (link to Parent & teacher AP q’aires). These reports and questionnaires can provide valuable information about a child’s listening or learning difficulties and communication behaviours in both the home and school setting.

Often, children with signs of (C)APD also benefit from an assessment of their receptive and expressive language skills, as these can be delayed or disordered as a result of (C)APD or can contribute to language-listening difficulties in the classroom.

After the assessment, the clinician explains the assessment findings and gives some advice on management. Adelaide Hearing Consultants offers a range of interventions and strategies to help children with (C)APD. A report of the assessment findings and recommendations is sent to the referral source and two copies sent to the parent/caregiver (one for the family, one for the school).

If you would like more information or would like to discuss your child’s needs, please contact us.

You might also like to attend one of our regular Parent Information Sessions, before or after your child has the CAP assessment. See our ‘Events’ page for dates, times and locations.

What is Tinnitus?

‘Tinnitus’ is the term for the perception of sounds in the ears or head when there isn’t a sound, that is, other people cannot hear it.  Tinnitus might begin suddenly or gradually, be present in either or both ears, and is often associated with hearing loss.  It is an invisible condition that does not cause hearing loss or damage to the ear.

How Common is Tinnitus?

Most people experience tinnitus at some time in their life.  Sometimes the tinnitus follows an illness or exposure to loud noise, and goes away shortly after.  However, some people experience more persistent tinnitus.

A local survey of adult health indicated that about 11% of South Australian adults reported tinnitus.  Information from other countries suggests that about 15% to 30% of the population experience persistent tinnitus.

What Causes Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is a symptom, not a disease.  Often tinnitus is a symptom of a problem with the auditory system (the ear itself or its connections to the brain). There are many possible causes of tinnitus; the two most common causes are exposure to very high levels of noise and age – both of which can also lead to hearing loss.  When a person has both hearing loss and tinnitus, the hearing loss reduces their perception of external sounds so that they perceive the internal tinnitus sounds to be quite loud.

People with tinnitus are encouraged to have their ears examined by a doctor.  The doctor may also recommend that the patient sees an Ear Nose and Throat Specialist (ENT) to explore and treat the possible cause of the tinnitus.  However, in many cases, no medically treatable cause for the tinnitus can be found.

What Can Aggravate Tinnitus?

There are many factors that can cause or aggravate tinnitus.  Some of these include:

Loud noise – a brief exposure to very loud noise can fatigue the ear and cause short-term tinnitus. Exposure to very loud noise over long periods of time can have a damaging effect on the microscopic hair cells of the inner ear, causing tinnitus to develop.

Ear, nose, sinus infections and allergies – these can affect the middle ear and increase attention to internal sounds, such as tinnitus.

Some medications can affect the inner ear or the hearing nerves which carry sound messages from the ears to the brain. The effect may be temporary, i.e. tinnitus may cease when the person stops taking the drug, or the tinnitus may persist after the drugs are discontinued.

Stress and fatigue – for some people, tinnitus is a sign that they are under stress and need to relax and rest. Many people report their tinnitus is worse when they are anxious, depressed or worried.

Food and drink – a small proportion of people with tinnitus find that alcohol or caffeine in coffee, tea, chocolate or cola drinks makes their tinnitus worse.

What Are the Effects of Tinnitus?

Many people get used to the sound of tinnitus and can ignore it or are not bothered by it. For others, annoying tinnitus has important effects upon their life, including their sleep, mood and communication.

Sleep

Most people with tinnitus report that they are more aware of their tinnitus when it is quiet, especially when they go to bed. Some report that tinnitus prevents them dropping off or returning to sleep.

The consequences of lack of sleep can be disturbed mood, impaired thinking and planning, impaired movement or clumsiness, social discomfort and . . . increased attention to tinnitus!

Mood

The person with tinnitus might also feel isolated and misunderstood because it can be difficult for family members and friends to understand how irritating tinnitus can be. They might experience irritability, anger and depression which require professional attention. Also, tinnitus and other causes of stress can interact.

