As a visiting student at Gardner Audiology I have been able to witness, for the first time, live speech mapping and the benefits it has for Gardner patients. Their patients are able to see what a hearing aid is providing them but also witness that the audiologist is taking the time to make sure that they will be able to hear sounds clearly and at a comfortable level. At so many clinics live speech mapping isn’t performed but rather the patients are just fit with their hearing aids with no real verification of what they are receiving and no modifications to their individual hearing loss and hearing needs. Investing the time to perform live speech mapping ultimately saves time at future follow up visits. The patients are able to come in and to discuss certain situations they experience difficulty in and have a say in the modifications being performed such as adding a program for TV or lowering high frequency sounds. Overall though there are way fewer complaints when live speech mapping is performed because it is objectively verifying that the patients are receiving the optimum benefit from their hearing aids.
Live speech mapping does not depend on predictions, formulas, or averages. Instead it is a real time measurement how a hearing aid amplifies human speech at thousands of frequencies while it is in the patients’ ears. The objective is to make sure that the speech the patients hear is meeting the targets based on their hearing loss at comfortable levels. It allows for the patients to see the effects of their hearing loss and the benefits they are receiving from the amplification of the hearing aid at various loudness levels. It also to makes certain that what they are hearing falls within the dynamic range of their hearing loss without speech being too soft or too loud. The stimulus for this test can be any voice including that of a significant other.
Based on my observations of Gardner Audiologists in action with live speech mapping I would want my future patients to have some form of objective verification of their hearing aid performance.
