Living with Hearing Difficulties (PDF)

Living with Hearing Difficulties is a source-book for
professionals who encounter and support individuals with hearing
difficulties. It will also be of interest to people with hearing
difficulties themselves and those close to them. The book
highlights the concept of audiological enablement as being an
interactive process requiring the active involvement of both
clinician and patient.

The thirteen chapters encompass four sections which broadly
follow the categories of the World Health Organization's ICF
(2001):

* Section 1 addresses types of hearing disorders, the impairments
they cause and also the process of help seeking.

* Section 2 deals with the effects of hearing impairment on
communication and psychosocial functioning.

* Section 3 considers the individual in their environment; their
family, work, and leisure. Section 4 elaborates on the process of
enablement in a non-prescriptive manner.

The authors approach the problems and needs from the standpoint
of what the patient/client is seeking. Enablement is seen as a team
effort between the professionals, the patient and their family in
an ever-changing environment. This entails using any relevant
techniques to ensure the well-being of the individual with hearing
impairment; that end remains very much their goal.

The book also has a companion website href="http://www.wiley.com/go/stephens">www.wiley.com/go/stephens
which hosts additional downloadable documents as well as a
demonstration of the concept of the signal-to-noise ratio.