Hearing loss can feel like the end of the world, regardless of its severity. An inability to hear impacts every aspect of life and can lead to social isolation. Yet, those who invest in hearing aids and cochlear implants understand there is life after hearing loss.
Approximately 48 million Americans suffer from some degree of hearing loss, but exciting scientific developments have revealed that there is a solution. Alongside medical devices like hearing aids, auditory training is a form of brain hearing training that can improve the listening skills of those suffering from hearing loss. Let’s explore how this auditory training therapy works and how it can help.
What is Auditory Training?
Auditory training activities are a series of techniques that aim to improve overall speech comprehension. Focused listening activities are designed to both optimize and enhance overall speech perception. While it cannot fully restore your hearing, it can aid the brain’s cognitive processes in registering and translating sound. Even hearing aid wearers have been known to notice an improvement in their ability to hear with auditory training, including in difficult listening environments.
Since this is a relatively new field, the techniques used are constantly changing. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, auditory training activities for adults are available remotely and can be done from the comfort of your own home.
How Can Auditory Training Help?
Hearing training has the potential to help a wide range of hearing impairment. Most of the hearing loss community is unaware that aural rehab activities even exist because it’s such a new area of research. The potential for an auditory trainer to enhance brain function is a gamechanger for those with all levels of hearing impairment.
Benefits of Auditory Training
The benefits of an auditory workout arise not from somehow restoring cells in the ear, but from the effects on the brain. While the ear is used to listen, the brain is what processes the sound into something meaningful. Let’s examine some of the benefits of auditory training:
- Improved speech recognition
- Enhance communication abilities
- Increase the effectiveness of hearing aids
- Boost quality of life
These benefits are less about restoring your natural ability to hear and more about your brain adapting to a new reality. Even hearing aid wearers have experienced incredible changes in their ability to process the sounds heard throughout daily life.
Is an auditory trainer a cure for hearing loss? No, but it can be effective at helping to cope and thrive while facing the challenges of hearing loss.
Is Auditory Training Right for Me?
Auditory training for the hearing impaired will benefit some more than others. Professionals recommend hearing training for people who have experienced a recent change in their degree of hearing. For example, if someone has received a hearing aid or a cochlear implant for the first time, audiologists may recommend intensive aural rehab activities to accompany the activation of these medical devices.
Another group that may benefit from regular auditory workouts is adults who have experienced sudden hearing loss. These groups often struggle to adapt, and this type of training could help them cope with the shock of sudden hearing loss.
Other groups who could benefit include:
- People who have recently switched hearing aids
- Those with worsening hearing loss
- Workers in jobs with high auditory demands
Even though auditory training for hearing impaired adults and children is a treatment option for several groups, most people are unaware that this option exists at all. Plus, many licensed audiologists don’t move beyond the selling, fitting, and servicing of hearing aids and other medical devices. If you want to learn more about this treatment option, speak to your audiologist to see if it’s the right choice for you.
How Does Auditory Training Work?
Auditory training activities for hearing impaired individuals come in many forms. More formalized treatment will involve one-to-one sessions, but the digital world allows for an auditory workout to be performed at home without the presence of a professional. This training focuses on three key areas of the human auditory system:
- Auditory Working Memory – This area of the auditory system focuses on successfully registering words in short-term memory. The working memory enables an understanding of the meaning of words and their linguistic contexts.
- Auditory Processing Speed – Functioning in a real-world conversation requires you to process speech quickly. A lack of processing speed is why the hearing impaired often need to ask the speaker to repeat their words or to slow down.
- Auditory Attention – The world has never been louder than it is today, and listeners must be able to extract meaningful, relevant speech from an array of background noises.
Despite all this, do aural rehab activities result in a better hearing experience for someone who is hearing impaired? The answer is yes, as long as the program is effective and challenging. Studies have shown that more intensive programs yield better results. In other words, longer and more frequent sessions are more likely to lead to superior long-term outcomes.
It works because memory and speech recognition are muscles. The more a person trains those aspects of the auditory system, the stronger they will become in those areas.
Auditory Training Activities
Selecting the right auditory training for hearing impaired people is key to gaining the right results. There are both mobile phone apps and at-home activities available. Some are aimed at children, and others are aimed at adults or seniors. If you want to improve your listening skills through an auditory trainer, here are some of the programs recommended by professionals.
Hearing Apps for Children
Let’s concentrate on some of the dedicated listening training apps for children. These three options can all be used on mobile devices, such as the iPad and smartphones.
- Auditory Workout
Auditory Workout was created for children aged 4-12 who experience problems with speech processing and comprehension. With more than 1,000 listening exercises focusing on different aspects of auditory understanding, it’s perhaps the most comprehensive app aimed at children.
