Sphear Clinic Lajpat Nagar, Delhi

SpHear clinic offers a wide range of testing and diagnostic service to evaluate cognitive skills, neurodevelopmental delay,Visual Reinforcement Audiometry, pediatric hearing assessment, Pure-tone ABR testing, speech & language therapy, emotional & behavioural difficulties, and learning difficulty (such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia).

Cochlear Implant devices facilitate people with sound who receive little or no benefit through hearing aids. A pre-evaluation is a critical process of Cochlear Implant to assess the candidate functional hearing ability and verify whether these are likely to be radically improved through an implant.The assessment and procedure are conducted by multidisciplinary team of experts with an experience in working with deaf or young children with hearing problems. Formal Pre-Cochlear Implant Evaluation Process Step 1: Orientation The purpose of the process is to orient the child and its family about the Cochlear Implant. Some of the general topics discussed with h family may include: What is the Cochlear Implant? Does Cochlear Implant work? Routine follow-ups and precautions Cost of implant Warranty and insurance

Cochlear Implant is very beneficial over a normal hearing aid as you are able to hear speech sounds and spoken languages more accurately facilitating development in natural speech. The implants adept to assist the sensitivity at certain frequencies for speech and also enables to monitor their own speech more productively.When a young child acquires a cochlear implant, they require a lot of inputs from a speech and language pathologist or parents to develop skills. In the case when an adult receives an implant, they are likely to be less demanding for input from professionals as they already have desired speech skills.

Audiology New Born Hearing Screening Complete Hearing Assessment Behavioral Observation Audiometry (BOA Speech Audiometry Immittance Audiometry (Tympanometry & Acoustic Reflexes) Otoacoustic Emission Testing (OAE) Auditory Brainstem Response Testing (ABR) Automated Steady State Response Testing (ASSR) Trans Tympanic Electric Auditory Brainstem Response Testing (TTEABR) Aided Audiometry

The Middle Ear Implant is a newer technology approved by the FDA in 2002. After this time it has been seen by many as a strong aid in achieving better hearing. The Middle Ear implant consists of an internal device, which is surgically implanted and also there is an external component which is called the Audio Processor. The external piece is worn behind the ear and there are no visible wires. The Middle Ear Implant works by picking up sound, by the external processer, and transferring it across the skin electromagnetically to the implanted receiver. The receiver then transmits the signal to the implant which creates vibrations in the ear and copies the function of a normal ear. This vibration is then sent to the cochlea which in turn is sends the signal to the brain for interpretation. Since the implant bypasses the middle ear, sound goes directly into the cochlea therefore avoiding problems with reduced sound.

Generally, speech is the sound that we utter(produce) with the help of our mouths(articulators). But, when this sound is not understood by others, it is indicative of a speech problem. Some of the common speech problems include delayed speech, stuttering, mispronunciation(misarticulation) etc. Delayed speech indicates a delay in the speech processing mechanism(production). Language, on the other hand, has less to do with sounds, it is more about meanings. It is a measure of intelligence. Language delay indicates a delay in the use of the language. In this context, it is important to state that speech and language delay are not the same. Since language and speech are two different stages(things); the two may be delayed individually. A child, who is unable to utter(produce) intelligent speech sound, might not be suffering from the delayed language. In such a case, the child might be trying to utter (has age appropriate)language, but the language can be difficult to be understood(expressed in speech).similarly, a child having delayed language (not delayed speech), might not have got enough opportunity of producing speech sounds. Delayed language is when a child is developing language skill in the right sequence but at a slow rate.

These days many people suffer from mild-to-moderate hearing loss problem and hearing aids have become a practical solution for improving the problem of hearing. Cochlear implant system is designed for people who are not able to benefit from hearing aids. It is an electronic device which stimulates the auditory nerve with electric signals which the brain can understand as sound. Cochlear implants are considered the only machinery available to functionally re-establish one of the five senses. In contrast to hearing aids, which intensify sound, these electronic devices bypass the damaged part of the inner so that person can hear it best. People who have cochlear implant are heard clearly in the noisy environment, enjoy music and reconnect with friends and family

Identification and intervention of hearing loss are available to monitor your child’s hearing. We are committed to delivering high-quality service and for using the most innovative hearing device. We understand your busy lifestyle and want to help you get the most out of it. Get an appointment today with our hearing health professional.

