Making Hearing Instruments Useful in Challenging Listening Environments

By Jennifer Groth ReSound Global Audiology   My teenage daughter and I were visiting my father, who lives in rural Iowa. We decided to check out a new restaurant for dinner, and Dad drove, with me in the passenger seat and my daughter in the back. There are four miles of gravel road to get to the highway from his house, and, apart from kicking up a lot of dust, it’s pretty noisy. And you’ll usually meet a tractor or two on the road, not to mention cows and deer. So it’s pretty important to keep your eyes on the road if you want to stay out of the ditch.   “What have you been doing this summer?” Dad yells over his shoulder to my daughter.   “Hanging,” is her eloquent reply.   “What?” he says, straining to see her in the rearview mirror.   “She’s been hanging out with her friends,” I shout at the same time she repeats her answer.   “What?” he yells back at my daughter.   “Oh yeah, and Shannon and I went to see Oklahoma!” she says.   “Who has glaucoma?” he says, and cranes his neck around, swerving a little.   And so it goes the rest of the trip, and we manage to arrive in one piece. However, the challenge continues during dinner, as the restaurant turns out to be a huge, reverberant space. Even though there aren’t that many other guests, carrying on a conversation with Dad is tough. He wears hearing instruments with the latest technology, including directionality, and is a fervent advocate for the benefits of amplification. Even s...
Source: R&D Blog - Category: ENT & OMF Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs