Dining with family members, amongst the clinking of dishes and glasses, the sounds of conversations and laughter, the husband, a user of hearing aids, misses his wife’s request to bring another bottle of wine. After a third try, the wife,...
We will all know colleagues who have raised the act of swearing to an art form; just as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It could cut a workmate in half with a well-placed swear word, surgeons can be equally...
Identifying the underlying genetic cause of hearing loss in newborns can improve dramatically the early diagnosis and appropriate intervention. Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder at birth, affecting approximately two out of 1000 newborns [1]. Congenital impaired hearing...
An educational toolkit developed by the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), in collaboration with hearing loss charity RNID and NHS England & Improvement, aims to support GPs to deliver care for patients with hearing loss. The RGCP toolkit, sponsored by...
Research priorities in the past have been dominated by the quixotic curiosity of individual academics and the capricious generosity of funding organisations. There must be a better way... At Fifth Sense, research is fundamental to the work we do. Above...
Videofluoroscopy is one of the main instrumental tools used to assess swallowing biomechanics and physiology. In the UK, it is mainly within the remit of speech and language therapists (SLT) to perform videoswallows but there is considerable variability in both...
Hearing rehabilitation in the elderly is of utmost importance as it is associated with depression and dementia in this age group. Cochlear implantation is indicated for hearing-impaired individuals who do not derive adequate benefit from conventional hearing aids. In this...
More than a quarter of people who have a stroke present with aphasia immediately post-stroke (approx. 30%) and of these, around 60% experience chronic communication difficulties. Provision of information is seen as one of the top 10 best practice recommendations...
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurological condition in Australia, and communication difficulties are reported by 90% of people with the condition. Unfortunately, not all people with PD have access to speech and language therapy services due to...
Chronic rhinusinusitis can be diagnosed on the basis of its classical symptoms such as nasal obstruction, facial pains, postnasal drip and hyposmia, supported by endoscopic findings such as oedema of middle meatus, mucopus and polyps. However, CT scan findings are...
Evidence-based practice is often described as the integration of three sources of information to inform clinical practice, namely: 1) research evidence/practice guidelines; 2) client preferences/needs, and: 3) clinical experience. Speech and language therapists have reported a lack of time and...
The authors have raised an interesting subject concerning the ability of customers to self-assess their hearing aid handling skills. Previous studies showed that 96% of customers when asked if they are able to manage their hearing aids answered ‘yes’. However,...