- AB Listening Adventures
Designed exclusively for the iPad, AB Listening Adventures is targeted at children aged 4-10 with various degrees of hearing loss. This app helps to guide listening development and language skills. Each of the six games revolves around a specific story and incorporates language elements like pronouns, minimal pairs, and plurals.
- VocAB Scenes
Another iPad exclusive, VocAB Scenes, is designed for children aged 4-10 who need to enhance their vocabulary. The app contains highly colorful scenes to maintain their engagement, such as camping, winter fun, beach scenes, and the pet store. Every scene comes with three different games to enhance their development.
Hearing Apps for Adults
Children and adults have different hearing needs. Whereas children are more focused on development, adults must focus more on strengthening the skills they already have. For this reason, EarPros recommends analyzing different apps to check which auditory skills they focus on.
- Hear Coach
Hear Coach was developed by Starkey Hearing Technologies, which also manufactures state-of-the-art hearing aids. This suite of games trains different hearing skills in challenging environments. These games are designed to be fun, engaging, and push your listening skills to the next level. If you’re experiencing difficulties trying to hear in busier environments, this is the app for you. Unfortunately, this app is currently only available for Android devices.
- LACE Auditory Training
LACE Auditory Training offers a daily training program that takes place online. Each session lasts for 20 minutes and helps the hearing-impaired cope with communication in challenging listening environments. LACE is available for iPad, Android, and desktop/laptop computers. If you lack the time, these 20-minute auditory workouts are easy to fit into your day.
- Forbrain
Forbrain is an auditory trainer that focuses on improving concentration, short-term memory, and attention span. Unlike other apps, this one comes with a bone-conduction headphone and a dynamic filter microphone to support speaking. To get the best results from Forbrain, it’s recommended that the app is used daily for a minimum of six weeks.
At-Home Activities
Not everyone wants to train their listening skills digitally. Several at-home activities have been proven to enhance the auditory system, such as:
- Practice – The simplest way to improve your listening skills is to practice them. Try to listen and understand in challenging environments, such as in bars or restaurants. It can also be done at home by having a conversation with others while the radio or TV set plays in the background.
- Directional Sound – Close your eyes and have someone move to different parts of the room and make noise. Write down whether you can identify the rough distance and direction of the sound.
- Meditate – Sound recognition occurs in the brain, so improved concentration will always be beneficial for hearing. Studies show that meditation improves concentration and stimulates blood flow around the body and to your brain.
- Sound Isolation Exercises – This active listening workout improves the brain’s ability to recognize meaningful sounds. Just close your eyes and identify as many sounds in your vicinity as you can. Focus your attention on each one for a few seconds.
- Sing – Distinguish speech in noisy environments by singing. Research has shown that singing improves speech-in-noise perception for people with age-related hearing degradation.
Conclusion
Auditory training has shown tremendous results and has a huge potential for the hearing loss community. A combination of clinical and at-home sessions performed daily over long periods of time can improve listening skills, even if you already wear a hearing aid. Find out more about this type of training by speaking to a licensed audiologist in your area with the help of EarPros. Seeking out professional help early will enable you to boost your quality of life and overcome the challenges of living with a hearing impairment. To schedule your free hearing test, contact EarPros today and begin your journey to better hearing.
FAQs
How do you develop auditory training to enhance sense of hearing? ›
- actively listening to multiple repetitions of target sounds.
- undergoing exercises of progressive difficulty, e.g., from sounds that are acoustically dissimilar (gross discriminations) to sounds that share some acoustic properties (fine discriminations)
What is auditory-verbal and auditory-based therapy? Auditory-verbal therapy (AVT) — sometimes called auditory-based therapy — is a type of early intervention therapy for young children who are deaf and hard of hearing, or those who use hearing technology such as hearing aids or cochlear implants.
How many types of auditory training are there? ›Nineteen different auditory training programs were identified.
What are the benefits of auditory training? ›That is, as a supplement to aided listening, an effective auditory training program may improve the use of audible speech information, enhance communication abilities, increase the effectiveness of hearing aids, and improve quality of life.
What are the 3 auditory skills? ›- Auditory Awareness – the ability to detect sound.
- Sound Location – the ability to locate the sound source.
- Auditory Attention/Auditory Figure-Ground – the ability to attend to important auditory information including attending in the midst of competing background noise.
Candidates for auditory training include most individuals who have hearing loss which can be treated via the use of a hearing aid or cochlear implant. A very simplified way to explain why this is is to say that after experiencing hearing loss for a period of time the brain and the ears become out of sync.
