What if hearing aids aren’t for me?
ALD’s can play an essential role in day-to-day communication and positively impact your quality of life.
ALDs can be used with or without hearing aids and help improve hearing ability in specific listening situations. Whether you don’t wear hearing aids, are not ready for hearing aids at this stage or have unique situations you want to improve on (for example, on the phone, in a large group setting, difficulty hearing the doorbell), an ALD can help.
For people who use hearings aids, ALDs can be used side-by-side to improve their hearing ability even more.
We offer many assistive listening devices that can make it easier to listen suited to various situations.
As technology evolves, our product range includes new assistive hearing devices.
Assistive Listening Devices (ALD)
Hearing aids are helpful in one-on-one situations but may not always be sufficient. An assistive listening device can help you function better in your day-to-day communication situations.
Assistive listening devices (ALDs) can be used with or without hearing aids. These devices provide extra help in specific listening situations, such as listening:
- Over the telephone
- With noisy backgrounds
- In small or large group listening settings (such as restaurants, concert halls and movie theatres)
- At a distance from the sound source.
Brands: Audeara, Sennheiser, Phonak, Bellman & Symfon
The Benefits of Assisted Listening Devices
Assistive listening devices (ALDs) are extra tools or “accessories” that help a hearing-impaired person hear better. The benefits of ALDs are:
- It can be personalised to your needs and lifestyle
- Multiple people can benefit – at a meeting or church group
- Larger batteries which last longer than hearing aid batteries, and larger controls that are easier to use
- Larger microphones to pick up sound from further away
- They can be placed physically closer to the desired sounds.
When an Assisted Listening Device might be usefull
If there is a distance between the listener and the sound source in a classroom environment
The farther away you are from a speaker, the harder it is to hear them. The intensity, or loudness, of a sound, fades rapidly as it travels over distance. You may have no difficulty hearing with someone in close range; however, you may have considerable difficulty hearing the same person across a large room.
If you are in a listening environment with competing noise in the background, like a restaurant
Most rooms have background noise that competes with the spoken message or sound we want to hear. Examples of background noise include ventilation systems, others talking, paper shuffling, computers, radios, TVs, outside traffic or construction and activities in adjacent rooms.
Background noise can make hearing very challenging. Speech should be at least 20–25 decibels (dB) louder than any competing noise for optimum hearing. This is called the signal-to-noise ratio, or S/N ratio.
If there are poor room acoustics with reverberation, sometimes in a community hall
A room’s acoustics represent the quality of sound maintained in the room, and they can affect your ability to hear effectively.
Sound waves bounce off hard surfaces like windows, walls and hard floors. This creates sound reflections and echoes, called ‘reverberation’ (consider how churches, large gyms, community halls, and some classrooms can be more difficult to hear). The result of excess reverberation is distorted speech.
Any one of these conditions (distance, noise, or reverberation) can create listening problems. More often than not, they occur together and have a debilitating effect on hearing and processing speech. ALDs can help you overcome these listening difficulties.
ALDs include Frequency Modulator (FM) systems, induction loops and one-to-one directional and omnidirectional microphones. Extra household devices include telephone, smoke alarm and doorbell amplifiers, to assist the hearing-impaired individual and ensure safety in their home.
Telephone conversations
It is often difficult to hear what is said on the telephone because no visual cues accompany speech. Good voice quality and clear speech on the phone are also vital for improved comprehension, as is a good quality phone signal.
ALDs can assist with effective communication on a phone.
ALDs | Telecoil, Acoustic phone, Bluetooth
Enjoying the television
If you’re constantly turning the TV up, a wireless TV headset may be right for you. The sound streams clearly into the headphones while also playing through the TV speaker, so you and your loved ones can both enjoy the TV at your preferred volumes.
ALDs | Bluetooth, headphones (Audeara & Sennheiser).
Roger Technology & Accessories
Compatible with most hearing aids, it helps you hear better in noise. They improve the signal to noise ratio in the room (i.e. speech is heard more clearly above the background noise) and overcome the limitation of the distance between you and your communication partner.
Phonak | Roger select, Roger ON, Roger Pen, & Roger table mic
Mino Personal Amplifier
Very easy to use and great for people with dementia. Mino Personal Amplifier is a directional microphone that reduces background noise.
ALDs | Bellman & Symfon
Home Alerting Systems
Giving you more environmental awareness when you are in your home. So when you’ve got your hands full, there are a range of options to assist in alerting you to a visitor at your door, keep tabs on ringing phones, simmering pots and buzzing doorbells.