Concentration

Tinnitus can make it hard to concentrate, especially upon listening activities such as attending a concert or lecture, or focusing on a task in a quiet room.

Communication

For some people, tinnitus is aggravated by noise, e.g. in the car, making it more difficult to communicate in noise. For many people tinnitus is most noticeable in a quiet room and may interfere with listening there. Typically, however, if a person has trouble hearing in noise or in quiet it is more likely to be because they have some degree of hearing loss rather than due to the tinnitus.

For more information about tinnitus and its management, see www.tinnitussa.org.

Also, watch out for free community information sessions run in metropolitan and rural South Australia by Tinnitus SA.

There are no guaranteed cures for tinnitus, but there are techniques for reducing tinnitus annoyance. The goal of Tinnitus therapy, including the Neuromonics Desensitisation Protocol, is to help the person habituate to the tinnitus and to stop being aware of it. This is done by an Audiologist in the following ways, by:

• acknowledging the reality of the tinnitus and its impact on the person
• describing the structure and function of the hearing system and explaining the causes and mechanisms of tinnitus awareness
• providing a thorough explanation of the tests and measures already undertaken to determine the location or cause of the tinnitus and why these indicate that there is nothing seriously wrong with the hearing system
• providing advice on techniques for relaxing and dealing with tinnitus, to reduce the impact of stress and anxiety
• identifying and providing different sounds (e.g. white noise, ‘natural’ sound recordings or the individually-programmed Neuromonics sound device) which can assist the habituation process – this helps to de-tune the sound-pattern processors so that they no longer recognise the tinnitus as something which should be attended to
• providing hearing aids for people with hearing loss as well as tinnitus – so that the real world of sound can assume importance over the perceived world of tinnitus
• identifying things which make the tinnitus worse; e.g. jaw-joint or neck problems, anxiety and depression; and recommending other health professionals who can assist with their management

People with tinnitus can attend one of our half-day courses, which provides information on a range of techniques for managing tinnitus annoyance.  See the ‘Events’ page for dates, times and locations of these regualr courses.

The Neuromonics Tinnitus Protocol involves extensive counselling by an Audiologist, the regular use of the Neuromonics sound device, and ongoing assessments and evaluations.

Neuromonics involves desensitisation of the tinnitus signal in the auditory centres of the brain.  (This differs from hearing aid fitting which may assist with distraction from the tinnitus). As a result, the person learns to ignore the tinnitus sounds much of the time, and to be less bothered when they are aware of them.

Presentation of the Neuromonics Protocol is generally divided into two phases and involves the use of a device that is custom-programmed according to the individual’s hearing levels and tinnitus perception.  Phase 1 of treatment provides the individual with a high level of distraction from the tinnitus, using relaxing music and ‘shower sound’.  Phase 2 provides an increased exposure to the tinnitus through the relaxing customised music signal, only. The aim is to assist habituation to the tinnitus signal over a 6 month period.

The starting point is an individual tinnitus assessment to determine what tinnitus help is needed and whether Neuromonics is suitable. Our Audiologists; Judith, David and Holly, are accredited to provide the Neuromonics Tinnitus Protocol.

For more information on Neuromonics: www.neuromonics.com

Adelaide Hearing Consultants Audiologists are specialists in the assessment and management of tinnitus. When you make an appointment to discuss your tinnitus, you will be asked to complete two or three questionnaires to bring to the appointment. The Audiologist will read the questionnaires and then ask some questions and invite you to describe your experiences and concerns. Some testing might be done, including one or more of the following: a routine tone hearing test, speech listening tests, testing for loudness discomfort, tinnitus masking tests. The Audiologist will explain the findings of these tests and suggest some ways to manage tinnitus. If other specialist opinions or interventions are indicated, the Audiologist will recommend these.