Hearing loss is a common problem in elderly people. But, as the population of adult rises, so does the problem of hearing loss. Our Adult programs & services in hearing loss aim to solve the problem. Audiologists at our clinic perform the audiological evaluations for adults like comprehensive hearing evaluation and Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) Test. Based on the results of the analysis, recommendations are made to treat the hearing loss or problem of communication in Adults that results from the loss. When the problem of hearing loss cannot be treated medically or surgically, a possible treatment which is fitting of hearing aids is recommended. After the initial consultation, hearing aids can be ordered.

Why & When do People Require Voice Therapy? Voice therapy or voice training is a series of techniques and procedures that work on several vocal parameters such as pitch, volume, and quality. Voice therapy treats a wide spectrum of speech and communication disorders. Usually, speech-language pathologists provide voice therapy. What’s the Main Purpose of Voice Therapy? Generally, the main goal of voice therapy is to restore the patients’ voice to a level where they can get their daily voice or speech requirements fulfilled.

Everything You Need to Know about Fluency Therapy Fluency disorder, commonly known as “stuttering” can be defined by primary and secondary behaviors. Primary behavior includes repetitions of sounds, whole words, and syllables, prolongations of single sounds, blockages of airflow or other speech-related issues. Secondary behavior, on the other hand, is developed with the advancement of time. This kind of behavioral pattern often includes hesitation, interjections of syllable, sounds, or words, word revision, complete changes in the words, and motor skills related to stuttering (loss of eye contact, frequent eye blinking, extraneous movement etc.) People often get confused over “normal disfluency” and “stuttering”. Normal disfluency is when the children start learning to combine multiple words and speak short sentences. This can continue up to the age of 7. This is absolutely normal for the children between 2 to 7 years age. But, if you find your children stuttering even after this phase of time, you should consult a doctor and consider fluency therapy.

What is Misarticulation Therapy & How does it Work? Articulation refers to any speech disorder which can be defined by distortion, substitution, omission, or any addition of phonemes. Sometimes children find it difficult to utter certain sounds. He or she may alter certain sounds due to the course of their speech. In most of the cases, the children outgrow these issues with the advancement of time. But, if it persists for a longer time, then it can be an articulation problem. There are many reasons working behind articulation problem in children such as weak muscles, less control over the tongue, problems in respiratory system or any kind of speech immaturity. Sometimes adults also suffer from articulation due to hearing loss, brain injury, dyslexia, intellectual disability etc. Articulation disorder involves some major issues that can lead to some phonemes, known as “misarticulation”. The most common misarticulations (related to sound) include additions, omissions, distortions, and substitutions etc. Misarticulation therapy has been designed to make coordination between articulators like lips, cheeks, jaw, palate, and tongue.

An Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI) is a modified cochlear implant intended to be used to stimulate the cochlear nucleus in the brainstem of patients who have had their eighth nerves severed during surgery for removal of bilateral eurofibromata, as in patients with Neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2). The cochlear implant linear array of electrode contacts is replaced by a small rectangular silastic paddle containing the 21 contacts. This is surgically inserted into the lateral recess of the fourth ventricle. The need for this device is much less common than that for a cochlear implant, but these patients are typically totally deaf and, although the benefit is not as great on the average as that of the cochlear implant, most recipients derive significant auditory perception.

Electronystagmography (ENG) is a diagnostic test that records the eye involuntary movement caused by a condition known as Nystagmus , acquired in infancy or later in life that results in limited vision. The condition affects the two cranial nerve responsible for brain functioning. The two nerves are the oculomotor nerve and the acoustic nerve. The oculomotor nerve connects the brain with eye muscles. The acoustic nerve connects the brain the cochlea. The acoustic nerve is responsible for controlling hearing and balance. Need for ENG The test helps in determining the disorders in the part of the cochlea (inner ear) that are dependable for position sense, orientation, and balance that are connected with brain, ears, and eyes. If you are suffering from following symptoms, your doctor might recommend you ENG test: Unexplained loss in hearing Experience dizziness Problem of balance and vertigo Usher syndrome Acoustic neuroma Labyrinthitis Meniere’s disease Suspected lesion in the inner ear

Newborn hearing test program is designed to identify a problem of hearing in babies shortly after birth. Before you bring your newborn baby to home from hospital, they need a hearing screening. However, most of the babies can hear normally where 1-3 out 1,000 babies are born with some degree of hearing loss. The need for Newborn Hearing Test The first three years of life for a baby are very important when the brain is developing. Children begin to learn speech and language in the first 6 months of life. Research suggests that children with hearing loss develop better language skills that get help early. The baby hearing loss should be screened before they left the hospital for home. If your baby hearing loss is not detected during the first month of life ask your doctor to screen your child today. If the screening shows a possible problem, quick action can be taken.

