Optimizing the audiometry can change a child’s life.

Track the sounds your child says and does not say.

Parent input informs how we program the hearing device.

What goes in is what comes out. That is an oversimplified way of saying: What your child hears will directly impact how your child speaks. Articulation will only be as good as the signal that comes into the child’s ear. Today, we have state-of-the-art technology and amazing programming strategies to help.

Stay on top of that “speech envelope.” We must ensure the child has access to all the sounds of speech. Then, we do our very best to fine tune that access through expert programming of cochlear implants and hearing aids.

For example: If your child has a sloping hearing loss, they might have great access to vowels, but not the consonants that define the word.

It’s time for school.

“I - AI - AW -OO”

We all need access to those higher frequencies to make sense of it all. Audiologists can analyze the audiogram and see if there are ways to improve that speech signal from 2K- 6k. This is so important and must never be overlooked. Every facet of this process must be examined.

Another example: Two phonemes sound exactly alike to your child. M and OO, or M and EE, or Z and N, to name a few. These sounds share similar harmonics and often the cochlear implant or hearing aid needs to be fine tuned to access what makes these sounds different. I for one am so grateful to have the technology that allows these modifications.

Optimizing the audiometry can change a child’s life. So keep track of the sounds your child says - it will inform how we can program the hearing device.