This c-level essay examines how deaf and hearing impaired individuals use smartphones to live and communicate in a ?hearing world?. The main target is to find some understanding of the struggles of this population and smartphones have made it easier to adapt to the hearing worlds? demands with the applications that follow. To acquire the information for this essay, representatives from both the deaf and hearing impaired communities were interviewed.

This c-level essay examines how deaf and hearing impaired individuals use smartphones to live and communicate in a ?hearing world?. The main target is to find some understanding of the struggles of this population and smartphones have made it easier to adapt to the hearing worlds? demands with the applications that follow. To acquire the information for this essay, representatives from both the deaf and hearing impaired communities were interviewed.

Background: Bone anchored hearing system is a surgically implantable system for treatment ofindividuals with Hearing Loss. The Softband is intended for patients who can benefit from a boneanchored hearing system but who are not yet suitable for implant surgery.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether an adhesive bone conductor, Adjoin, canbe used as an alternative to Softband.Material and Method: Twenty adult subjects with normal hearing participated in the study.Measurement of functional gain and speech intelligibility was performed with Softband and Adjoinwhich then were compared. A questionnaire was answered by the participants after the measurementsthat treated their subjective experiences with each option.Results: The objective measurements yielded no overall difference between Softband and Adjoin forthe group studied. The subjective results showed differences in the perceived comfort as well as whichof the two bone conductors that would be preferred to use in everyday life, with Adjoin being thepreferred option. No difference was detected on participants perceived gain, sound quality and speechintelligibility.Conclusion: Based on the measured results, Adjoin seems to be a suitable alternative to Softband.However, there are questions about how Adjoin works with long-term use..

Assessment of hearing aids can be done by inventories. The result of the inventories can show the patients need and how the hearing aids works in the patients daily life. The result of the inventories can be influenced by the difference in languages and the cultures. The inventory IOI-HA should not be sensitive to those factors.The aim of this study was to compare and analyse material, method and to report and analyse the result from a pilot study made at Sahlgrenska University.The result showed that IOI-HA is a natural inventory which is able to be used internationally. The four studies in England, USA, the Netherlands, and Germany showed that the psychometric properties are similar across languages and cultures.

Audionomprogrammet.

This study investigated whether in-situ audiometry, delivered via hearing aids, is a better option as a basis forprescribing hearing aid amplification, compared to conventional audiometry. By examining the real ear insertgain (REIG) in 29 ears (18 subjects), that had been fitted with a hearing aid programmed using both conventionalaudiometry and in-situ audiometry, the study looked at whether in-situ audiometry based prescription is closer tothe NAL NL1's fitting target than audiogram based prescription. The hearing aid Siemens Pure 7mi with speakerunit M was used on all participants. The results showed how in-situ audiometry based gain at certain frequenciesis more consistent with the target curve, especially at 1000, 1500, 2000 and 4000 Hz. It was not establishedwhether the findings of the study were statistically significant.

WHO:s klassifikation av funktionstillstånd, funktionshinder och hälsa antogs 2001. ICF är framtaget för att skapa ett gemensamt språk genom olika ICF koder som anses vara användbara både kliniskt och inom forskningen. Genom att länka mätinstrument som redan används, exempelvis självskattningsskalor, till ICF underlättas kommunikation och jämförelser av olika resultat internationellt.Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka vilken ämnesspecifik självskattningsskala inom hörselområdet som använts mest inom forskningen mellan åren 2000-2009 och länka den till ICF.Vi använde oss av en systematisk litteratur-studie i form av en totalundersökning för att hitta den mest använda självskattningsskalan inom forskningen. Vid länkningen av den mest använda självskattningsskalan till ICF utförde vi en kvalitativ latent innehållsanalys och länkade självskattningsskalans påståenden systematiskt med hjälp av ICF linking rules.Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) var den mest använda självskattningsskalan inom forskningen mellan år 2000-2009. Länkningsresultatet visade att APHAB utifrån ett ICF perspektiv mäter komponenterna aktivitet och delaktighet, kroppsfunktion och omgivningsfaktorer.Det fortsatta arbetet med utveckling av ett Core Sets for Hearing Loss kommer underlätta användningen både kliniskt och inom forskningen.

