CIICA CONVERSATION: Adults with CI: Managing Listening and Communication Effort

Tuesday 12 July, 19:00 UK; 20:00 CET; 14:00 EST; 11:00 PST; Wed 13 July 04:00 AEDT, 06:00 NZ

Last April, our CIICA Conversation for adults with CI focused on the topic of “Reimagining CI Rehab.” One of the topics that we agreed needed more attention was the unseen but legitimate effort involved with CI use. Communication partners are not usually aware of the effort it takes to listen, to converse, to learn new information – and although unseen, this effort is measurable and can be exhausting.

This Conversation on Listening and Communication Effort was full with 14 users of CI from 9 countries (13 in real time and one offline) sharing their experiences. One additional attendee was awaiting implantation, and 2 were clinicians/educators, one of whom was a CI user. Live captioning was provided. Participants were from Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Libya, Netherlands, South Africa, UK, USA.

The Conversation was  led by Kris English, Audiologist,  Emma McCauley, CI user and Audiologist  and Lise Hamlin, CI user and Director of Public Policy at Hearing Loss Association of America.   Attendees shared the challenges they face daily and the strategies they use to manage the listening effort they need to use. Do have a look at the fascinating summary in PDF.

 

With regard  to the research mentioned on Listening Effort by Helen Willis, PhD, neuroscience researcher and CI user herself, Helen has produced two very useful resources based on her research  – one for children and one for adults, Going for Gold: available from British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, BATOD, and available from Go-for-Gold_ADULTS.pdf