Hearing Checks by Audify®

Hearing should be checked regularly throughout life—just like eyes and teeth.

So if you've not yet had your hearing baselined, it's important to do so the first chance you get.

Here's why.

Start with a baseline...

A baseline hearing check measures your hearing as it is at this point in time. It will confirm which sounds currently sit within your hearing range–and highlight any sounds that fall on the outside of your hearing.

Getting a baseline is a bit like taking a snapshot of your hearing at a single point in time so you have something to compare with in the future.

...then check it routinely.

We get the brakes on our cars checked regularly – even if everything appears to be fine. We don't leave it to chance. Why? Because we want to be certain they won't let us down when we need them most.

It's exactly the same with our hearing. Regular hearing checks pick up changes in our hearing far more effectively, and far earlier, than we could otherwise. That way we always keep our risk of unknowingly mishearing down to a minimum – as well as catch any preventable (but otherwise serious) problems and risks to our health.

Tell me about this service

We have two types of basic hearing check:

Audify® RAD test (5 minutes)

This is a great option if you're short of time and want to know out what's happening with your hearing.

Simply pop into Audify®| Exeter and we'll carry out our Rapid Automated Detection (RAD) test that analyses the microscopic sensory cells in your inner ear to check how they're performing.

Our equipment is so sophisticated you don't even need to tell us whether you've heard anything! Instead it is tuned to automatically detect something called otoacoustic emissions, which are tiny signals emitted by the sensory cells within our ears.

Heck, it can even detect early signs of noise damage before a normal hearing test can.

No need for an appointment – just pop in.

Standard Hearing Check (30 minutes)

Our standard hearing check begins with the RAD test, but then goes much further – by measuring the quietest sound you can just hear across all the speech frequencies.

The assessment is carried out by one of our Audivisors, so if they happen to pick up any areas of reduced hearing they will be able to carry out additional tests to find out which part of your Hearing Chain is the weak link, and advise you on your best course of action.

At the end of the assessment you'll receive a percentage score called the Speech Accessibility Index. This will tell you what percentage of speech sounds are currently accessible to your hearing: 100% means you have access to all the vowels and consonants. It's a useful measure to have for future comparisons.

 

Which service is for me?

The best option is obviously the one that goes into more detail, because it means we can offer you better advice. But if you're looking for a quick idea of what's happening with your hearing, or want an excuse to pop in and find out what we're about, you can't beat our free RAD test.

If you are looking for the most complete understanding of your hearing – including not only what you hear, but how you hear – don't forget to check out our Hearing Profile service. It's like turbo-charging the standard hearing check.

And you can book your hearing check below...

Audify Hearing Profiles

Hearing is the brain's primary connection to the outside world, active 24/7 in every direction.

This comprehensive hearing assessment has been designed to profile each aspect of your hearing, to ensure that – wherever possible – every link in the chain is playing its role effectively.

Tell me about this service...

An Audify® hearing profile measures not only what you hear, but how you hear – by looking at the hearing chain itself.

You'll gain invaluable insight into the individual characteristics of your own hearing as well as coming away with a better understanding of how your brain works with the information it receives.

Having such a comprehesive snapshot of your hearing today enables you to track future changes in your hearing's performance, and to ensure you always continue to harness its full potential in every area of life.

 

What does a hearing profile involve?

PART A: The Building Blocks

These are the main building blocks of hearing perception, and we use them to build up our overall image of sound. The better the building blocks, the better the overall image...

Hearing range mapped to know the quietest sound you can just hear
Hearing Range

We begin by mapping your entire hearing range from 125Hz up to 16kHz. By contrast, a conventional hearing test or hearing check only measures between 250Hz and 8kHz, so it misses many of the frequencies important for female speech, children's speech, and working out where a sound is coming from.

Hearing acuity using third octave bands to provide additional details as to which pitches you can perceive
Hearing Acuity

We chart the contours of your hearing acuity using third octave bands (instead of the traditional ‘half octave bands’) so we are effectively using twice the resolution to analyse your hearing acuity in much finer detail.

Hearing Speed to understand how quickly your hearing can process sound
Hearing Speed

Next we measure your hearing speed. Your hearing's ability to encode the timing within sound is crucial to working out where a sound has come from, in keeping track of separate sources of sound (so it can pull out one sound from background noise), and working out the difference between individual speech sounds.

Pitch discrimination is important for both speech and music
Pitch Differentiation

We then assess your pitch differentiation, which is your ability to recognise how one pitch of sound differs from another. Not only is this something useful for listening to music, but pitch provides important information about the context, nuances and emotional content of speech.

