Rehabilitative procedures in sensorineural hearing loss. Studies on the routine used

The effect of different treatment programs in audiological rehabilitation was evaluated. The speech intensity at which subjects with high frequency hearing loss correctly perceived 50% of the key words in sentences was measured in quiet and in noise, with and without a hearing aid and with and without simultaneous speech reading. No statistically significant difference in audiovisual speech perception ability was found between subjects receiving no training, subjects receiving a 6-hour information course, or a 3-week intensive training in auditory and audiovisual speech perception. Large differences in the degree of hearing aid usage was found, however, between the three treatment groups. An analysis of the individual results from the speech test used showed that some subjects improved with the use of a hearing aid, whilst others deteriorated. The degree of hearing aid usage was considerably influenced by the measured effect of the hearing aid treatment. Our findings stress the need for an objective test by which to measure the effect of hearing aid fitting. As a result of the reported study a series of experiments have been started with the aim of obtaining a better understanding of the audiovisual speech perception process. These studies are based on an information-processing model for speech perception. Particular attention is devoted to the importance of the prosodic information in the auditory speech signal.