Traditional Hearing Aids
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Amplify sound through the middle ear
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Work best for individuals with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss
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Placed in or behind the ear; no surgery required
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(Cleveland Clinic, 2023)
Cochlear Implants
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Creates new pathway for sounds to travel to the brain by directly stimulating the cochlea
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Work best for individuals with moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss
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Outpatient surgical procedure
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Requires audiology or speech-language pathology services to re-train the brain to process sounds
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(Cleveland Clinic, 2023)
Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids
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Use vibrations through the bones of skull to send sounds directly into the cochlea of the inner ear
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Work best for individuals with conductive or mixed hearing loss
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Surgical option: Small titanium implant is placed in the bone behind the ear, then external sound processor is attached
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Nonsurgical option: Attach directly to the skin with adhesive or to a headband (pictured above); Recommended for children under age 5
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(Cleveland Clinic, 2023)
Hearing Assistive Technology
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Assist users in listening to a specific sound source, such as a teacher's voice, by eliminating the effects of distance, background noise, and reverberation
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Several different types: hearing loop systems, frequency modulation (FM) systems, infrared systems
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FM systems (shown above) transmit sounds from a microphone to a receiver and are commonly used in DHH classrooms
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FM systems can be wirelessly connected to hearing aids or cochlear implants
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(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2019)