
Tips
Have you ever noticed that hearing aid
batteries decide to die whenever you don't have any handy? Try this! When you
take the
little paper tab off of a new hearing aid battery, put it on the calendar. This will help
you figure out how long a battery will last (if you haven't figured that out already). Now
you can tell with a quick glance at the calendar when it's time to change batteries,
before they stop working (or at least make sure that you have some spares with you).
If your child's hearing aid is equipped with a
T-switch, you need to make sure it is off when the T-Coil is not in use. The Telecoil can
pick up signals from a number of things making the child unable to hear speech sounds. Two
of the biggest culprits are car engines and computers.
If your little one likes to chew on the
earmolds, earhook, tubing, or hearing aid, try painting them with some THUM (a liquid made
to stop nail biting and thumb sucking). It has a nasty taste which discourages cord
biting.
Some folks have problems with the tubing coming
out of their child's earmolds. I've had a couple of folks tell me that their
audiologist has suggested to them that they use clear nail polish to glue the tubing in
until they could bring the earmold into their office for repairs. If you try this, please
be sure not to get any of the nail polish inside the tube because this would block off any
sound coming through it. Also make sure that the tubing goes all the way through and its
end is flush with the opening of the mold. Those who have tried this report good results.
If your child
has PE tubes in conjunction with hearing aids and they suddenly give a pain
reaction when the hearing aids are inserted, here is something you might want to
know about. Normally, tubes do not interfere with hearing aids. However, when the
tubes come out of the tympanic membrane and lay in the auditory canal, placing the earmold
into the ear may be pushing the tube back up against the tympanic membrane causing pain,
and the possibility of damage to the membrane. Fixing the problem is easy,
but your doctor first has to figure out what's wrong. We went through 8 doctors (and 2 months)
before they figured out the problem. I've heard from a number of parents
whose child also had this happen.
Hearing Aid Info
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With a Hearing Aid, a Hearing-Impaired Child Can Hear as Well as You - False!
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Troubled
by Feedback? Visit our Hearing Aid Feedback
page.
-
You can insure the hearing aids against loss or theft with a rider on your
home insurance policy. When insuring this way, be sure to carefully examine
exactly what is covered. Visit our page on Homeowner's
Coverage!
-
Hearing
Aids & Dolls - Ideas, sources, and a cute story about what one
mother did when her daughter was fit for her first pair of hearing aids.
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Digital? Programmable?
Multichannel? Analog?
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Hearing Aid Specs
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Hearing Aids & Moisture - Preventing moisture from becoming a
barrier to better hearing.
If Your Child Won't Keep
Their Hearing Aids In... - some suggestions.
-
Info about Huggie Aids
5 Tips for Assessing the Need for New Hearing Aids
by Paula Rosenthal, J.D.
Sources Of Hearing Aid & Cochlear Implant Funding
- Also great places to donate those
unused hearing aids!
AVR's ImpaCt Hearing Aids
- Occasionally we run across some information about a hearing aid that
answers lots of questions folks seem to have about them. This message was in
response to some questions asked on the
PDHH listserv, and the author gave
us permission to share it with you. You might also be interested in reading One
Man's Success with ImpaCt Hearing Aids. The next step up is the
LogiCom
System which incorporates a wireless FM.
These links are to pages not on The Listen Up Web:
- 25
Questions to Ask and Things to Know When Buying a Hearing Aid
- A Discussion of
Children and Hearing Aids
- A
Guide to Power Hearing Instruments - From The Hearing Review.
-
About
Hearing Aids - From Boys Town National Research Hospital.
- Advantages & Disadvantages: Hearing Aids vs. Cochlear Implants for Those with Severe Hearing Loss
- Advertising Law: Hearing Aids - From the
Federal Trade Commission
- Annual HR Programmable & DSP Buyer's Guide - A review of the
available digital and analog programmable instruments in the hearing health
care field from The Hearing Review.
- ANSI
S3.22 1996 Electroacoustic Evaluation of Hearing Aids
- Can
Hearing Aids Provide Hearing Protection?
- Choose Your Hearing Aids
- CIC
Buyer’s Guide - From The Hearing Review
- Design
Considerations in Directional Microphones - A perspective on the
trade-offs inherent in the design of directional microphone hearing
instrument systems, from The Hearing Review.
- Digital Hearing Aids
- Digital
Hearing Aid for Hearing Impaired - a research project to make hearing
aids more effective in noisy situations.
-
Dr. Seuss, Sound Level Meters, and Greater Hearing Aid Satisfaction

