I live in a house with high ceilings and wooden floors and am often visited by three squealing seven-year olds who love to make echoes. When I came home with my new Starkey hearing aids, their young fascination with the physics of sound waves was no longer cute, and I called Dan Gardner at Gardner Audiology.
Soon my Starkey’s were adjusted to compensate for what Dan calls “over-amplification in loud environments;” it’s what I call “screaming.” I now have a program in the left hearing aid; with a slight push on the toggle I go into what I call “crowd control” – a lowered setting that can be toned down further with the volume toggle on the right hearing aid. The next day my seven-year old granddaughter began her version of lab tests for the new settings. We were both pleased; I heard well, even when she whispered, and I didn’t flinch when she practiced her outside voice – inside. But when she called in her two friends to increase the volume – she said it was only to check out the hearing aids – for I sent them outside to play.
