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Assistive Technology

This page includes information about hearing devices and hearing assistive technology commonly used by DHH children, especially in the auditory/oral school setting. For information about additional types of assistive devices, see the link below.

Traditional Hearing Aids

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  • Amplify sound through the middle ear

  • Work best for individuals with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss

  • 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

  • Work best for individuals with moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss

  • Outpatient surgical procedure

  • 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

  • Work best for individuals with conductive or mixed hearing loss

  • Surgical option: Small titanium implant is placed in the bone behind the ear, then external sound processor is attached

  • 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

  • Several different types: hearing loop systems, frequency modulation (FM) systems, infrared systems 

  • FM systems (shown above) transmit sounds from a microphone to a receiver and are commonly used in DHH classrooms

  • 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)

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