LACE Therapy Improves Listening Skills
Editor: Have you heard of LACE, a program intended to improve
listening skills of people with hearing loss? It's a fairly new program,
and I'm starting to see references to it in the mainstream press. I'd be
very interested in hearing from anyone who's tried it!
Here's a press release with more information.
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Many people lose their hearing as they get older and turn to a
hearing aid for help. Too often, however, the device doesn't meet
expectations and use is discontinued, along with complaints that it was
not helping enough.
The culprit in this lack of success is not hearing, but listening,
says Robert Sweetow, PhD, director of audiology at UCSF Medical Center.
Recognizing the problem, he and his colleagues have developed a tool
to help hard-of-hearing people, whether or not they use hearing aids,
learn skills that help them become better listeners, and consequently,
improve how much speech they understand.
"Hearing aids impact hearing," Sweetow explains, "but
they don't impact listening and communication. As we grow older, not
only does our hearing deteriorate, but we experience changes in the
brain that may result in difficulty processing rapidly presented
speech."
"We have to remember that when most patients receive a
therapeutic device-for example, an artificial limb-they are given
physical therapy to help them learn how to best utilize the prosthesis
and to strengthen adjacent muscles and develop compensatory behavioral
skills," Sweetow continues.
"We need to do the same thing with hearing aids. Hearing aids
are getting better and better, but if patients don't learn how to use
their brains to listen and help 'fill in the gaps' that the hearing aids
can't provide, their benefit may be minimized," he emphasizes.
Audiologists have long recognized this problem, but most training to
help patients use hearing aids has not been time- or cost-effective,
according to Sweetow.
Realizing that people don't have a lot of time to devote to improving
their listening skills, Sweetow and co-developer Jennifer Henderson-Sabes,
staff research associate at UCSF, designed an interactive computer
program called LACE, or "Listening and Communication
Enhancement."
For four weeks, a user spends one half-hour, five days a week working
with the computer program to help enhance listening skills. The user
gets immediate feedback regarding correct comprehension and can monitor
his or her improvement from the beginning of therapy. In addition, the
patient's audiologist can observe progress via computer modem at a
remote location.
"Put simply," Sweetow says, "the program force-feeds
the brain with exercises to extract speech from background noise and
improve listening strategies."
Sweetow and Henderson-Sabes tested the training program at eight
sites with about 80 individuals. Results showed improved ability to
comprehend speech in a noisy environment along with increased confidence
in difficult listening situations.
"My goal is that in three years, everyone who walks into an
audiologist's office also walks out with a therapy plan," Sweetow
said.
Currently, the LACE program can only be used by people who have
computers, but in the fall a portable device will be available that will
allow anyone to train.
LACE is a product of NeuroTone, Inc., based in Redwood City, Calif.
Sweetow is an unpaid consultant with the company.
