Helping Children Hear Better
Fitting hearing aids to a child is unique- the hearing aid fitting process is very different than that for an adult. As children grow their ears undergo continuous anatomical and physiological changes. On the outside, their ears grow in size. On the inside, the response to sound matures as the child develops. Sound discrimination ability sharpens. When these factors are considered as well as safety, cosmetic and practical considerations, it becomes clear that the requirements of a hearing aid for children are very different from those of adults.
The Right Hearing Aid For Your Child…
Fortunately, today there are different hearing aid case colors to make the hearing aid fitting process more fun for older children. However when choosing a hearing aid, your child’s clinician will be focused on the hearing aid technology and features. Certain hearing aid features are critical for children including: consistent audibility of soft sounds, automatic adjustment of hearing aids to ensure audibility in different sound environments, flexibility for accurate programming of the hearing aids to accommodate the child’s unique hearing loss configuration, adjustable options to enable reprogramming as a fuller picture of a young child’s hearing loss emerges, direct audio input capability and a telecoil enabling the child to have access to assistive device technology in the classroom, and safety features such as battery and volume control locks.
Widex has a longstanding commitment to advancing the understanding and development of amplification with appropriate features, related software and program initiatives supportive of the hearing aid fitting process, and overall hearing healthcare for children. Widex amplification goals for children include:
- consistent access to soft sounds and speech
- comfort for loud sounds and acceptable output
- high quality, undistorted amplification
- consistent audibility in varying listening situations
- consistent auditory access over time with hearing and earmold changes
- improved SNR (or hearing for speech relative to noise) when appropriate
Read further to discover the 10 reasons Widex has the best hearing aids for children.
Reasons to choose Widex for children………
 1. Widex Has ISP!
Integrated Signal Processing (ISP) was developed by Widex in order to improve sound quality in various environments. An advantage of ISP is the linking of all features and information. Information about your child’s hearing loss and your child’s environment is shared between the various hearing aid features. The result is increased complexity and efficiency of the hearing aid fitting, a higher quality signal and also a more accurate hearing aid program for your child.
2. Soft Sound Audibility
Hearing loss results in the inability to hear soft sounds. Hearing soft speech sounds is important for young children to develop normal speech and language skills. Widex hearing aids achieve audibility for the softest speech sounds through its low compression threshold and highly effective feedback cancellation system. The result is improved access to high frequency speech information important for hearing and distinguishing soft speech sounds such as “s”, “f” and “th”.
The Audibility Extender
Audibility for soft high frequency sounds is sometimes not possible when the hearing loss configuration is sharply sloping (precipitous) or when the hearing loss in the high frequencies is profound. The Widex Audibility Extender, available in Widex Inteo hearing aids, is a unique application of a frequency lowering technique (linear frequency transposition) which can help children with precipitous high frequency sensorineural hearing loss have access to soft high frequency speech sounds. With training, the Audibility Extender has been found to improve consonant recognition and high frequency speech sound production for these children.
3. Direct Audio Input (DAI) Compatibility and Auto Activation of FM Program
Individuals with hearing loss require a more favorable signal-to-noise ratio (the relative difference between a sound of interest and background noise) than someone with normal hearing in order to achieve the same degree of speech understanding. This is even truer for children than for adults. This is particularly important in the classroom where there may be distractions including noise. Because the language skills of young children are less developed than those of adults, they cannot “fill in” the unheard parts of a spoken message as easily we do to understand the overall content.
There is no question that the best way to improve signal-to-noise-ratio in the classroom environment is by means of an FM system (assistive technology to interface with the child’s hearing aid in the classroom). Widex ISP hearing aids are cleverly designed for the simplest, safest function with FM systems. Once a Widex ISP hearing aid is programmed, and the audio shoe and FM receiver attached, the FM program is automatically activated. Auto-activation means no special programming or button-pushing is necessary. The child’s hearing aid is ready to work with the FM system as soon as the audio shoe and receiver are attached. Auto-activation makes it easier for clinicians, parents and educators to use FM systems with children. Widex ISP aids of all levels are DAI auto-activated. Additionally, if your child’s clinician desires to individualize FM settings for your child, s/he can do so through the Widex hearing aid programming software.
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