- Efficacy of 3 Commonly Used Hearing Aid Circuits
- Estimating
the Real-Ear Saturation Response
- Facts about Hearing Aids
- Fine
Tuning Multi-Channel Compression Hearing Instruments - From The Hearing
Review
- First Aid for ITE/BTE
Hearing Aids
- Fitting for an
'Auditory Life'
-
Frequency Compression Hearing Aids
- Hearing
Aid Fitting And Selection
- Hearing Aid
Myths and Facts
- Hearing Aid Pricing
- Consumer Information
- Hearing Aid Research Laboratory
(HARL)
- Hearing Aid Technology
- Hearing Aid Trial Period - From the Audiology Awareness Campaign
- Hearing Aid Warranties
- From the Audiology Awareness Campaign
- History of Hearing Aids
- How to
Evaluate Hearing Aid Fittings for Quiet and Noisy Listening Environments
- How to
do a Daily Hearing Aid Check
- How to
Perform a Hearing Aid Listening Check -
From the Audiology Awareness Campaign
- How to
Purchase a Hearing Aid - From the American
Academy of Audiology
- How to Read the Hearing Aid Specification Sheet -
From the Audiology Awareness Campaign
- How to
do a Daily Check of Hearing Aid Function
- Improving
CIC Fittings by Using a Silicone Ring - From The Hearing Review
- Independent Hearing Aid Information
- Interference
to Hearing Aids from Mobile Phones
- Locating Sounds by
Time and Intensity: Application to a Binaural Hearing Aid - from the The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute's
Website.
- Maintenance
Tips
- Medical
Devices; Hearing Aids; Technical Data Amendments - From
the FDA

- Ms. Ears Questions and Answers
- New
Electroacoustic Tests for Hearing Aids Having Non-Linear Signal Processing
- Options
in Hearing Aids
- Pattern Element Hearing Aids and Speech Assessment and Training
- Practical Hearing Aid Selection and Fitting
- While this document is a little bit dated (1997) and may not include the
most recent advances, it has a lot to offer and is well worth reading.
- Proper Use
of Telecoils: It's as easy as 1,2,3...4!
-
Purchasing Hearing Aids? Read This First!"
- Real-Ear Measurement of
Hearing Aids
-
Saving Lives With Hearing Aids - it's Possible!
- Selecting
Hearing Aids for Infants and Young Children
- Solar Rechargeable Hearing Aid
- Comcare
International - ComCare makes a rugged, low-cost solar powered hearing
aid.
- Godisa.org - Solar rechargeable
hearing aid batteries.
- Sound Seekers, also
known as the Commonwealth Society for the Deaf, is a registered UK
charity, which supports deaf people, particularly children, in developing
countries of the Commonwealth.
- Stories for Children About Hearing Loss (online)
-
Oliver Gets Hearing Aids - From Phonak. Oliver the elephant is fitted with hearing
instruments. The story explains the hearing aid fitting process and the
reactions of Oliver's friends and family. This is a perfect way to introduce
the idea of hearing instruments to a young hearing impaired child, but is also
a wonderful story for all children.

-
Oliver Gets FM - Another winner from Phonak.
- Sam's Young Ears from
The EAR Foundation
- Structure for
Specification of Hearing Aid Characteristics
- Super Seals
- Temporal
Pattern Processing of Hearing Instruments
- Testing
Digital Hearing Instruments - From The Hearing Review
- Tips on Buying a Hearing Aid
-
What can hearing aids do other than amplify sound?
- What to Ask a Hearing
Aid Dispenser Before Buying a Hearing Aid
- Why are some people reluctant to wear hearing aids? Here are some pages
I've found that address this topic:
- Why Two (2) Hearing Aids Are Better Than One!
Hearing Aid Manufacturers
Hearing Aid Insurance
There are a number of ways to insure your hearing aids against loss or
damage. All new hearing aids are usually covered for loss or damage under the
manufacturers warranty for one or two years. Check your warranty to see for
how long, and what is covered. When this warranty runs out, any time you send
your hearing aid to the manufacturers for repairs, you can purchase additional
warranty coverage. With my son's hearing aids, this is who we've always gone
with.
You can insure the hearing aids against loss or theft with a rider on your
home insurance policy. When insuring this way, be sure to carefully examine
exactly what is covered. Visit our page on Homeowner's
Coverage!
There are a number of companies that specialize in insuring hearing aids.
Earmolds
One mother writes to tell
us something that her audiologist told her; A realistic way to estimate about
how often a child's earmolds should be re-made is to do it about as often as
their shoe size changes.
Earmold Manufacturers
Here is another site's
Earmold Labs
listing.
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