While reading in deaf children has been the object of a number of studies, the reading abilitiesof children with mild and moderate hearing impairment and their relation to cognitiveprocessing have not received very much attention. Predictive factors of reading ability inhearing children are well known, with phonological and working memory abilities beingnecessary prerequisites for reading development. Existing studies suggest, however, thatcertain hearing-impaired children achieve a reading level comparable to that of hearingchildren in spite of impaired phonological abilities. In the present study, reading abilities anda range of cognitive processing abilities were measured in a group of hearing-impairedchildren and compared with hearing controls in equivalent school grades. Comparisons weremade at group and school-grade level, and the cognitive profile of hearing-impaired childrenat level with controls (those being within one standard deviation) was discussed.

This study investigated whether in-situ audiometry, delivered via hearing aids, is a better option as a basis forprescribing hearing aid amplification, compared to conventional audiometry. By examining the real ear insertgain (REIG) in 29 ears (18 subjects), that had been fitted with a hearing aid programmed using both conventionalaudiometry and in-situ audiometry, the study looked at whether in-situ audiometry based prescription is closer tothe NAL NL1's fitting target than audiogram based prescription. The hearing aid Siemens Pure 7mi with speakerunit M was used on all participants. The results showed how in-situ audiometry based gain at certain frequenciesis more consistent with the target curve, especially at 1000, 1500, 2000 and 4000 Hz. It was not establishedwhether the findings of the study were statistically significant.

The earmould acoustics affect the amplification that the hearing aid is programmed to give to its user. It is therefore important that the choices made for the earmould are correctly done. One choice is regarding the shape of the soundbore that affects the frequency response of the hearing aid above a certain cut-off frequency. The purpose of this project was to measure the frequency response when altering the shape of the soundbore in the earmould. Additionally, the aim was to examine how the frequency response is affected when the shape of the soundbore is not set or is not possible to set in the software when programming the hearing aid.

Different abilities are of importance to pragmatics, there among hearing. Hearing impairment can affect language development and also pragmatic ability. The aim of the present paper was to study the pragmatic ability in terms of request for clarification in children with Hearing Impairment (HI) in conversation with children with no known hearing impairment, henceforth normally hearing (NH). The present study also describes requests for clarification sequentially in detail, and also highlights points where there may be observable differences between children with and without hearing impairment. Eight conversational pairs consisting of one child with HI and one NH child were studied.

The capacity to process and to remember information is a basic condition for language ability and for coming reading ability. Reading ability is strongly connected to phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity. In what way hearing impairment in children affects development of cognitive skills and later on reading ability is an area that has attracted minor attention for research.The aim with this study was to investigate changes in cognitive skills and reading ability in children with mild or moderate hearing impairment after one year of progress and furthermore if any connections between any increases of the abilities were to be found. Comparisons were made with results from age adequate normal hearing children. Moreover prosodic ability on word-level was tested this year.

BackgroundThe opportunity for cochlear implantation has now extended beyond children who are only deaf or hard of hearing. Children who are deaf blind from birth or early in life are receiving implants, but very limited research has been done for this population, and this raises important issues. AimThe aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of hearing and vision impairment or deaf blindness in children with Cochlear Implants in Sweden and to investigate the diagnoses issues among these groups of subjects. Material and MethodSubjects with an age between 1-18 years were ascertained through multiple sources and almost complete ascertainment was achieved.ResultsA total of 77 subjects with a referring diagnosis of combined hearing and vision disorder or deaf blindness were ascertained. Out of those, 30 subjects were excluded.

Audionomprogrammet.

Different forms of relaxing methods can be used in rehabilitation for individuals with tinnitus and Ménièré?s disease. Research continues to find convincing proof of effects from the different methods. This study presents methods of relaxing, massage and Mindfulness, as possible complementary rehabilitation tools.The purpose of this study was to investigate opinions about relaxing from professionals working with hearing care. A qualitative approach with phenomenological influence was chosen for the study.