HEARING LOSS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHAPTER NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2011
Montco Chapter Officers:
President
: Donna Penman, phone: 610-279-0905; Email address: pen447@verizon.net Vice-President: Patty Cortez; email:
Treasurer
: Kathy Harral Assistive Technology: Don Groff
Newsletter committee
: Diana Bender, email:
, and Don Groff
Meeting Schedule: 1st Monday of each Month, except January, February, July and August: Gerber Room, 2nd floor Mercy Suburban Hospital, 2701 DeKalb Pike (Route 202), East Norriton, PA, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
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HLAA Convention June 16-19, 2011 in Washington, DC
A reminder for all of you who have not yet signed up for this year’s convention: the 2011 HLAA convention will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, VA, just outside of Washington, DC from June 16 – June 19, 2011.
Registration information is available on national’s website at
.
Tinnitus Treatment
From the April 2011 issue of Healthy Hearing, a hearing industry publication
.
A new treatment has been developed at the University of California in Irvine, CA based on research funded by the American Tinnitus Association.
The newly developed technology utilizes unique tones and sounds customized to an individual’s own tinnitus to help quiet the ringing. The proprietary SoundCure audio stimuli are designed to be presented at a softer level than the patient’s tinnitus to lower the patient’s overall sound burden and reduce or eliminate the perception of tinnitus.
Tinnitus is the term for the perception of sound when no external sound is present. Tinnitus is often referred to as “ringing in the ears,” although some people hear hissing,
roaring,
whistling, chirping, or clicking. Tinnitus can be intermittent or constant, with single or multiple tones. Its perceived volume can range from very soft to extremely loud.
Tinnitus is not a disease but a symptom of another underlying condition – of the ear, the auditory nerve, or elsewhere. It is frequently, although not always, associated with hearing loss.
The American Tinnitus Association estimates that over 50 million Americans experience tinnitus. Of these, 12 million have tinnitus which is severe enough to seek medical attention and roughly 2 million persons are so debilitated by the tinnitus they cannot function at a normal level on a day-to-day basis.
New Website: JobTIPS
This website can be helpful for people who have hearing loss or other communication disability. Successful employment is key to greater independence for people with disabilities. But symptoms of the autism spectrum disorder —social impairment, communication difficulties, and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors—often pose
major barriers for finding and maintaining appropriate work.
In response to this issue, Dorothy Strickland, Ph.D., of Do2Learn.com, and colleagues developed the JobTIPS website (
). JobTIPS presents text, audio, and video related to seeking and applying for jobs, managing work responsibilities, and interacting with co-workers. The site also provides detailed explanations of how to behave in specific situations, such as what to say and not say to a potential employer, and when and how to disclose their diagnosis. The researchers are also developing modules that will allow users to practice job skills, such as interviewing, accepting feedback from supervisors, and engaging in appropriate small talk.
3-D Imaging Could Lead to Better Fitting Hearing Aids
About 36 million Americans suffer from some type of hearing loss. However, only one in five who could benefit from a hearing aid actually wears one, according to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders. MIT engineers believe that number could be boosted if there were a better way to fit hearing aids to the wearers’ ears.
Getting useful sound amplification from a hearing aid depends on a tight fit between hearing aid and ear canal, but the current method of modeling patients’ ears is messy and not always accurate, potentially leading to a device that fits poorly and offers little benefit.
“A lot of people with hearing aids are likely walking around with hearing aids that don’t fit, because they don’t know what they’re supposed to feel like,” says Douglas Hart, MIT professor of mechanical engineering. Hart has patented a new way of scanning the ear canal with 3-D imaging technology – a process that is much faster, easier and more accurate than the plaster-mold technique. He plans to market the technology to hearing-aid manufacturers first, but believes it could also be useful to build fitted earphones for MP3 music players, or custom-fit earplugs for military personnel and other people who work in noisy environments.
Complete article: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/hearing-aid-0520.html
Quote of the Month
“
Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”
Carol Burnett
Next Meeting: Things I Wish my Audiologist had told me!
Our next meeting will feature a short talk by Diana Bender describing things she wished her audiologist had told her when she first starting wearing hearing aids or any time she got a new one. Of course one of the subjects that is almost never mentioned by audiologists is assistive listening devices or ALDs, which will be described in the talk. Montco members Alice, Kathy, Patty and Donna will “show and tell” some of the ALDs they find most helpful. If you are not sure what ALDs are, how they work or whether you could benefit from them, this is a great chance to find out.
Please join us for our next meeting which will be held on
MONDAY,
May 2, 2011
beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Mercy Suburban Hospital.
HLAA - Montgomery County Chapter 