Elaine Mormer

Goals and expectations of the hearing aid fitting.

For the child, meeting communication needs is an ongoing process. The DIAL, the Pediatric Hearing Demand, Ability, and Need Profile, and the Family Expectation Worksheet should streamline this process and provide the information needed to create functional auditory goals considering what normally hearing children accomplish while accounting for the specific needs and abilities of the individual child. In addition, this protocol should provide the tools to create ongoing evaluation, treatment, and documentation of accomplishments through the use of assistive technology and communication strategies. These tools are meant to empower both the clinician and family in order to work as partners in the process of functional auditory development that leads to secure, self-reliant, socially active children who happen to have hearing loss. This set of tools provides the information needed for the clinician to identify what auditory situations demand solutions. Creating the solutions is another topic all together. It is only meaningful to define these situations if the clinician is prepared to create auditory and nonauditory solutions. These solutions may involve hearing aid technology (hearing aid features, telecoils, direct audio input, behind-the-ear/FM combinations), clever communication strategies, or advanced assistive technology (alerting systems, telephone amplifiers, etc.). If not in a position to provide the total package of these intervention services, begin with the hearing aid fitting and refer the patient to a cooperating facility to complete the package. It is essential that both facilities discuss the needed hearing aid options in order to allow coupling to recommended assistive technology (Palmer, 1996). The clinician will find that keeping up with the solutions demands a large time commitment. Valuable information can be found in scientific and trade journals as well as in the exhibit halls of major audiology conferences. The Interactive Assistive Device Product Locator computer program provides a comprehensive database of current assistive technology which can help familiarize the clinician with the range of technological solutions available (Palmer and Garstecki, 1990; Palmer and Rauterkus, 1992). Perhaps, most importantly, the clinician should be ready to ask hearing aid manufacturers for specific information regarding the coupling abilities of their hearing aids to various assistive devices. If a satisfactory answer is not forthcoming, work with a manufacturer who appreciates the need for hearing aids that couple successfully with assistive technology.

Quality-of-life technology for vision and hearing loss [Highlights of Recent Developments and Current Challenges in Technology]

Quality-of-life technology (QoLT) provides an ideal of human-centered intelligent systems. These technologies are tested and evaluated in both clinical and natural end-user testbeds. QoLT ranges from individual devices to comprehensive environments that can compensate for or replace diminished function. Hearing and vision technology provides a reality replete with challenges for QoLT research. Having been somewhat isolated from the mainstream of assistive technology (AT) development and engineering, hearing and vision technology offers clinically prescribed individual devices, such as hearing aids, or task-related devices, such as reading machines. This article describes the state of the art and some of the challenges in the development of hearing and vision technology.

Hearing and Health Outcomes: Recognizing and Addressing Hearing Loss in Hospitalized Older Adults

As age increases, the prevalence of hearing loss significantly increases, reaching up to 89% of those 80 years and older. Hearing loss in older patients is often unrecognized and its consequences are often underappreciated. Hearing loss can interfere with the ability to exchange important health information and to participate in health care decision-making. Hearing loss during hospitalization increases the risk of misdiagnosis. There is a lack of empirical data regarding prevalence and recognition of hearing loss in hospitalized older adults. In this article, we describe a variety of negative outcomes that may result when older inpatients are functioning with unrecognized hearing loss.

An evidence-based guide to clinical instruction in audiology.

BACKGROUND A significant portion of the AuD curriculum occurs in clinical settings outside the classroom. Expert clinicians, employed within and outside of the university, are called upon to provide this clinical education. Most have had little or no formal training in clinical teaching yet face pedagogical and logistical challenges when simultaneously providing clinical service and teaching. Training to provide optimal methods and approaches to clinical instruction should be based on research evidence; however, there is a paucity of research in this area within the audiology discipline. PURPOSE This article provides a review of literature supplying evidence for important concepts, elements, and approaches to the clinical instruction process. Additionally, we provide readers with some practical tools with which to facilitate application of optimal clinical teaching principles. RESEARCH DESIGN We conducted a systematic review of literature on clinical education in audiology and across a wide array of health professions. Through the use of content analysis we identified four elements of the clinical teaching process most critical in examining optimal practices. RESULTS The elements identified as critical to positive clinical learning outcomes include the establishment of mutual expectations and goals; structured content and delivery of feedback; establishment of a positive instructor/student relationship; and questioning strategies that lead to the development of critical thinking skills. CONCLUSIONS Many disciplines outside of audiology demonstrate robust research activity related to understanding and optimizing the clinical education process. The application of a number of evidence-based clinical teaching principles should allow us to improve student outcomes in audiology. Researchers in our field might consider if and how we should develop our own research literature in clinical education.

What's in Your Teaching Toolbox?

Educators are faced with an array of tools available to enhance learning outcomes in the classroom and clinic. These tools range from those that are very simple to those that are sufficiently complex to require an investment in learning time. This article summarizes a collection of teaching tools, ordered by the time involved in learning proficient use. Simple tools described include specific online blogs providing support for faculty and student writing and a simple method to capture and download videos from YouTube for classroom use. More complex tools described include a Web-based application for custom-created animated videos and an interactive audience polling system. Readers are encouraged to reflect on the tools most appropriate for use in their own teaching toolbox by considering the requisite time to proficiency and suitability to address desired learner outcomes.