SAC Webinar: There’s Nothing Mild About Listening Effort for Children with Mild Hearing Loss

Click here to register

Registration deadline is June 2, 2021 - 11:30 a.m. (ET)

June 2, 2021 – 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. (ET)

Fees

===============================

Cancellation Policy: Because we have limited spaces available for participants, if you are unable to attend the webinar you registered for, please contact Bev Cooper at bev@sac-oac.ca as soon as possible.

===============================

Intended audience: Audiologists, audiology assistant, Students

This session pertains to: School Aged (5-17), Adults (18-64), Seniors (65+)

Level: Intermediate (Assumes that the participant has general familiarity with the literature and professional practice within the areas covered.)

Abstract

School-aged children with mild hearing loss are at risk of experiencing increased listening effort, defined as the cognitive resources necessary for understanding speech. Classrooms can be particularly problematic for listening effort because they are often acoustically disadvantaged and they contain many factors known to increase listening effort. They’re noisy and reverberant, talkers are intermittently visible, listeners can be far away from a listener and talkers often speak in a low voice. Because these factors increase the cognitive resources necessary for recognizing speech, students listening in these conditions will have fewer cognitive resources available for other tasks, like comprehending, remembering and learning. Moreover, sustained increases in listening effort over time can result in mental fatigue, communicative withdrawal, declines in academic performance and ultimately decreased subjective well-being. Importantly, hearing loss, even mild hearing loss, can increase listening effort, exacerbating difficulties students could experience in the classroom. This webinar will review background on the topic of listening effort, methods for measuring effort and strategies for reducing listening effort, all with a focus on the listening needs of school-aged children with mild hearing loss.

Learning objectives

At the conclusion of this webinar, the participant will be able to:

1. Define listening effort and describe a common listening effort model
2. Describe three ways to reduce listening effort for school-aged children with mild hearing loss
 
 

This webinar is eligible for SAC CEEs (Category A).

Presenter Biography

Erin Picou, AuD, PhD

Erin Picou is an assistant professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her research interests include speech intelligibility and listening effort for adults and children. Erin is serving as editor for the American Journal of Audiology and Ear and Hearing. She is also involved with teaching and mentoring clinical and research graduate students at Vanderbilt.
 

Accessing the Webinar

Zoom is used to host this webinar. Before joining, be sure to check system requirements to avoid any connection issues.

Note about internet: We suggest you DO NOT use a Wi-Fi connection to view the webinar as it can be unreliable and you may lose connectivity during the presentation.