Hearing loss can be congenital -by birth or can be acquired. If acquired, it can be progressive with age or can also erupt with a sudden affect. It can also happen when hearing loss is dubious-unsure; pure-tone audiometry may be effective test to evaluate hearing deficits by spot- examining certain frequencies, or to appraise shortfalls more completely. Pure Tone Audiometry is a type of hearing test that gauges hearing sensitivity and determines the feeble tones you can hear at various frequencies. It is a test done to detect the qualitative and quantitative analysis of your hearing to find out if a hearing loss is present or not. There can be various types of audiometry test depending on age & cognitive abilities. At sphearclinic.com clinic the Pure Tone Audiometry, is done as a basic review test for your hearing to identify your auditory threshold levels. We have the best instruments in any private clinic in entire north India used for the scaling of auditory threshold known as the audiometer. An audiometer is an instrument or machine that plays sounds via headphones employed for the gauge of acuity of your hearing and threshold of your audibility.

Hearing loss in children can be detected through several techniques. When children are very young (less than 6 months old), hearing loss detection needs to be done without a child’s cooperation. When the child is 30 months to three years old, the test is accompanied using child cooperation. This activity is known as Play Audiometry (also known as Conditioned Play Audiometry). What is Play Audiometry? Play audiometry test measures the child’s level of hearing through a fun and interactive method, using toys and games. The test is ideal for children between 2 to 5 years old (preschoolers) as this non-invasive diagnosis requires a child full attention and cooperation to complete successfully. We would be able to measure the condition of your child by evaluating their response to sounds presented through a different level of loudness and pitches. Some of the popular games we use at the SpHear clinic are throwing a ball in the bucket, putting pieces into puzzles, or any other playful activity. Once we are satisfied that the results of the test are accurate, the results are entered into the notes and prepared for the appointment with the SpHear pathologist.

Hearing loss is a medical ailment that elevates a lot of weight with lot of misinformation sometimes. Having a hearing loss doesn’t mean your child is incapacious to hear profoundly, or that sounds just aren’t noisily enough. Hearing is tested by observing for revulsion in your child’s behaviour in counterstand to sound. A sound is handy through speakers and a reactance like a blink or a smile alludes that the sound was heard. Behavioral tests are based on watching a change in your infant’s behavior in repercussion to sound. Behavioral observation audiometry is a test of hearing loss waged for your new born babies and infants where their counteraction to sound is gauged during breastfeeding or bottle feeding. This test entails rendering sounds to your babies and heeding their counterstand in order to test hearing.This test is often fixed for infants less than six months of age or who are progressively not able to turn their head towards a sound. It not only helps to sink in the presence of hearing loss, but also perceives which hearing aid is recommended for your baby. This test examines the behavioural shift in reactive to different sounds in your babies. Your child’s counteraction to each sound is kept on record and your baby’s hearing potency is analysed.

The orient discretion of the auditory handicapped child has been manifested to be of utmost importance for the general evolution of your child as well as for the anthesis of his speech and language. Precise cognizance of the auditory function is thus a hypothesis for planning a training broadcast for your child having communicative disorders. Visual reinforcement audiometry is a new pattern innovated for testing hearing in infants. It is a test that devises an audiologist to appraise hearing in infants and toddlers who are too young for normal hearing tests. Visual reinforcement audiometry test banks on behavioural conditioning to prefabricate your infants to respond to sounds. It is formulated for children aged between 6 months to around 3 years old. It is a behavioural audiometric test performed in sound-proof rooms. During the test, your child is made to sit on your lap or a chair in front of an investigative loudspeaker, or by drawing on headphones. Your baby will be trained to link the sound to a sequential reward such as a toy or computer screen illuminating up near the loudspeaker. Once your child is able to affiliate with the sound and spectacle reward the loudness and pitch of the sound will be diversified to discern the quietest sounds your child is able to catch.

An aided audiogram test to confirm sound audibility at different frequencies.

