Popular Press
A collection of articles we think are of general interest to people concerned about hearing loss.
Even Mild Hearing Loss Tied to Worse School Outcomes in Kids
excerpt from Medscape , summarizing ‘Association of Slight to Mild Hearing Loss With Behavioral Problems and School Performance in Children’. le Clercq CMP, et al
…The extra effort required to listen and hear may help drive functional difficulties. "The association with attention and social problems in these children could be explained by increased difficulties listening to speech under adverse conditions, requiring more energy compared with normal-hearing peers," the authors write.
The association of moderate or severe hearing loss with poor school performance has been previously documented even when impairment is unilateral only, Noel Jabbour, MD, and David Chi, MD, of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Children's Hospital in Pennsylvania, write in an invited commentary.
"What is provocative about the findings of le Clercq et al is that degrees of hearing impairment that many physicians and parents may have considered slight or mild may actually be associated with both school performance and behavior," they write. Hearing loss at low levels may be ignored or missed; some audiologic screening tests may fail to identify hearing loss of less than 30 dB.
New Hope for Treating Hearing Loss
Researchers studying new medications and alternatives to hearing aids
Hearing loss is a growing health crisis that afflicts about 48 million Americans, more than diabetes or cancer, and strikes nearly half of people over age 75. It happens naturally with aging, but can also be triggered by any of a host of factors: exposure to excessive noise, drugs like chemotherapy or antibiotics, viral infections or a genetic predisposition.
What New York City Misses by not doing Hearing Tests on Students
In 2012, Nadine Dehgan noticed that her one-year-old daughter seemed developmentally delayed compared with her sister, who was a year and a half older. “She was missing all kinds of milestones, and she wasn’t speaking, wasn’t responding, wasn’t being social,” Dehgan, who was then a consultant in New York City who worked with nonprofits, told me. “She would just sit by herself in the corner and build towers and smash them down.” The younger child’s behavior and responses were within the range of normal, though only just, Dehgan said. If she and her husband, a mathematician, hadn’t reviewed videos of their other daughter at the same age, they might not have been as worried.
How Restaurants Got So Loud
Fashionable minimalism replaced plush opulence. That’s a recipe for commotion.
Let me describe what I hear as I sit in a coffee shop writing this article. It’s late morning on a Saturday, between the breakfast and lunch rushes. People talk in hushed voices at tables. The staff make pithy jokes amongst themselves, enjoying the downtime. Fingers clack on keyboards, and glasses clink against wood and stone countertops. Occasionally, the espresso machines grind and roar. The coffee shop is quiet, probably as quiet as it can be while still being occupied. Even at its slowest and most hushed, the average background noise level hovered around 73 decibels (as measured with my calibrated meter).
Your next hearing aid could be a video game
Roughly 15 percent of Americans report some sort of hearing difficulty; trouble understanding conversations in noisy environments is one of the most common complaints. Unfortunately, there’s not much doctors or audiologists can do. Hearing aids can amplify things for ears that can’t quite pick up certain sounds, but they don’t distinguish between the voice of a friend at a party and the music in the background. The problem is not only one of technology, but also of brain wiring.
Brain training games may help older adults with hearing loss
Hearing-impaired adults who play computer games designed to improve audio skills may have an easier time understanding conversations in a noisy room, a small experiment suggests.
Children's Headphones May Carry Risk of Hearing Loss
These days, even 3-year-olds wear headphones, and as the holidays approach, retailers are well stocked with brands that claim to be “safe for young ears” or to deliver “100 percent safe listening.” The devices limit the volume at which sound can be played; parents rely on them to prevent children from blasting, say, Rihanna at hazardous levels that could lead to hearing loss.
Mishearings
A FEW weeks ago, when I heard my assistant Kate say to me, “I am going to choir practice,” I was surprised. I have never, in the 30 years we have worked together, heard her express the slightest interest in singing. But I thought, who knows? Perhaps this is a part of herself she has kept quiet about; perhaps it is a new interest; perhaps her son is in a choir; perhaps .…
A music-lover's guide to tinnitus
Tinnitus is a bigger issue in dance music than we'd like to admit. Angus Finlayson lays out some clear ways to prevent it, and to cope with it.
High-Tech Hope for the Hard of Hearing, The New Yorker
Scientists searching for ways to restore hearing have been making a number of promising discoveries.
Shhh! America’s Most Common Workplace Injury Is Hearing Loss
Eight years ago, Jeff Ammon, now 55, began noticing a feeling of pressure in his ears every day after work.
Over the next months, when his symptoms progressed into a slight loss of hearing and sensitivity to noise, he became worried...
Drug treatment could combat hearing loss | Science Daily
Within the inner ear, thousands of hair cells detect sound waves and translate them into nerve signals that allow us to hear speech, music, and other everyday sounds. Damage to these cells is one of the leading causes of hearing loss, which affects 48 million Americans.Each of us is born with about 15,000 hair cells per ear, and once damaged, these cells cannot regrow...
Simpler way to screen for hidden hearing loss?
A June 2016 study conducted in Brazil turned up data suggesting that as many as one quarter of teens today may have serious hearing damage — and not even know it. To uncover that hearing damage, the authors put teens in a sound-proof booth to test them for tinnitus. Most people know this condition by its more common name — a ringing in the ears.
Ear Infections and Learning
My son has had ear infections since he was a tiny infant. Now he doesn’t say his words clearly. Can this be because of the many ear infections he has had?
8 great apps for children with hearing loss
If you have a child who is deaf or has hearing loss, there are some great ways to harness the wonders of technology and disguise learning games in tablet or phone apps. Here are some of our favorite apps for children with hearing loss:
Best Headphones for Children
If you are considering getting headphones for your child, there are several important factors you will want to consider. These include sound quality, comfort, a lack of distortion, a long enough cord for comfortable usage, compatibility with stereo systems, computers, MP3 players and any type of smart phone and a stylish, lightweight design that appeals to the modern generation without being too bulky...
Ear Infections could cause Long-Term 'Lazy Ear'
Some folks who don’t seem to listen may just have a lazy ear. A new study in rats shows that short-term hearing impairments at any stage of life can lead to rewiring in the part of the brain that processes sounds, making the ear seem as if it is loafing on its duty to make sense from noise.