TESTIMONIALS
Mild Hearing Loss WITH Auditory Processing Disorder
I emailed this testimonial for my son to Dr. Rae, but also wanted to share it here:
Zeke has had hearing and speech difficulties since he was born. Several ear infections led to having tubes placed in his ears at age 2. He has also been in speech therapy since he was 2. I took him back for hearing tests at ages 5 and 7, because I still felt that he was not hearing well and he was still struggling with speech (and learning to read). Each time I was told his hearing was normal (15-20 db loss) or borderline (20-25 db loss). I was told to consider having him tested for Auditory Processing Disorder and was given the name of the ONLY audiologist in our state that does the APD testing. When Zeke was 8, we made an appointment with this UNNAMED audiologist, who spent maybe 5-10 minutes doing some testing. I did not know at that time that APD testing should take longer. She said he probably has APD and that she would send me a full report in about 2 weeks. I never received a report (or a bill) from her, even after I tried to contact her twice.
We moved to a new city and at age 10, I took Zeke to another audiologist and ENT because he was still saying “what?” all the time. The audiologist said he passed the hearing test although he was “borderline” with 20-25 db hearing loss. The ENT again suggested APD and referred us to the same UNNAMED audiologist for APD testing. I wasn’t about to go back to the UNNAMED audiologist. In a Facebook group, I heard that Ball State University’s Audiology department does APD testing for free, so I called but they were not doing testing because of COVID, so we were added to the waiting list.
In the mean time, someone else in a Dyslexia Facebook group mentioned her son was doing a hearing aid trial for APD with Dr. Rachel Stout. So, I began to research Dr. Rae and we jumped on the chance to get Zeke some hearing aids for a trial. Dr. Rae was the first audiologist to tell me that children should NEVER be allowed to have more than 15 db of hearing loss, and ideally it should not be more than 10 db. There are different standards for hearing loss for children vs adults. So, we ordered the Unitron Discover Next 9 hearing aids and I am SO glad we did because I could immediately tell a difference in Zeke. That first afternoon, he had a big smile on his face. Daddy kept whispering things across the room and Zeke would just grin and say, “I hear you, Daddy!” I could say something to him up the stairs and he would respond without me having to yell five times to get his attention. He wasn’t saying “What?” 500 times a day and he seemed happier (less frustrated). He still has some trouble distinguishing between the F/TH and SH/CH sounds when we do spelling, but I just remind him to watch my mouth and then he gets it right.
Then, in the middle of the hearing aid trial, Ball State University called and wanted to schedule Zeke for APD testing. I was afraid the hearing aid trial would somehow affect the APD testing but they said it was fine. We made the 2 hour drive and they spent 1.5 hours doing different hearing tests with Zeke. They called yesterday with the results. He has mild hearing loss, which we weren’t surprised about learning. They also said he has problems with binaural integration, temporal processing and auditory memory. The professor in charge of testing said if Zeke had normal hearing, he could be diagnosed with APD; but since he has hearing loss, he cannot be diagnosed with APD. She also told me that she also recommends hearing aids for APD and she has seen hearing aids improve APD patients hearing by 30-70%. I was glad to hear this as it confirms what Dr. Rae has also said. The professor at Ball State wants to retest Zeke in 6 months. Her hope is that his auditory processing scores will improve after he’s had the hearing aids longer. So, I will update this after we retest Zeke in the fall.
Thank you so much Dr. Rae for all of your help!
Managing Hyperacusis with Low-Gain Programmed Hearing Aids
I just wanted to share my recent experience working with Dr. Rachel Walters Stout.
First, some background information on us. We did a trial last spring and ended up purchasing a set of hearing aids for my 15 year old daughter, Eva, who suffers from hyperacusis.
Before the hearing aids, Eva was unable to be in noisy environments without covering her ears, she spoke very rarely and when she did speak it was extremely quiet and sometimes hard to understand, as if her voice were muffled somehow. She had told me that sounds hurt her ears and when Dr. Rae evaluated her, we found out there was a very narrow range of comfortable sounds for her and that her own voice probably also caused her discomfort.
