50+ Lifestyles

Ask the Audiologist

By Emily Steffel, Au.D., CCC-A
Audiology Consultants, P.C.

I have difficulty hearing my television; my family complains it is too loud, but when it is softer I can’t understand what the people are saying.  What can I do?

There are several options that can help make television watching easier and clearer. The first thing to do is make sure that your hearing has been tested recently. You may benefit from hearing aids or a change in your hearing aid programming. By providing individualized increases in volume where you need it most, hearing aids can not only make understanding the television easier, but can also make understanding people easier in general. Additionally, most hearing aids now have specialized programs designed especially to help with listening to the television and to music.

Another option is to use a device that allows you to turn up the volume of the television for yourself without turning up the volume for everyone else. These devices consist of headphones you wear and a device that plugs in to the TV that sends the sound to you either through a cord or through wireless connections. There are several versions of these devices and many can be used by people with or without hearing aids.

If you currently wear hearing aids or you purchase new hearing aids, a very useful option involves a small device worn on a lanyard around the neck that receives the television signal from a small box that hooks into your television set. This small neck worn device then sends the sound directly to both hearing aids without any wires. Each hearing aid company has its own version of this device. Siemens has the MiniTek, Phonak calls theirs the ComPilot, and Oticon uses the StreamerPro. The best thing is that these devices do double duty; they can help with both the television and the telephone!

I can’t understand people very well on the telephone; they are too soft or they sound like they are mumbling.  Is there something to help me?

You have several potential options allowing easier and clearer hearing on the telephone, as well. As always, the first thing to do is make sure that your hearing has been tested recently. Like ‘Loud TV,’ you may benefit from hearing aids or a change in your hearing aid programming. By providing individualized increases in volume where you need it, most hearing aids can make understanding on the telephone easier. Additionally, most hearing aids now have specialized automatic programs designed especially to help with telephone use.

You could also use an amplified telephone.  An amplified telephone is much like a standard phone but it allows the handset to generate much higher volume and/or it has a much louder speaker phone feature.   Both of these features help to enhance speech understanding.  This kind of phone can be obtained from a specialized state program through your audiologist.  If you have documentable hearing loss you qualify.

Just like ‘Loud TV,’ you also can benefit from the ComPilot, MiniTek, or StreamerPro. The telephone signal will flow from your telephone or your cellular phone directly to your hearing aids without any wires, allowing you to understand conversation easier.