Listening practice

Tonight I decided I needed to check out the Listening Room at HearingJourney.com.  First, I just browsed around, seeing what the Listening Room had to offer. Navigated my way to the Teens/Adults section, Listening Activities, Discrimination Activities. Ooo Clix! I've heard/read of that while lurking through the HearingJourney.com forums. So I downloaded the Beginner's Clix program, and got that up and running.  I did the 10 lbs Warm Up first, repeating the sounds so I could get an idea of what they sounded like. Then I did the Test - On Your Own, which covers all 10 levels. Certain words or sounds were very tricky, but I ended up scoring 70%, which I think is not too bad at all! And I am hearing little bits of speech sounds here and there. Like 'aaaAAAaaa', I'd hear the AAA portion more than the aaa's. That sort of thing. Very interesting. I am really happy with the Clix program so far, and will continue to work with it. I wasn't hearing ALL of the sounds or words, just little bits here and there. Mostly I was experiencing the sensations, so during the test, I'd listen, look at the words, repeat the word/sound if necessary and click on what I think the word/sound is. It's definitely a tricky process, but hey, my left ear needs all the practice it can get, right?

I even played with Cochlear's Hope app on my iPod touch for a bit tonight as well. I have the lite (free limited) edition, which you can download to your ipod touch/iphone/ipad from iTunes or the App Store. I forget how much the full app costs, but I figured the lite edition would be fine for now. It may be more aimed for kids, but it's still listening practice. There's a picture that comes up, with a word under it. You tap the screen and the device will say the word. I will tap the picture a few times to repeat the same word over and over.

There is also another app available at the App Store/iTunes that's free and called Hear Coach. It's made by Starkey Labs, and several folks from HearingJourney were raving about it. I tried it the other day but couldn't make sense of anything so I think I'll wait and try Hear Coach again another time. Just level 1 is overwhelming for me so far.


I also got out my Phonak FM unit (the Handy-Mic transmitter, and the mlx receiver that I originally got with my Phonak Supero hearing aid), and it works great with the Neptune! That was a fun experiment. Have the transmitter charging up so it's ready to go whenever I want to use the FM.  I used the  audio interface cable that was in my Neptune box and plugged the Neptune into my laptop for the Clix program. Works great too! Of course, if I want to use the direct connect with either processor, I have to use it with battery operated devices. So I can use it with my ipod touch or my laptop if they're not plugged into the wall.




Here are the scores I got tonight: