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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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HOW WELL DO YOU HEAR?

Because enjoying music and watching videos on any number of personal electronic devices are such popular pastimes with so many people, they may want to have their hearing checked out. An “audiometry test” utilizes an “audiometer” to introduce sounds into a headphone (one ear at a time), which the wearer uses to hear a variety of sounds at different intervals. The test enables the hearing professional administering it to determine at what level of intensity of a person can hear. If the individual being tested has any hearing loss, the hearing specialist can suggest ways to correct the problem and avoid

NOT ANOTHER CHICKEN JOKE

Sometimes help comes from the unlikeliest sources, in this case, chickens. It seems that, unlike humans, chickens have the ability to restore lost hearing. In fact, all vertebrates (the defining characteristic of which having a vertebral column, or spine), with the notable exception of mammals, have the same ability to restore their own damaged hearing. In the case of chickens, they have supporting cells in their inner ears that can replace “hair cells” that have been damaged by loud noises or other causes. With this in mind, researchers’ goal is to identify the mechanism behind chickens’ ability to repair harmed hair

PREPARE FOR THE WORST

You never know when you are going to find yourself in a situation where exposure to loud noise is going to pose a threat to your hearing. It is generally recommended that you take steps to safeguard your hearing from prolonged exposure to noise levels of 85 decibels and above. For example, lawnmowers and shop tools generally register about 90 decibels, while chainsaws and drills reach 100 decibels, power saws reach 110 decibels, loud rock concerts regularly hit 115 decibels, race cars come in at 130 decibels, and fireworks/jet engine takeoffs measure 150 decibels. Fortunately, it only takes a pair of

DON’T DENY YOURSELF

Hearing-impaired individuals often lose the threads of important conversations. if not addressed, this problem can have serious consequences in terms of broken social ties and impeded career opportunities. Data confirms that failure to tackle hearing problems results in lower salaries and high rates of unemployment. For example, a hearing-impaired employee might attend a meeting and fail to fully grasp what was being said. So as not to appear obtuse, the worker might pretend to understand, but still remain in the dark. Further denial can lead to missed announcements and office banter, which leaves hearing-impaired individuals with blocked career paths. Avoiding these

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