Do you hear sound at the correct pitch precisely or does it sound distorted
Frequency Tuning

Finally, we measure the tuning of your hearing. Do you hear individual tones purely, or are they distorted? Do you hear the sounds precisely, or are they off key?

PART B: Putting it all together

We now see how you assemble all the pieces together into something useful you can use out in the real world...

Speech discrimination to find out how well you can hear the sounds of speech
Speech Recognition

The speech we hear is constructed from individual building blocks called phonemes. Before we can assemble these building blocks into actual words we first have to detect and recognise these phonemes, and tell them apart from one another.

For example, [b] and [p] sound very similar, as do [s] and [f]. So did we hear fit or sit? Did we hear bit or pit? If our hearing is unsure, then the responsibility shifts to other parts of the brain, which must then try to work out the correct word from context...

Speech understanding to find out how you assemble speech sound into something that makes sense
Speech Understanding

Our brains assemble speech sounds into something that makes sense to us, using a combination of strategies that include context and memory. It's a bit like filling in a crossword using the available clues. But does the brain assemble this information correctly, or is it possible we are mishearing without realising it?

How well are you able to pull information out of other things going on
Speech Extraction

Speech in a quiet environment is much easier than trying to extract from background noise or other interference. But our ability to do so is crucial for following conversation in background noise such as restaurants or in the car.

Sound Localisation - how well you can detect where a sound is coming from
Sound localisation

How well can you work out which direction a sound is coming from? We sometimes think that this is only important if we are crossing the road or working out where we've left our phone!

But actually our ability to localise sound (i.e. work out where it is coming from) is how we build up a map of the sounds around us, which then enable us to focus in on one sound separate from another. This skill underpins our ability to follow conversations in groups and background noise.

Auditory Oddball Task - to understand how quickly your attention can lock onto unusual or novel sounds
Auditory Attention

There are two aspects to attention we are looking at here. Firstly, how well can you concentrate on a single speaker? Are you able to follow what they're saying, or do you lose concentration part way through? And how quickly can you react to a new sound whilst you are concentrating on something else?

Auditory Memory – how easily can you remember and work with what you heard earlier
Auditory Memory

Memory plays a huge role in hearing, particularly when a listening situation becomes more challenging, such as when we're in background noise, or the sound we are listening to is distorted, such as over a poor phone connection. We have to be able hold in our memory the words and sentences that have gone before in order to make sense of whatever comes along next.

Is this service for me...

...if I have never had my hearing profiled?

Yes, definitely. And we would recommend you do so as soon as possible. That way you'll have an indispensable comparison for any future changes in the performance of your hearing, enabling you to quickly home in on where any future problem lies.

...if I'm not experiencing any problems with my hearing?

Yes, because you have a tremendous opportunity – whilst your hearing is still performing at its peak – to explore and capture ‘forever’ what your hearing is fully capable of. The performance of our hearing can change for any number of reasons, so you may not have the same opportunity tomorrow.

...if I am experiencing difficulties with my hearing or listening ability?

Yes. A hearing profile will pinpoint where the problem lies and provide invaluable insight into the best way to address the problems you are experiencing. It is far more precise than a traditional hearing assessment which tends to lump all factors in together.

...if I have already had my hearing profiled?

Once you have had your hearing profiled for the first time, we would recommend updating your profile every ten years, up until the age of 50. We would then recommend re-profiling every 5 years unless our Audivisors advise you otherwise.

You can book your Hearing Profile below...

(Or give us a call on 0333 772 0333 if you prefer.)

 

Coming soon: The Audify® Challenge

What is the Audify® Challenge?

  • The Audify® Challenge is a series of typical listening situations which each have a shared expectation by others for our hearing performance.
  • Typical situations include one-to-one conversation, hearing in groups, hearing across a distance and hearing in background noise.
  • Benchmarking our hearing performance against these shared expectations either confirms we are meeting expectations or highlights specific areas for attention.
  • How we meet these expectations is less important than actually meeting them wherever possible – so each challenge can be completed using any combination of natural hearing, hearing technology, visual and mental skills and listening strategies.
  • If we are unable to meet a specific challenge then we can use this information to help inform others on the best way for them to demonstrate practical understanding (e.g. adjusting the way they communicate with us).

What's the purpose of the Audify® Challenge?

  • Because hearing is the Social Sense others expect us to hear accurately first time—unless they have reason to believe otherwise.
  • Because we share these expectations across society, much of our communication and environmental awareness is based on them.
  • When our hearing does not meet these shared expectations it puts us at a disadvantage and negatively impacts on ourselves and others.
  • Because of the nature of sound it is often difficult or impossible for us to be aware of these personal disadvantages or the impact it has on others.