by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. The Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has just released “The Savvy Consumer’s Guide to Hearing Loss.” This excellent 193 page book, by Karen Rockow, Ph. D,. herself hard of hearing, and now with a cochlear implant, gives a lot of practical coping strategies for people new to […]
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Adjusting Hearing Aids for Reverse Slope Losses
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A lady asked, My son is 5 years old and will be entering Kindergarten in the fall. We are currently trying to fit him with new hearing aids. His left ear has reverse slope loss. 65db @ 250 60db @ 500, 45 @ 1000, 25 @ 2000-8000. His current ear mold […]
Sudden Hearing Loss And Strokes
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. The Washington Post (June 26, 2008) ran a piece entitled “Sudden Hearing Loss May Portend Stroke” The first three paragraphs read: Sudden hearing loss may foreshadow a stroke by as much as two years,” say Taiwanese researchers. The researchers analyzed five years of follow-up data on 1,423 patients hospitalized for an […]
PockeTalker Pro vs. PockeTalker Ultra
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A lady asked: I’m currently trying out a loaner PockeTalker Pro. There’s also a PockeTalker Ultra. I’ve downloaded the spec sheets on both, but I’m still not clear on what the difference is between the two models. Do you know? The Pro is the older PockeTalker model. Williams Sound didn’t think […]
Setting Up Your Digital-to-Analog Converter Box
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. In response to my article “Setting Up Your Digital-to-Analog Converter Box” (July 15, 2008) , a reader supplied some more valuable information. Steve wrote: The most recent issue brings up the topic of the Digital TV conversion. There are a couple of things that the web sites do not mention, I thought […]
Tinnitus—”The Sound of Hell”
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. For some people, the tinnitus they hear all day long—every day—makes it hard to cope with life. Eddy is one such person. Now totally deaf and almost blind, she writes, “The noises in my head almost drive me nuts. They change constantly. I know, that people could go nuts with what […]
Hearing Loss and Personal Space
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A hard of hearing lady wrote: I have always been a person that has to have my “space” and feel personally violated if people stand too close (any closer than arm’s distance). I will literally get very uncomfortable, start sweating, panicky, if it is not a situation that I can remedy […]
Captioned Radio Finally Coming?
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. One of the things I have wished for, especially in emergency situations, was a radio that would display the text as well as the audio, so I could read the words that my poor ears miss—much as I do with captioning on the TV. You don’t have to miss many key […]
Tinny Sounds, iPods and Hearing Loss
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A man wrote: I’m curious about some increased ringing in my ears and a peculiar off again, on again, sensation that is quite distressing, namely when I am at work, if I open a map for instance (I work with maps all day), just the process of opening the maps, can […]
Hearing In Noise—What’s the Solution?
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A mother wrote: My beautiful daughter was born with impaired hearing, and the doctors said she would lose her hearing as she got older. She is now in her forties. With her hearing aid, she hears noises, but cannot understand speech because of the background noise she picks up. Is there […]