Assisted Listening Device (ALD) – Any of a number of pieces of equipment used to augment hearing or to assist the hearing aid in difficult listening situations; through the use of a remote microphone, assistive listening devices provide a superior signal-to-noise ratio that enhances the clarity (intelligibility) of the speech signal.
Audiologist – An individual who holds a doctoral degree, state license, and optional professional certification for the diagnosis and treatment of hearing and balance problems. See the American Academy of Audiology web site for more information: www.audiology.org
Auditory Brainstem Response test (ABR) – An objective test that measures the tiny electrical potentials produced in response to sound stimuli; the synchronous discharge of the first – through sixth – order neurons in the auditory nerve and brainstem.
Certified auditory-verbal therapist (Cert. AVT) – Audiologists, speech-language pathologists, or teachers of children with hearing loss who have obtained additional supervised training beyond their typical degrees and who have passed a special certification examination for auditory-verbal therapists; a registry of Cert. AVT’s may be obtained from www.agbellacademy.org
Auditory-Verbal Therapy (AVT) – An early intervention approach for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. AVT focuses on education, guidance, advocacy, family support, and rigorous application of techniques, strategies, conditions, and procedures that promote optimal acquisition of spoken language through listening.
Bilateral – A disorder or hearing loss that involves both ears.
Binaural – Hearing with both ears; wearing a separate hearing aid on each ear.
Cochlea – The inner ear where the reception of sound actually occurs. The organ of Corti (end-organ for hearing) and hair cells (sensory receptors for sound) are located in the cochlea.
Cochlear Implant – A biomedical device that delivers electrical stimulation to the eighth cranial nerve (auditory nerve) via an electrode array that is surgically implanted in the cochlea.
Decibel (db) – The standard unit for measuring and describing the intensity of a sound; the logarithmic unit of sound intensity or sound pressure; one tenth of a Bel.
Earmold – the part of a hearing aid that fits into the ear and functions to conduct sound from the hearing aid into the ear.
Hearing aids – Miniature public address systems that amplify and shape the incoming sounds to make them audible to an ear that would not otherwise detect them; first step in an early intervention treatment paradigm.
Hearing aid fitting – Trying a hearing aid and earmold on a person using specific formula, programs, and procedures, until it is suitable for the person acoustically, physically, and cosmetically.
Transtypanic ABR – Testing the auditory pathway up to the brainstem
Tympanogram – A graphic representation of how the immittance of the middle-ear system changes as air pressure is varied in the external ear canal. A dynamic middle-ear function.