Listening Effort and Fatigue

• Bear in mind a cochlear implant user will be working much harder to follow what is going on 
• Listening takes more energy and with the need to follow visual cues as well the implant user can get tired more easily.

• ‘Go for Gold’ – using golden silences (Research by Dr Helen Willis)  https://www.cuedspeech.co.uk/uploads/images/website/Cued%20Speech%20Association%20UK_Helen%20Willis.pdf 
•  https://ais.southampton.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/336/2019/07/Go-for-Gold_easy-read.pdf
•  https://www.batod.org.uk/going-for-gold-a-resource-for-empowering-deaf-children-with-cochlear-implants-to-manage-listening-effort/ 

 

In all sorts of different environments including the classroom there are a number of reasons why the listening conditions are far from optimal. This makes hearing for a cochlear implant user a challenge.  We spoke to teenagers, adults and parents of young children about what they find are challenging listening situations. Teenager responses are summarised below:

Adult responses are in the video below:

Parents responses are in the video below:

 

Key concepts

• What are optimal conditions for listening with a cochlear implant?
• What are the challenges of listening with an implant?
• What are the main factors which can affect the sound quality in a room or classroom?
• What can we do to help attending and listening?

 

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