Audiological tests inquest your ability to hear the loudness and pitch of auditory sensations. The upshots are charted on a graph (audiogram) to help prim the vehemence and provocations of hearing problems. An audiological specialist employs the latest innovation and auditory sense tests to ascertain the type and degree of your hearing loss.Audiological tests are used to key out and check the medical analysis of hearing loss. The procedure used reckon on the age of the individual and other factors. Special audiological tests are accessible to test hearing with special ceremonials in babies and children. A special audiological test is a pain-free, non-encroaching audiological test that valuates your ability to listen varied sounds, pitches or frequencies. These tests help in medical analysis and treatment of all forms of hearing loss to ascertain and assess auditory functioning and meliorate your overall hearing health. These Special Audiological Tests can further be described in the following ways: Special audiological tests using precise tone. Special audiological tests using brink level. Special audiological tests for valuating cochlear and retro-cochlear pathology. Special audiological tests necessitating behavioral reactance.

Speech audiometry is an audiometry test in which we test the speech understanding of an andividual in a test setup.We provide various speech stimulus through an audiometer and the tester has to recognise them and respond based on his ability to response. Speech audiometry is an integral test or tool for hearing loss assessment.It is moslty done along with pure tone audiometry and it adds value to the pure tone audiometry.Speech audiometry also gives us information regarding the minimum audiometric level at which an individual can understand speech & also discomfort and tolerance of speech stimuli. This test provides extra information above the detection level of a hearing impaired person.This tests enables us to understand whether hearing aid or amplification device will be usefull for a particular hearing loss or not.It also helps us in fitting an amplification or hearing aid devices. There are various sub tests under speech audiometric test–SRT–It is the smallest level at which a person can recognise 50% of closed set disyllabic words in a test set up SIS/SDS–It is a measure or test that determines that how many words /sentences an individual can recognise or identify correctly at a comfortable loudness level.

As the name connotes, a Speech-in-Noise test will confer you a denotation of how well you can sense speech in a noisy surroundings. Speech in noise testing is a simpleton procedure but a potent diagnostic instrument. The diverse background noises that are stand by in day-to-day life can sometimes make hearing hard especially when you are endeavoring to penetrating speech. In this perspective, Speech-in-Noise tests are designed to mime real-life actualities. A person with a hearing loss often will be less able to perceive speech, particularly in noisy environments. This is peculiarly true for people who have a Sensorineural loss – which is out and away the most generic type of hearing loss. As such, Speech-in-Noise tests can render valuable knowingness about a person’s hearing efficacy and can be used to discover the existence of a Sensorineural hearing loss. These tests render worthy information about a person’s potency to hear in backdrop noise. In simple terminology the test confers an audiologist a quantitative score to ascertain how well you can grasp words clearly in the existence of backdrop noise. Speech in noise tests that gauge the sensing of speech in existence of noise are now a significant persona of audiologic tests battery and hearing exploration as well. As research show that backdrop noise and a patient’s sensing of background botheration and endurance can impact hearing aid usage, speech-in-noise tests acts as a convinced counselling instrument to help patients assess their expectations and hit their hearing potency. The Speech-In-Noise test is done for clinical use in conjunction with a diagnostic audiologic valuation such as hearing in noise.

Tympanometry is a test to appraise the middle ear functioning and is used to assess health and working of the outer and middle ear, entailing the external auditory canal.It is a test of middle ear functioning. Tympanometry discerns at the flexibility of eardrum to switching air pressures, signalizing how efficaciously sound is effused into the middle ear. This test can be executed either in a hearing healthcare professional’s office or a doctor’s clinic. Firstly, the clinician will do an optical(otoscopic) examination of your ear canal and eardrum using an illuminated scope (otoscope) placed in the ear. Then, an inquest with a conciliatory rubber tip will be enunciated in your ear. The inquest will stimulate the air pressure in your ear canal to alter as you listen some low-pitched tones. The sensing can be similar to the pressure modifications felt during starting and landing when you’re on a plane. While the pressure is acclimating, the dimensions of your eardrum’s operation will be taken and recorded. Tympanometry is a test that weigh outs the operation of the middle ear. It works by diverging the pressure within the ear canal and assessing the stirring of the eardrum (tympanic membrane).Tympanometry is a non- pragmatist test of middle ear functioning, which implies it requires no willingly reactance on the part of the client being tested. It renders nifty quantitative acquaintance about the existence of fluid in the middle ear, maneuverability of the middle ear system, and ear canal loudness. Its use has been petitioned in alignment with more qualitative knowingness of your ear canal functioning (e.g., history, visual aspect, and maneuverability of the tympanic membrane). Tympanometry can also provide operable know-how about the lucidity of tympanostomy tubes.