Hearing Assessment

Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

The purpose of this guide is to address the knowledge areas and skills impacted by hearing loss and to describe assessment procedures to identify the adverse educational effect of hearing loss in these areas. It is not the intent of this guide to include all assessment instruments that could be used to identify the areas of strengths and needs of students with hearing loss. It has been developed to provide a framework for school teams and professionals specializing in the education of students with hearing loss to use when assessing the unique needs of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. These assessments can be used as part of the evaluation process to determine eligibility, as tools for developing specific goals and objectives, or as a measure of pre- and post-instruction performance. Expected development in the expanded core knowledge and skills is also a significant consideration when determining the impact of the hearing loss on school performance and will therefore be integrated into the assessment process described.

The Acoustic Reflex discusses the acoustic reflex - its magnitude in differential diagnosis, threshold, latency, and other related topics. The book covers different topics such as the neurophysiological basis of the acoustic middle-ear reflex and its characteristics; impedance concepts relating to it; and theories of middle-ear muscle function. The text also encompasses the evaluation of the response time of acoustic-immittance instruments; the contralateral acoustic-reflex threshold and its application for prediction of hearing loss; the magnitude and growth of the acoustic; the ipsilateral acoustic reflex; and the acoustic reflex latency. The monograph is recommended for clinicians and researchers in audiology, deaf education, hearing science, neurology, otolaryngology, physiology, and psychology. The book will also serve as a reference text in a course on impedance.

The loss of hearing - be it gradual or acute, mild or severe, present since birth or acquired in older age - can have significant effects on one's communication abilities, quality of life, social participation, and health. Despite this, many people with hearing loss do not seek or receive hearing health care. The reasons are numerous, complex, and often interconnected. For some, hearing health care is not affordable. For others, the appropriate services are difficult to access, or individuals do not know how or where to access them. Others may not want to deal with the stigma that they and society may associate with needing hearing health care and obtaining that care. Still others do not recognize they need hearing health care, as hearing loss is an invisible health condition that often worsens gradually over time. In the United States, an estimated 30 million individuals (12.7 percent of Americans ages 12 years or older) have hearing loss. Globally, hearing loss has been identified as the fifth leading cause of years lived with disability. Successful hearing health care enables individuals with hearing loss to have the freedom to communicate in their environments in ways that are culturally appropriate and that preserve their dignity and function. Hearing Health Care for Adults focuses on improving the accessibility and affordability of hearing health care for adults of all ages. This study examines the hearing health care system, with a focus on non-surgical technologies and services, and offers recommendations for improving access to, the affordability of, and the quality of hearing health care for adults of all ages.