Hear and communicate with confidence
Linda Kessler, Speech-Language Pathologist
Did you know that we provide communication services to help adults who use hearing aids or cochlear implants improve their ability to hear and communicate?
I’m Linda Kessler, MA, CCC-SLP, a speech-language pathologist in New York with 25 years of experience at the Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC) working with adults who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Clients come to CHC for communication therapy from diverse backgrounds. What they have in common is a desire to improve their ability to hear and understand speech, especially in difficult listening situations. They’ve worked closely with an audiologist already to get significant benefit from their hearing aids or cochlear implants. Working with me, they have the opportunity to further improve their ability to communicate in real-life situations by developing speechreading (also known as lipreading) and listening skills and understanding strategies for better communication in difficult environments.
Here’s a brief look at a recent client who came to me for an evaluation and follow-up services.
Post-cochlear implant evaluation and therapy
A 65 year old client who had recently been implanted in one ear with a cochlear implant (and who wore a hearing aid in her other ear) came to improve her listening skills and her speechreading skills. She realized that even with her CI, she would, in certain situations, need to use her speechreading as well as her listening.
As with every client, we needed to evaluate her listening ability separately from her speechreading skills. We discovered that both her hearing (with her CI and hearing aid) and her speechreading (tested with no sound present) were fairly good.
During our therapy sessions following the evaluation, it became clear that improving her speechreading skills was, for her, far more challenging than improving her listening skills. This client would always be using her speechreading as a secondary aid to her hearing. Therefore, working on improving her listening ability, in both quiet and noise, became the central goal of her therapy.
From the client’s perspective
“Linda’s very knowledgeable, and she keeps me engaged throughout the sessions. It’s especially helpful doing listening training where I work on my auditory memory. But LInda has also opened my eyes to speechreading! I never knew there were so many different pieces to speechreading and that it could be helpful in so many ways.”
Speechreading and listening training: a customized approach
Each client is different. Knowing a client’s skills and learning abilities helps clarify the areas which should be emphasized in therapy when working towards the goal of the best communication skills for that particular individual.
Contact Linda Kessler at CHC
If you’re a hearing aid or cochlear implant user and interested in learning more about speechreading or listening training, please contact me at (917) 305-7838 or lkessler@chchearing.org. We participate in many government and private insurance plans. I’ll confirm your coverage and get you started on what many of my clients embrace as an exciting new journey!
Watch Linda Kessler’s speechreading video
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