Immediately after she was fitted with the low-gain programmed hearing aids, Dr. Rae and I noticed a difference in her voice. She has since been able to join in more family activities and interact with her younger siblings in a more positive way.
Recently she had been complaining of not being able to follow conversations within a small group of people, so I texted Dr. Rae to see if we could adjust her programming. We ended up meeting virtually with Dr. Rae yesterday evening and she made some changes to Eva’s program to help clarify sounds in conversation for her. But immediately after we ended our appointment and I started talking to Eva, she burst into tears and could only tell me “it’s worse now!” It was already very late, so I convinced Eva to just take out her hearing aids for the day, and we would check in with Dr. Rae the next day.
Eva woke me up first thing this morning still concerned about her hearing aids, so I sent Dr. Rae a text around 7:50am. She called me within minutes and then spent the next 40 minutes reprogramming Eva’s hearing aids for us while dealing with getting her own young children ready for school. It was such a relief for Eva (and for me too) to have everything taken care of so quickly without having to wait days to get an appointment.
Dr. Rae’s flexibility and availability is just amazing and really saved the whole day for us!
“Both of our kids love their hearing aids, and we’ve seen tremendous progress. Both our kids were just tested this week by our speech pathologist as part of their annual review/new goals for speech therapy. Their language skills have improved so much (dyslexic with APD struggles)! The therapist is talking about discharge for our oldest and possibly just a few more months for our youngest. This is amazing considering we’ve only had the HAs for 9 months and our kids were years behind in their language skills.
It’s been a team effort between speech therapy, occupational therapy, and specialized programs for dyslexia remediation. Dr. Rachel Stout was the key for our kiddos, though! All the professionals who work with our children state that marked improvement occurred after we got the HAs.
Before getting her HAs, we spent a solid 2 years (using OG methods) working with our daughter on identifying her letters and associated sounds. She is dyslexic and has significant auditory processing issues. In 6 months, our daughter has not only finished learning her entire alphabet and associated sounds, but also just completed 71 levels of various phonemic awareness skills. Her progress and confidence has soared!
Thank you Dr. Rae. Update – Oct 2020 - We’ve worked with Dr. Rae for 2 of our children and will continue to work with her. She has helped them when no one else was able to. We’ve found her to be very accessible and informative. She goes above and beyond for her patients! ”
— Jessica Pogue
“One day, I feel like it was Fate, I stumbled upon Dr. Rae. I had no idea who she was but I knew we had to try this low gain hearing trial she was offering. We hopped into the car and headed down to Maryland from New Hampshire. A nine hour drive each way. I’m so glad we did.
Since she got low-gain hearing aids over 2 years ago, Lilli has done amazingly! She plays 3 musical instruments harp, drums, steel drums, and cello. Shw has won several art awards, has gotten straight A’s all 6 and 7th grade and best yet her re evaluation of her neuropsych two weeks ago showed more strengths than weakness!!!! And her IQ in 4 years increased by 15 points.
Thank you Dr. Rachel Walters Stout.
I don’t know where Lilli would be without this opportunity you have given her/us!”
— Tamara Orkwis
“My son uses low gain hearing aids for his APD. Last night we went to our yearly tradition called Walk Through Bethlehem. A local church has put it on 32 years and it is a huge setup of Bethlehem when Jesus was born. There is always a wait. During the wait you can sit in the church and hear live music. It is crazy loud. I had RJ’s aids in my purse and as soon as we walked in I could tell he was bothered by the noise.
As we sat I handed him his aids and immediately he calmed down. It was such a noticeable difference. This was the first time in 5 years we were able to sit and enjoy the music. They are amazing. It has changed his life. Low gain hearing aids is less about amplification and more about targeting the sound. Best decision we have ever made.”
— Tammy McKernan
“My son has APD and hyperacusis. It made such a difference for my kiddo (now 13). It’s hard to explain how many things improved. And not everything improved in the same way, but the things that did.... amazing.
