Aural Rehabilitation Glossary
105 terms total — 24 showing — Last updated 15 Sep 2026
Auditory Attention
The cognitive process of selectively focusing on a target auditory stimulus while suppressing competing sounds, a function commonly impaired in listeners with hearing loss who rely on increased cognitive resources to process degraded speech.
Occlusion Effect
The hollow or booming quality perceived by a hearing aid wearer for their own voice, caused by blockage of the ear canal...
Open-Fit Hearing Aid
A style of hearing aid that couples to the ear canal via a thin tube and a small non-occluding dome tip, leaving the can...
Otitis Media with Effusion
A condition characterised by the accumulation of non-infectious fluid in the middle-ear space, causing a conductive hear...
Otoacoustic Emissions
Low-level sounds produced by the outer hair cells of the cochlea, measured in the ear canal to assess cochlear function...
Otosclerosis
An abnormal bone remodelling disorder of the middle and inner ear that causes progressive conductive or mixed hearing lo...
Otoscopy
Visual examination of the external ear canal and tympanic membrane using an otoscope, conducted as a routine preliminary...
Ototoxicity
The property of certain medications or chemicals that causes damage to the inner ear (cochlea or vestibular system), pot...
Presbycusis
Age-related sensorineural hearing loss that occurs gradually as a result of cumulative cochlear degeneration over a life...
Probe Microphone Measurement
An objective verification procedure that uses a thin tube inserted into the ear canal to measure the actual sound pressu...
Pure-Tone Average
The arithmetic mean of hearing thresholds at a specified set of frequencies (typically 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz), used as...
QuickSIN
A brief, standardised clinical test measuring a patient's speech recognition threshold in noise, expressed as an SNR los...
Real-Ear Measurement
A hearing aid verification procedure in which a probe microphone placed in the ear canal measures the actual sound press...
Receiver-in-Canal
A hearing aid style in which the loudspeaker (receiver) is placed directly in the ear canal rather than in the main body...
Repair Strategy
A communication technique used by a person with hearing loss to resolve a breakdown in understanding during conversation...
Residual Hearing
The remaining functional hearing capacity a person retains after hearing loss, used to guide rehabilitation planning and...
SADL
Acronym for the Satisfaction with Amplification in Daily Life scale, a validated self-report tool measuring patient sati...
Satisfactory User
A classification in hearing aid outcome research denoting a patient who wears and benefits from their device consistentl...
Self-Efficacy in Hearing
A patient's belief in their own ability to manage hearing-related challenges, communicate effectively, and engage with a...
Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Hearing loss originating from damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or the auditory nerve, as opposed to the outer or middle...
Signal-to-Noise Ratio
The ratio of the level of the desired auditory signal (typically speech) to the level of background noise, expressed in...
Speech Banana
A banana-shaped region on the audiogram that maps the frequency and intensity range occupied by the phonemes of conversa...
Speech Perception in Noise
A patient's ability to correctly identify or repeat spoken words or sentences when competing background noise is present...
Speech Reception Threshold
The lowest intensity level at which a patient can correctly repeat 50% of spondee words presented during a speech audiom...
Speechreading
The skill of using visual cues—primarily lip and facial movements—to supplement or replace auditory information during c...