What is an example of auditory integration training? ›What does Auditory Integration Training (AIT) involve? Typically, children attend 30-minute training sessions twice a day for 10 days. In each session, children listen to music on headphones. The music has been altered to remove certain sounds, and the volume is carefully controlled.
What is the auditory verbal method? ›The Auditory Verbal Approach focuses on a listening and spoken language objective without the visual support provided through lipreading. The intended outcomes of the Auditory Verbal Approach is for the individual to communicate completely through the use of listening and spoken language (LSL).
What is auditory closure speech therapy? ›Auditory closure (AC) is the ability to use the redundant intrinsic and extrinsic qualities of speech in order to fill in missing or degraded segments so that the complete message can be understood (Bellis, 2003).
What are the steps of auditory training? ›- Step 1: Awareness of sounds. ...
- Step 2: Paying Attention to a Sound. ...
- Step 3: Conditioned Responses to Sound. ...
- Step 4: Associating Sounds with Meaning.
What is auditory training program? ›
Auditory training, which is sometimes referred to as “aural rehabilitation,” was developed by hearing healthcare professionals to assist people with hearing loss by improving their listening skills and speech understanding.
What skills can be developed using auditory training? ›It helps develop auditory memory, attention, processing and sequencing skills, as well as language and reading skills, including phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, spelling and comprehension. Attention is essential to focus on information and tasks, thereby ignoring distractions.
What is the goal of auditory training for persons with hearing loss? ›The goal of auditory training is to develop the ability to recognize speech using the auditory signal and to interpret auditory experiences. The procedures and techniques used have evolved over time.
Can hearing aid improve hearing? ›Hearing aids can help improve hearing and speech especially in persons with sensorineural hearing loss (hearing loss in the inner ear due to damaged hair cells or a damaged hearing nerve).
What are some auditory skills? ›| AUDITORY SKILL | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|
| Awareness to sound: Child nonverbally or verbally indicates the presence or absence of sound. | Child's eyes widen when she hears her mother's voice. |
| Attention to sound: Child listens to what he hears for at least a few seconds or longer. | Child pauses to listen to father's voice. |
Auditory Memory: Auditory memory includes the ability to remember things we hear, in both the short-term and the long-term. Children weak in auditory memory have trouble remembering nursery rhymes and song lyrics, learning things through recitation, and remembering information unless it's written down.
What is an auditory trainer? ›An auditory trainer is a special type of amplification device that uses a microphone worn by the speaker to transmit the speaker's voice to a small receiver worn behind the person's ear.
What are auditory verbal difficulties? ›Verbal auditory agnosia is the selective inability to recognize verbal sounds. Patients with this disorder lose the ability to understand language, write from dictation, and repeat words with reserved ability to identify nonverbal sounds.
What is listening therapy? ›Therapeutic listening is a sound-based intervention that was developed to support people of all ages who experience difficulties with sensory processing. It provides stimulation to the auditory system through the use of specifically altered music.
Who invented auditory integration therapy? ›This method of auditory training was originally developed by Dr. Guy Berard – a French ear, nose and throat physician –who successfully used this technique with thousands of people in Europe.
What is auditory training for autism? ›
Auditory integration therapy (AIT) was developed as a technique for improving abnormal sound sensitivity in individuals with behavioural disorders including autism. Other sound therapies bearing similarities to AIT include the Tomatis Method and Samonas Sound Therapy.
What is an auditory sandwich? ›Auditory Sandwich is a listening comprehension approach in which students are presented with an auditory message (e.g., simple directions, phrase that includes a new term or skill that the student may not understand), followed by a visual (e.g., picture, symbol, sign, item, hand gesture), and then the visual is removed ...
What is auditory verbal therapy Asha? ›Asha Auditory Verbal Therapy clinic
Auditory Verbal therapy is a highly specialist early intervention family centred coaching programme which equips parents and care-givers with the tools to support the development of their deaf child's speech and language development.
Auditory Hooks
They are words or phrases that have a lot of sing-song to them to grab the child's attention. They can then start to develop some understanding of the language that goes with that object or action.
So what is auditory closure? It is where you as the parent say the first part of a message, then pause, and encourage your child to say the second part to finish the sentence. For example, you place a toy car on the bench in front of your child ready to “drive” it.
How do you treat auditory processing disorder? ›- Preferred seating. ...
- Use visual cues. ...
- Emphasize key words. ...
- Give kids a heads up when something important is coming. ...
- Help with sequencing. ...
- Assistive technology.
Treating auditory processing disorder (APD)
There is no cure for APD but there are things that can help. Treatment usually involves activities to improve listening and concentration. This is called auditory training. You can do it with a hearing specialist or in your own time online.
