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Older woman receiving a hearing assessment, illustrating hearing screening vs hearing test.

What’s the Difference Between a Hearing Screening and a Hearing Test?

The television is a little louder than it used to be, and conversations across the dinner table take more effort to follow. These changes can be easy to brush aside, especially when you still hear most sounds around you. Once you decide to have your hearing checked, you might not know whether a quick screening or a full hearing test is the right option for you. When you’re weighing hearing screening vs hearing test options, the main difference is how much information you get. A screening checks whether further testing may be needed. A full hearing test investigates your hearing in

My Child Passed Their Hearing Test but Still Struggles: Understanding Auditory Processing Disorder

It is a conversation we have often, usually in September or October. A teacher has raised a concern; the child does not seem to be listening, misses instructions, or falls behind when the classroom gets noisy. A hearing test is arranged, the results come back normal, and the family is left with the same question they started with: if the hearing is fine, what is going on? For some of these children, the answer may be auditory processing disorder (APD). Photo by CDC What Is Auditory Processing Disorder? Auditory processing disorder (APD), also called central auditory processing disorder, affects how the

a student struggling to hear in a classroom

How Can Hearing Difficulties Affect a Child at School

A child may follow conversations easily at home but struggle to understand a teacher in a busy classroom. They might copy what another student is doing, miss part of an assignment, or give an answer that doesn’t match the question. These moments can look like distraction or confusion, even when the child is trying hard to keep up. Hearing difficulties at school can affect much more than a child’s ability to notice sounds. They may influence learning, classroom participation, friendships, confidence, and energy levels. Because the signs aren’t always obvious, parents and teachers may not immediately realize that hearing could be

a hearing aid fitting appointment with a audiologist showing the patient how to put in his hearing aid

What Happens During a Hearing Aid Fitting and Follow Up

Choosing hearing aids can feel like the biggest step in improving your hearing. Once you’ve selected the devices, you may expect to put them on, turn them on and head home. Hearing aids need more preparation than that. They have to be programmed for your hearing, checked while you’re wearing them and adjusted so they feel comfortable. A hearing aid fitting is the appointment where those pieces come together. Your audiologist sets up the devices, verifies how they’re performing and teaches you how to use them. You’ll then try them during your regular activities and return for follow up care based

The Ontario Infant Hearing Program: A Parent’s Guide to Newborn Hearing Screening

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash Few things matter more to new parents than knowing their baby is healthy. Among the screening tests offered shortly after birth, the newborn hearing screening is one of the most important yet often overlooked. Hearing plays a critical role in a child’s early development, supporting speech and language acquisition, communication, learning, and social interaction. Identifying any hearing differences as early as possible gives families and healthcare professionals the best opportunity to provide timely support. Ontario has had a universal newborn hearing screening program in place since the early 2000s, delivered through the Infant Hearing Program

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FOLLOWING THE 60/60 RULE

If we do not properly address the problem that loud noise poses to young ears, we will raise a generation of children that experience hearing loss by their 20s and 30s to a degree once seen only among seniors in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Those ubiquitous personal listening devices plugged into the ears of children have cause hearing loss in an estimated one in five teenagers. That percentage is nearly one-third higher than it was during the 1980s and 1990s. With this in mind, parents are encouraged to have their children follow the “60/60 rule,” which means listening to no

PROTECTIVE RESPONSE

Most of us have experienced a stuffy feeling in our ears after being exposed to loud noise. This protective response, known as “temporary threshold shift” (TTS), is the body’s way of protecting itself from extreme sound. This upward shift in the threshold of human hearing, which is usually caused by being subjected to a loud sound, involves reducing the hearing mechanism’s sensitivity to excessive noise. While most people recover from a TTS event in a day or two, it isn’t something you should ignore. It means that the noise to which you have been exposed could damage your hearing. Regular exposure

MENIERE’S DISEASE

The inner ear plays a role in processing hearing, but the balance (vestibular) portion of the inner ear is also responsible for orienting the body in space. The semicircular canals of the inner ear are filled with fluid, the motion of which determines signals that are sent to the brain. When the inner ear and other senses send mixed signals, it results in the feeling of dizziness. While there are many types of dizziness, Meniere’s disease is mentioned because it is often accompanied by hearing loss. Initially, sound sensitivity, then progress to episodes of vertigo and hearing loss. Eventually, most Meniere’s

GRADUAL INTRODUCTION

A new procedure helps seniors address a common problem that many have in adjusting to new hearing instruments due to experiencing new sounds that they may find confusing and irritating. As a result, those aged 70-85 years may simply choose not to wear their hearing instruments or even abandon them altogether. The new intervention procedure seeks to ensure better wearer compliance by asking seniors to wear their instruments for a set amount of time and gradually increase the duration daily over a 30-day period. They begin with one hour for three days and then increased the time by one-hour increments every

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