Guest author: Brynn N. Morales, B.S.

To kick-off Better Speech and Hearing month, the blog last week addressed hearing screening questionnaires that determined if a medical professional needs to be involved in the assessment process (CEDRA) and the effect hearing acuity has on lifestyle (HHI).  However, most people think of hearing screeners as a procedure that requires a response when a quiet frequency (pitch) tone is heard in the right or left ear.  These pure tone screeners plot the responses and categorize hearing as either within normal limits or below normal limits.  If you or a loved one are interested in starting the hearing screening process at home, here are three options:

• Jacoti Hearing Center: an iPhone or iPad application available in the Apple App Store to complete a self-test in a quiet environment.  The Jacoti app measures the ambient noise in the test environment to ensure reliable hearing results are obtained.  Read more information here.
• Shoebox: an online hearing screener using ear- or head-phones to measure responses to speech and tonal stimuli.  One unique feature is the Shoebox screener asks for responses that are both audible and loud. 
• iHear: an FDA approved hearing screener ($69 cost) that is shipped to your house and the software is downloaded to a personal computer.  The screening results are provided as a number between 1-5 (5 being the best hearing acuity possible).

If you take one of the pure tone screeners, or suspect you have hearing loss, contact Designer Audiology to schedule a comprehensive hearing test online or call the office at (301) 854-1410. The last of our screening segments will be posted next Monday; the topic will be screeners that access the ability to hear in the presence of background noise.  Stay tuned!