Question
I know that real ear measures are part of best practices, but I must admit my skills are pretty rusty since my graduate school training, and I know very little about speech mapping. Any suggestions for how I can get up to speed?
Answer
A commonly asked question. First, let me say that “speech mapping” simply means that you are using a speech input with your probe-mic equipment, so if you already know the basics of conducting probe-mic measures, implementing speech mapping won’t be too difficult. But, things have changed over the years. In addition to adding these new input signals, the equipment has changed, the verification procedures have changed, and there are many new hearing aid features and algorithms to adjust and verify.
Regarding training, I know that there are some probe-mic manufacturers that will provide training for their equipment, so that is one option. But, since you asked, I can’t resist the opportunity to tell you about the 3-Day “Hands On” workshops we conduct at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. We believe that it’s not just the act of doing probe-mic testing, but what is important is the overall concept of how this fits into the fitting process, and how to use the findings of the testing. For this reason, we devote a day to going over all the essential pre-fitting testing, understanding all the new hearing aid features, and today’s prescriptive fitting techniques before we get started with the actual probe-mic verification process.
Our workshop fitting labs are truly “hands on,” and we try to keep them as generic as possible. We usually have probe-mic equipment from four different manufacturers, and fitting stations where you can program the premier hearing aids from most all the major companies. In addition to the usual gain and output speech mapping measures, we also go into the real-ear assessment of today’s special features. This is a particularly critical verification process for features such as frequency lowering, where you are pretty much shooting in the dark if you don’t have real-ear data by your side.
So come and join us for three eventful days in Music City. The next course is October 9th-11th, 2014. This is our 20th year of conducting these workshops, and over 1000 audiologists have attended. We like to believe that we provide you with good dose of practical information, and I might add, we have a little bit of fun at the same time!
To learn more or to register for the Vanderbilt Hands On workshop please visit: https://www.vanderbilthealth.com/billwilkerson/3534
