My child is 5-1/2 years Old, she have ski-slope bilateral mild to profound sensorineural hearing loss. currently she is wearing Starkey Evolv Ai 1600 BTE Power plus binaural Hearing aids, she started wearing those 1 year ago , after initial fitting the aided response audio-gram was good , currently the aided response audio-gram is not good at all at the 4000 Hz freq. I’m not sure what is the problem for now, I visited the provider for fitting few times with no progress, recently I’m doubting wither the frequency lowering is active or not.
I want ask for your experience which is the best type of hearing aids for my child condition ( BTE or RIC), I’m getting mixed opinions from audiologist and hearing aid providers (In Egypt they are separate) the Audiologist is just a doctor and he is not the one providing the Hearing aids nor doing the fitting.
current AudioGram
Phonak would be the best option for pediatrics requiring frequency lowering, hands down. Their receivers are very quiet, so you could put that loss into an SP and not worry about circuit noise. Fitting pediatrics without REM feels bad, but I suppose the fitter can do ling-6 sounds with the child and try to adjust the frequency lowering to maximize /sh/ vs /s/ performance.
Get a partner mic or Roger mic for use in the home–research shows that kids in families that make good use of remote mics have better language development. Ear level FM use in the classroom is provided by the school where I am, but maybe you would provide it yourself in Egypt? I don’t know. In which case, Roger On would save costs over Roger Table Mic and should be fine. If costs are a concern, a 5 1/2 year old doesn’t need premium level hearing aids, a lot of those features are just turned off.
Edit: If Phonak isn’t available, Oticon is great for pediatrics. I just like the phonak frequency lowering specifically given the steeply sloping loss. Oticon edumic for the classroom is sometimes more affordable than a Roger device and some teachers like it better.
Thank you for your reply, phonak is available in Egypt, I just want some clarification, By SP do you mean the SP designation in their products like the Naida Lumity-SP? Does it mean also that The Lumity-Up is not good fitting for her Audiogram? What about RIC VS BTE?
Another point is REM fitting, I was searching for it online but didn’t find a mention of it in Egypt?
I was wondering do you live in Egypt or have experience about this point, anyone providing it in Egypt?
Hi,
I’m from Egypt but I didn’t have REM fitting! At least not in my hometown! Maybe you can check if it’s available in Cairo!
To make your mind up about the hearing aids, try your best to read about the different kinds. (Don’t take everything the hearing aid providers say for granted)
If you have questions, you can ask them here. The forum members are very helpful.
Yes, the Sky Lumity SP. The UP is more than required unless you are expecting some pretty dramatic progression in hearing loss. Definitely BTE–no RICs for 5 year olds. She can consider transitioning to RICs between ~10-14 if she wants to depending on the size of her ear and how responsible she is.
Even without REM, just a testbox would be nice, but I am not in Egypt and the impression I’ve gotten from these forums is that some of that equipment is a little bit hard to find in Egypt.
The other consideration is that the earmold needs to be replaced as soon as it is loose. To get access to gain at the high frequencies, it needs to be a snug, deep fit. As soon as there’s significant feedback it needs to be remade.
Phonak STILL hasn’t gotten the directional mic turned off in junior mode. The clinician will need to manually turn the UltraZoom off, back down to real ear or omni.
Strongly agree. I am 35yo now. I have the same hearing loss from being about 4-5yo, has hearing aid (right ear only) since 11yo with FM system additionally, which was VERY helpful when I gave microphone transmitter to my teachers in ordinary schools.
FM system is older radio technology than digital Roger. See the overview here:
See examples of mine “collection”:
MicroLink which I used to almost the end of my studies (to ~2013) with universal FM receiver (gray cubicle attached to not used brown audio shoe):
