Resources for Cochlear Implant Aural Rehabilitation -
Part 1
by Edie Gibson, AuD
Editor: If you're a cochlear implant (CI) user who's looking for
resources to help you with aural rehabilitation, you've just hit the mother
lode! Edie Gibson of Advanced Bionics has by far the most comprehensive list
I've ever seen, and she has graciously agreed to share it with us!
Topics:
About Edie,
aural rehabilitation, her resources list, etc.
Do you have a
suggestion?
Aural
Rehabilitation Materials for Adults from Advanced Bionics
Text-to-Speech Websites
Environmental and
Speech Sounds
Websites
for Free or Inexpensive Listening Practice
Musical
Practice
Stories and Books
eBooks
Where to find more Websites
Listening Games to Do at Home
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a Consumer Specialist with the Bionic Ear Association at Advanced
Bionics, I have the pleasure of speaking with many individuals considering
cochlear implants or who have just received them. One of the questions many
people have is how to exercise their brains to prepare for or to better
utilize a CI. Aural rehabilitation or listening exercises, can be useful for
both hearing aid and cochlear implant users. These exercises can be used to
improve specific skills, such as listening on the phone, or general skills,
such as hearing in noise. Regardless of where you are on your journey,
focusing on improving skills might make a dramatic difference for you. From
websites to where to find audio books, the resources below can help for your
aural rehabilitation.
I am always on the lookout for new material to add to the list or links
that no longer work. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or want
to report website issues, so that I can improve this list! For more support
on cochlear implant decisions and use, please feel free to contact me or
join the BEA for our newsletters and information.
Edie Gibson, AuD
Consumer Specialist, Bionic Ear Association, Advanced Bionics
egibson@advancedbionics.com
www.bionicear.com
1-800-678-2575
To Join the BEA and receive CI support and information, send an email to
hear@advancedbionics.com
Contact Customer Service at 800/678-2575 to order your copy.
For more information, go to
http://www.bionicear.com/support/bea2006.asp#rehab
Making the Connection
For adults and adolescents with cochlear implants, this comprehensive
workbook and audio CDs of listening practice exercises that begin with
relatively simple auditory skills and progress step by step to more complex
listening tasks. Exercises and suggested listening activities can be
completed at your own pace independently or with a friend or family member
who serves as a listening coach.
(090103-A) $ 35.00
Hearing Your Life Rehabilitation Software
For adults and adolescents with cochlear implants, this interactive
computer-based software program containing self-assessment and training
modules that help you to work independently as you progress through simple
to more difficult auditory skills. Diverse listening activities include
environmental sound and speaker discrimination, vowel and consonant
identification, common words and sentences, hearing in noise, and listening
to musical patterns.
(090433-A) $189.99
More on this and related
topics
Type in a word and the program will say it for you. Great for practicing
with accents!
http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/
http://www.bell-labs.com/project/tts/voices.html
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/pron.htm
http://public.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php#top
http://pronunciationpatterns.com/Downloading.html
An extensive list of speech sounds. This is good if you are ready for a
challenge.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/about.html#
Very detailed website about how consonants and vowels are produced including
video clips and audio clips demonstrating the sounds.
http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/wordlists.html
For use with a listening coach, this site contains downloadable lists of
words called minimal pairs (for example, tip/chip) that can be used to
practice differentiating similar sounding words. Start with the
discrimination level (do the words sound the same or different?), and move
on to identification of each word.
http://www.animalden.net.sounds.htm
A collection of animal sounds.
http://www.naturesongs.com/birds.html
A collection of bird songs.
