Live Speech Mapping

IMG 3714New technologies, including live speech mapping, make your hearing evaluation process and hearing aid programming process more effective. Live speech mapping allows your audiologist to reduce the number of visits, make your fitting appointments more interactive, and adjust your hearing aids to the right settings. To find out more about live speech mapping, call or make an appointment online today at Hearing & Balance Services of Reston.

What is live speech mapping?

Using small microphones placed in your ear canal, your audiologist at Hearing & Balance Services of Reston measures your hearing aid’s response, while also taking into account the natural and individual characteristics of your ear and your hearing loss.

At your appointment, high-tech equipment allows you and your audiologist to “see,” in real-time, what you hear through your hearing aids on a screen, enabling you to participate in the process.

Live speech mapping enables you to visualize and understand the differences that hearing aids can make in your hearing ability and ensures that your audiologist programs your hearing aids for your individual needs.

Why is there live speech mapping?

Traditional real-ear measurements come with limitations, including:

  • Considerable differences exist between real-life signals, like speech and music from the tones and noise measured with conventional measurements.
  • If included in the tests, feedback in pure-tone test signals often get interpreted incorrectly.
  • Noise reduction features reduce hearing aid frequency regions.
  • Sounds used for measurements bear no relevance to noises experienced in everyday life.
  • Live speech mapping increases the likelihood that hearing aid programming gets done correctly on the first try.

What are the benefits of live speech mapping?

Live speech mapping makes your hearing aid fitting process a joint affair between you and your audiologist. Live speech mapping enables you to see your hearing issues in real time and offers you the ability to hear improvements immediately.

Live speech mapping displays the spectrum of the sound present at both eardrums simultaneously to show that sometimes one ear gets a better signal than the other and that using two hearing aids prevents you from missing sounds.

Additional benefits from live speech mapping include:

  • Focusing on the ability to effectively hear human speech while avoiding loudness discomfort
  • Increasing successful fitting outcomes
  • Improving your confidence and comfort in using your new hearing aids
  • Providing more accurate programming of hearing aids
  • Reducing return visits, as well as saving time and money

To have live speech mapping done to improve your hearing aids, call or make an appointment online today at Hearing & Balance Services of Reston.