Cochlear Americas Announces Aural Rehabilitation App

February 2012

Cochlear Americas announced today the arrival of a new rehabilitation App that has been created as a tool for improving listening and spoken language skills of children with hearing loss. According to leading rehabilitation experts, establishing a strong auditory foundation is a necessary step in developing listening and spoken language. "Children with cochlear implants have the potential to develop spoken language by establishing a strong auditory foundation and learning to process auditory information."(Nancy Caleffe-Schenck, M.Ed., CCC-A, LSLS Cert. AVT.)

The Cochlear HOPE Words App is a part of the Cochlear HOPE program - a program uniquely developed for cochlear implant and hearing aid users to help them achieve their personal best. As the first rehabilitation App to be developed by an implantable hearing solutions manufacturer, Cochlear is dedicated to improving the standard of care for children with hearing loss.

The Cochlear HOPE Words App has been adopted from Speech Sounds and Speech Sounds Vowels - two renowned HOPE resources created to expose children to speech sounds in the English language. The App features interactive flashcards for the full alphabet that have been organized by the speech sounds associated with a particular letter (for example, "A" as in way or "A" as in cat). Each letter of the alphabet has twenty different interactive flashcards. Children simply touch on the word or image, and the image will enlarge with a voice narration from one of the world's leading auditory verbal therapists, Nancy Caleffe-Schenck, M.Ed., CCC-A, LSLS Cert. AVT. The intended purpose is for a child to practice auditory self-monitoring by listening to a word and matching their speech production to what they heard. Vocabulary development is also facilitated as the child begins to attach meaning to the spoken word paired with the pictured image.

"We downloaded it for Jagger and he jumped right into it. And started going right through it." says Jason Winkler, whose son has received bilateral cochlear implants. "It's also something that we can do together. We can sit down and use the App as a tool to focus in on, on certain letters or phonetics that Jagger might be having trouble with."

To help ensure children with hearing loss benefit from using the App, the Cochlear HOPE Words App features tips for both parents and professionals on how to use the App to improve listening and spoken language. Also, the App features four HOPE resources for listening and spoken language to be used in conjunction with the App.

The Cochlear HOPE Words App is currently available on the iTunes store for the iPad and iPhone. In addition, there are two different versions of the App - LITE & HD. The free LITE version is an abbreviated version of the App and features the letters A, B, C; allowing the user to try the App before purchasing. The HD version features the full alphabet and costs only$1.99 to purchase.

To learn more about the Cochlear HOPE Words App and for instructions on how to download, please visit: www.cochlearamericas.com/HOPEwords

About Cochlear Americas

Cochlear Americas is the world's leader in advanced hearing technologies. Since launching the first multichannel cochlear implant system more than 25 years ago, Cochlear Limited and its U.S. headquarters have brought the miracle of sound to more than 220,000 people with hearing loss across the globe. For more information about Cochlear Americas products, please visit www.cochlearamericas.com.