His working memory improved, his anxiety was reduced, his irritability was reduced, his ability to go places improved. He even says he would never go back to life before the HAs.
Do the trial.
Worst thing that happens is that it makes no difference at all.”
— Darby Kennedy
“I asked my 5 year old son what he likes best about his hearing aids. “I can hear. When there is sound and people are all talking, I can hear each one.”
He also said “It’s like they aren’t in my ears, but I can hear. It feels like my birthday and these are my present.””
— Lisa Fogelson
“My 9yr old hasn’t worn her hearing aids for about a week, since we went away on holiday. She did okay for the first few days because we were out in nature and swam a lot, so she didn’t need them as she does at school.
However, since we’ve been home, she has started having tics again. The hearing aids were without a doubt one of the things that resolved her tics, and this proves my theory again.
Low gain hearing aids work on far more than just hearing, memory, and understanding. They help with a lot of the other sensory aspects as well.”
— Marique Kruger
“Although, I am sure that everyone’s experience is different, I was surprised how quickly my son began self-correcting his speech errors. Many words that we, as parents and speech professionals, have been correcting for a LONG time are now being said correctly.
Within hours of beginning the trial, he would say a word incorrectly, that he has been saying wrong forever – pausing- and then saying it correctly! Now after weeks of “hearing” himself – these words are said correctly almost all the time with ZERO correction from others!
Update. He was in the third grade then- and I would have NEVER imagined how much of a difference this last 2 years have been academically. I cannot say we had this big “wow” moment when he started wearing them... more like a million little things that made his world better.
Update - Before his low gain HAs, he struggled with the overwhelming noise of the riding lawn mower and could not drive it, even though he wanted to! Now he not only drives it like a pro, he is not over-stimulated when finished, and feels such a level of self-pride! Update - It was the BEST thing we did for my son.
Thanksgiving will be 2 years from the start of our trial. He was in the third grade then- and I would have NEVER imagined how much of a difference this last 2 years have been academically.
I cannot say we had this big “wow” moment when he started wearing them... more like a million little things that made his world better.”
— KC Neely
“Sometimes when you see someone every day, it can be hard to gauge whether changes are noticeable. One benefit to doing the trial over lock-down is that many people (including his teachers) who know my son well haven’t seen him since he started the trial.
My son has always had trouble with processing speed when asked a question, and it made conversations difficult and uncomfortable for him. That is now almost completely gone. His teacher said she couldn’t believe how clear his speech had become, how quickly he responded to questions and conversations.
He was even interrupting his classmates during the session, not in a negative way but that he had something he wanted to contribute to the conversation and by god he was going to say it. (In contrast to my encouraging him for years to not be afraid to do so because what he had to say was important too). To his teacher, by far and away, the biggest sign of improvement was the fact that she had turned the Google closed captioning on, and every word my son said in his sessions was transcribed accurately.”
— Veronica Jouneh
“My passion is to tell as many people as I can about trialing low gain hearing aids, because if you don’t try, then you never will know if they work.
ALSO, I know without a shadow of a doubt that if this technology would have been available when my son was 7 years old, that he would not have had to struggle as much as he did.
For years, I was always told that there was nothing that could be done for my son, except that he had to learn strategies and coping skills. Think about it, if, with the trial and permanent aids, a person is now able to filter the background noise that bombards them 24/7, and then also able to figure out where the sounds are coming from... If they can finally “hear” the sounds/words correctly, so that their brain can process it better, Isn’t it worth it?”
— Tonja Stairs
“My daughter’s face lit up as soon as she had the hearing aids in and turned on.... It was amazing! My daughter got her LGHAs last Christmas and the difference has been amazing. Dr. Rae is great to work with - my daughter loves her.
Update - Today was my daughter’s first day back at school today with the aids. She was a little apprehensive! But when I picked her up she just said everything was great. For the first time, she could really hear the teacher in Assembly in the hall! And she so enjoyed break time, as being able to hear and follow her friends and the aids made joining in so much easier.
Best decision made since Katie’s diagnosis!”
— Sarah Evans