Neurotone/LACE program

ARE YOU READY TO LISTEN?

Improve Your Listening Skills in the Comfort of Your Own Home

Our Board Certified Doctor of Audiology is committed to the process of both hearing improvement (through the use of hearing instruments), and listening therapy (achieved through an aural rehabilitation program.) As Dr. Mikal Caldwell-Miller explains, “Sound is received in the ear, but actually processed in the brain. Studies show that just as physical therapy will improve mobility after a leg injury, listening therapy will improve speech comprehension for patients with hearing loss. Most people don’t realize there is a difference between improving hearing and improving listening.”

Because many of her patients were able to improve their hearing through the use of hearing aids, but still needed help learning to listen again, Dr. Mikal Caldwell-Miller began offering the LACE aural rehabilitation program to her patients. She has seen a distinct improvement in the way her patients are able to understand important speech messages, even in the presence of background noise.

LACE is an acronym for Listening And Communication Enhancement. Conceived by leading audiologists at the University of California at San Francisco, LACE is an interactive computerized aural rehabilitation program that has already helped thousands of people who live with some degree of hearing loss increase their listening skills by up to 45%.

Just as physical therapy can help rebuild muscles and adjust movements to compensate for physical weakness or injury, LACE will help you develop skills and strategies to deal with situations when hearing is inadequate. Whether you wear hearing aids, are just acquiring aids, or simply wish to improve your listening skills, LACE training will help you get the most out of the sounds of life.

LACE is available for Windows 7, XP, Vista and Apple OSX 10.4 or newer computer systems. For patients “that are allergic to computers”, it can be used on most home DVD players.

Since we don’t really hear in our ears; we hear in our brain. Hearing aids can help a person detect softer sounds, but they don’t necessarily provide good listening skills. Even people with normal hearing can be poor listeners. Good listening skills are one of the essential components in effective communication.

Other components include rapid thought processing, auditory memory, use of language skills, and interactive strategies. Additionally, the confidence that what you thought you heard was what was actually spoken is vital.

These abilities can be damaged both by hearing loss and by the natural aging process. LACE is designed to enhance the ability to communicate by training the brain to best utilize these skills.

Call our office at (714) 523-4327 (HEAR) for more information about this worthwhile program. If you have been wearing hearing aids for years, but have never undergone listening therapy you are likely missing a piece of the puzzle.