Auditory training may be either analytic, synthetic or a combination of the two. Analytic training involves mastery of the building blocks of speech, such as syllables and words; synthetic training emphasizes cognitive skills and global comprehension of the sentence and/or message.
Why is the auditory system important? ›The auditory system constructs a perceptual space that takes information from objects and groups, segregates sounds, and provides meaning and access to communication tools such as language.
What makes up auditory processing? ›Auditory processing is the ability to interpret the sounds that one has heard. In central auditory processing, the brain must identify the incoming sounds and make an analysis of those sounds and attach meaning to them.
How can adults improve auditory memory? ›
...
5 Auditory Memory Strategies
- Visualization. One way that I teach students to visualize is to picture what they hear in their head. ...
- Chunking. ...
- Paraphrasing. ...
- Repetition.
LACE is an extremely effective way to increase one's listening skills over time! I have had a hearing loss since birth, but it was only detected at the age of 45. The LACE program has taught me the importance of paying attention and helping to block out background noises. I would highly recommend it!
What are the home remedies to improve hearing? ›...
Tea tree oil
- 3 drops tea tree oil.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil.
- 1 teaspoon colloidal vinegar.
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar.
Higher intakes of vitamins C, E, beta carotene, B12 and folate have been proposed to reduce the risk of hearing loss.
How can I restore my hearing naturally? ›- Meditation. More and more, people are turning to meditation for improving their hearing health. ...
- Stop Smoking. ...
- Yoga. ...
- Turn Down the Volume. ...
- Check for Ear Wax. ...
- Exercise Daily. ...
- Focus and Locate Sounds. ...
- Vitamins.
Drawbacks of In-The-Ear Hearing Aids
The receiver of an in-the-ear hearing aid can get clogged with earwax and moisture. “There is also an occlusion effect with ITEs. Patients with mild hearing loss may not choose an ITE because the whole ear is plugged up. Everything is altered.
Signia Motion X “Charge-and-Go” have been selected as “easiest to use” hearing devices. They combine all of the advantages of the new Xperience digital chip with a convenient, intuitive, and rechargeable system.
Which hearing aid is best for old age? ›Seniors with severe hearing loss should consider behind-the-ear, receiver-in-canal or receiver-in-the-ear, and open-fit styles: Behind-the-ear (BTE). This style of hearing aid rests behind the ear and has a small tube that hooks over the top and connects to an earmold, which is custom-fit to the ear canal.
What skills can be developed using auditory training? ›It helps develop auditory memory, attention, processing and sequencing skills, as well as language and reading skills, including phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, spelling and comprehension. Attention is essential to focus on information and tasks, thereby ignoring distractions.
What is an example of auditory integration training? ›What does Auditory Integration Training (AIT) involve? Typically, children attend 30-minute training sessions twice a day for 10 days. In each session, children listen to music on headphones. The music has been altered to remove certain sounds, and the volume is carefully controlled.
What is the goal of auditory training for persons with hearing loss? ›
The goal of auditory training is to develop the ability to recognize speech using the auditory signal and to interpret auditory experiences. The procedures and techniques used have evolved over time.
How can adults improve auditory memory? ›...
5 Auditory Memory Strategies
- Visualization. One way that I teach students to visualize is to picture what they hear in their head. ...
- Chunking. ...
- Paraphrasing. ...
- Repetition.
3 steps. Hearing and comprehension involves three primary processes: hearing, listening and processing.
What is auditory brain training? ›Auditory training, or auditory rehabilitation, is essentially a formal program for teaching the brain to recognize speech and other sounds that may not be as clear as they are with typical hearing. It also teaches strategies for making the most of what you hear Auditory training teaches the brain to listen.
What are the home remedies to improve hearing? ›...
Tea tree oil
- 3 drops tea tree oil.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil.
- 1 teaspoon colloidal vinegar.
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar.
Higher intakes of vitamins C, E, beta carotene, B12 and folate have been proposed to reduce the risk of hearing loss.
Is auditory integration therapy effective? ›Authors' conclusions: There is no evidence that auditory integration therapy or other sound therapies are effective as treatments for autism spectrum disorders.
What is listening therapy? ›Therapeutic listening is a sound-based intervention that was developed to support people of all ages who experience difficulties with sensory processing. It provides stimulation to the auditory system through the use of specifically altered music.
Who invented auditory integration therapy? ›This method of auditory training was originally developed by Dr. Guy Berard – a French ear, nose and throat physician –who successfully used this technique with thousands of people in Europe.
Does lace auditory training work? ›LACE is an extremely effective way to increase one's listening skills over time! I have had a hearing loss since birth, but it was only detected at the age of 45. The LACE program has taught me the importance of paying attention and helping to block out background noises. I would highly recommend it!