July 2011 Audiogram

Sailing was a success - we went out on the lake and had a great time. Nolan's hearing aids stayed at home, but he did fairly well on the boat. We explained that he had to sit tight on the boat (we don't have a motor, so we use the sail as our sole means of power). If you have never sailed, it requires a bit of activity when tacking (going back and forth) - the occupants have to switch sides so that the person in control of the main sheet can control the sail. Fortunately, neither boy weighs enough to affect the balance of the boat - they were able to sit tight while Dennis and I darted back and forth across the boat. The wind did die down, unfortunately, which meant we had to drop sail and row back to the dock (the lake looked like a sheet of glass - never a good thing in a sail boat)!

I did get Nolan's most recent audiogram in the mail. His bone conduction is still slightly better than his air conduction, but there is no chance that his loss is conductive. His best bone conduction scores were at 40dB at 500Hz (this means the sensorineural portion of his loss is moderate). His actual hearing level is moderate severe, with his hearing at 55-65dB in all frequencies.

His (unaided) speech detection thresholds are 45dB for the right ear, and 50dB for the left ear (this is the level that he can detect speech is present).

They also performed a word recognition task: Nolan was able to identify 88% of the words in his right ear when the speech was presented at 85dB volume. He was able to identify 92% of words in his left ear when the speech was presented at 90dB volume. This testing is done using Nu-CHIPS, a word recognition hearing test designed for preschoolers. Basically, about 40dB of volume is added to the child's speech awareness thresholds, and words are presented at that level.

Nolan's word recognition is pretty good at the 85-90dB presentation level. Remember, of course, that 85-90dB is MUCH louder than typical conversation: he can't even detect speech is present at normal conversational volumes. Essentially, he can understand words without his aids when you bellow at him. That residual hearing is useful for sailing and other water sports, however, when he doesn't have his aids in!

His audiogram looks identical to the one in June. He can't hear the sounds above the line (unaided), he can hear everything below the line. Both ears are identical in hearing level.