Glossary of Ear and Hearing Loss Terms

A form of hearing loss arising in the external ear canal, ear drum or middle ear. It refers to anything that impedes or blocks the passage of sound through the outer and/or middle ear sections by preventing or not effectively transmitting sound to the inner ear. A conductive loss could result from something blocking the ear canal, from a ruptured ear drum, or from anything that restricts the movement of the bones in the middle ear. The most common cause of conductive hearing loss is fluid (infection) in the middle ear (otitis media).

A hearing loss present at birth, or associated with the birth process, or which develops in the first few days of life. It may or may not be hereditary.

A software speech strategy for running cochlear implants. The CIS speech strategy is digital and only fires one electrode at a time, but various electrodes are fired in rapid succession—833 times per second for the original software, and  5,156 times per second for the newer Hi-Res software. This rapid successive stimulation gives the illusion of the continuous stimulation the SAS speech strategy gives.

On the opposite side, with reference to a given point. (The opposite of Ipsilateral.)

A hearing aid designed for a person who has normal hearing in one ear and is deaf in the other. This hearing aid picks up sounds on the non-hearing side and transmits them to the good ear so the person wearing a CROS aid can hear people speaking from his deaf side.

An audiogram that covers the frequencies from 125 Hz to 8,000 Hz.

A basic hearing aid that uses analog circuitry. This circuitry processes sound as a voltage rather than as bit as a digital hearing aid does. These aids tend to be relatively unsophisticated  and usually require the user to adjust the volume as needed.

Named for the shape of this kind of hearing loss on an audiogram. Both the high and low frequencies are normal or near-normal, but there is a broad dip in the mid-frequencies that looks like someone took a bite out of the top of the audiogram.

See Hearing Loss Coping Strategies.

See Conditioned Orienting Response. Same as Conditioned Audiometry.

See Conditioned Play Audiometry. Same as Conditioned Audiometry.

See Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties.

See Contralateral Routing of Sound Hearing Aid.

A visual representation of the phonemes of spoken language that uses 8 hand-shapes in 4 different locations (cues) on the face in combination with the natural mouth-movements of speech to distinguish all the sounds of spoken language.

See Direct Audio Input.

Abbreviation for decibel—a tenth of a bel. Named after Alexander Graham Bell, thus the “B” is always capitalized in his honor—thus dB. (See Decibel.)

When written with a small “d”, it refers to a person with little or no measurable hearing, i. e. 90+ dB hearing loss. A person with severe or profound hearing loss.

When capitalized, Deaf refers to those who consider themselves a part of the Deaf culture, and choose to communicate using a signed language such as American Sign Language (ASL), instead of spoken communication.

The unit that measures the intensity (loudness) of sound. It is used to express the degree of a person’s hearing loss. The smaller the number, the better the hearing. Normal hearing thresholds range between 0 and 20 dB. More technically, a decibel is a unit of measure that defines sound intensity (loudness) based on sound pressure level (db SPL). Decibels also measure how a person’s hearing compares with a normal hearing level (db HL). A decibel is one-tenth of a Bell. (Named after Alexander Graham Bell.) It is the loudness units hearing level and hearing loss are measured in. The decibel is a relative measurement of sound intensity or pressure, based on a logarithmic relationship between two sources where one serves as the reference. 0 dB is the baseline norm—not the absence of sound. People with very sensitive hearing can hearing sounds softer than 0 dB. Sounds softer than 0 dB are expressed in negative numbers, thus -20 dB.

A hearing aid fitting method designed specifically for children.

Determining which of two or more diseases with similar symptoms is the one from which a person is suffering. This is done by systematically comparing and contrasting various symptoms.

A hearing aid that provides amplification by processing sounds as bits (numbers) instead of as a voltage. This is the way computers work. Digital hearing aids can control or modify sound in almost an infinite number of ways through its programs.

Improving hearing with manipulation by mathematical formula of a sound signal that has been converted from analog to digital.

See Programmable Hearing Aid.

(dip-lah-KOO-sis) The abnormal perception of sound either in time or in pitch, such that one sound is heard as two separate sounds. This name comes from the two Greek words “diplous”—double, and “akousis”—hearing. Also known as Paracusis duplicata.