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Aural Rehabilitation Study

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Theoretical framework: Given that there is no cure for sensorineural hearing loss, the goal of AR is not to fix the hearing impairment or to restore perfect hearing. As such, AR does not fit well within a traditional medical model of health, which focuses on the restoration of physical function. AR fits better within the WHO (2001) ICF model, a biopsychosocial classification of health (Gagne, Jennings & Southall, 2009). The WHO ICF is particularly well suited to chronic conditions, such as hearing loss, which involve “impaired body structures or functions that cannot return to normalcy” (Gagne, & Jennings, 2011, The ICF: A Conceptual Framework, para. 1). This model allows for consideration of factors beyond the impairment of body structures …show more content…

Since then, “the importance of aural rehabilitation services within the discipline of audiology and the types of services provided by rehabilitative audiologists have been in constant evolution” (Gagne & Jennings, 2000, as cited by Wolfe, 2011, p. 10). In the early twentieth century, audiologists did not have technology (such hearing aids), and so speechreading training was the principal component of aural rehabilitation programs (Tye-Murray, 2015). Since the advent of hearing aids, cochlear implants, and assistive listening devices, aural rehabiliation has focused more on using residual hearing and less on speechreading training (Tye-Murray, …show more content…

336). Hawkins (2005) conducted a meta-analysis examining the benefits of group aural rehabilitation. Group AR programs were found to result in short-term psychosocial benefits, including reduced self-perceived hearing difficulties, improved self-perceived quality of life, and improved use of communication strategies” (Tye-Murray, 2015, p. 336). It is unclear whether these short-term benefits last over time. Other, “less tangible benefits” of group AR programs may include: interaction with peers with a condition similar to one’s own, opportunity to make social contacts and expand network, reduction in loneliness, and increase motivation to seek hearing health-care (Tye-Murray, 2015). According to Sweetow & Palmer (2005), individual auditory training improves skills among adults with hearing loss. Speechreading training can improve patients’ ability to recognize speech stimuli, but these improvements are generally modest (Bernstein et al, 2001). It has been found that tutored self-instruction using videotaped stimuli is an effective way to teach speechreading (Lonka, 1995; Tye-Murray

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