Hearing instruments are the starting point for individuals with hearing loss experiencing communication difficulties. As audiologists, we all know that hearing aids alone may not be sufficient for many of our patients. Expand your arsenal of rehabilitative tools by educating and offering your patients the low-cost auditory training therapy program called the Listening And Communication Enhancement (LACE), available for purchase now at Oaktree Products, Inc.
LACE is a listening software program conceptualized by Dr. Robert Sweetow, Ph.D. designed to retrain the brain to comprehend speech up to 40% better in difficult listening situations such as noisy restaurants. Training can be conducted in the privacy of the patient’s own home and pace and/or it can be completed at the audiologist’s practice in a computer lab as part of a comprehensive rehabilitative program. LACE consists of twenty 20-30 minute listening exercises of progressing difficulty. For four weeks, a user spends a half-hour, five days a week working with the computer program to enhance listening skills by completing interactive and adaptive task involving degraded speech exercises, listening exercises in the presence of rapid speech, and other training exercises to enhance auditory memory. In addition to immediate feedback for each task, the computer software program provides the patient with various progress charts to document listening performance improvements. LACE not only teaches patients communication strategies, but it gets them actively involved in the rehabilitative process, helping them appreciate the difference between hearing and listening, while building the necessary confidence to achieve ultimate communication success.
