Some suggestions on how to evaluate a transposer hearing aid

The research presented here indicates that transposer hearing aids, which are now available commerically, might be helpful to some people. Specifically, it might help some people to detect the /s/, /integral/, /t/, /tintegral/, and possibly /k/ phonemes in speech. Any person considering the purchase of a transposer should be properly tested with one to determine whether the information provided by frequency transposition is helpful. It appears this evaluation cannot be done properly using procedures developed to evaluate a conventional hearing aid for a person with a mild or moderate communication impairment. Rather than outline a specific procedure, this report makes suggestions that a clinician might find useful when asked to evaluate the possible benefits of a transposer hearing aid for a client.