Interesting insight about part-time usage leading to deteriorating speech recognition due to cognitive factors. Especially as I am relatively young, had rapid onset, and have always had relatively good discrimination in the booth even with my loss, my audi has long been concerned about maximizing my ability to capitalize on these strengths. It’s why she recommended two aids despite the mildness of my loss in the right–something I have never regretted. And she, too, emphasized wearing them as much as possible (which was, I admit, made easier by my open fitting). From the beginning I have worn my aids from waking to bedtime, usually 16-18 hours per day.
It’s also why we have tried to minimize the use of noise suppression, speech enhancement, etc. in my program as much as possible: we want to give my ears the frequencies they need but still make them work for understanding. This is why I love my Opn aids: the sound is so natural and transparent that it allows me to maximize my own hearing while giving me just enough support to allow me to hear in complex environments. Four years on, I’ve still got 100% discrimination at 20 dB and – more importantly – I’m still getting around 85% discrimination without my aids, unchanged since I started wearing my Alta2’s nearly five years ago.