Question
What are your thoughts about using the EduLink for unilateral hearing loss?
Answer
I am a proponent of EduLink by Phonak (www.phonak.com) for unilateral hearing loss. We've used it quite a bit with good results. We know that children who have a unilateral loss are at a disadvantage for hearing in background noise. Wearing the EduLink on the good ear can be very helpful. If the child is aidable on the poorer ear, we do recommend putting a hearing aid on the poorer ear with an FM system as well. When a child presents with a unilateral hearing loss, the Functional Listening Evaluation (FLE) can be very helpful in demonstrating benefit with the FM system. The FLE is available in the Educational Audiology Handbook by Johnson, Benson & Seaton (1997) and there is also a copy of the FLE online (www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/download/pdf/s4-FunListEval.pdf). There are some questionnaires on my web page (www.utdallas.edu/~thib/) which might be valuable in this case, as this is a more difficult situation to convince certain individuals that an assistive listening device, such as EduLink, can enhance the academic performance of students. They see kids with unilateral hearing loss as getting by, but we don't know how much stress they might be experiencing throughout the day to keep attending through classroom noise. These functional listening evaluations, where there are actually questions that address an observation of that child in the classroom, may be a useful way to look at benefit before they get the system and then after they get the system.
Reference
Johnson, C.D. Benson, P.V. & Seaton, J.B. (1997). Educational Audiology Handbook San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
Dr. Linda Thibodeau is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas since 1997 where she co-directs the Pediatric Aural Habilitation Training Specialist Project. Prior to that she worked at the University of Texas at Austin, at the University of Texas Speech and Hearing Institute, in otolaryngology clinics, and in the public schools. She teaches in the areas of Amplification and Pediatric Aural Habilitation. Her research involves evaluation of the speech perception of listeners with hearing loss and auditory processing problems as well as evaluation of amplification systems and assistive listening devices (ALDs) designed to help those persons. She consults with several school districts and manufacturers regarding FM arrangements in the classroom. Her interests include serving as the co-chair of the ANSI committee to develop a standard for the Electroacoustic Evaluation of ALDs; and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology. She is a 2006 Contributing Editor for Audiology Online.
