Last updated on September 11th, 2023
For the past years, clinics have stayed tested, with more patients requiring access to audiology assistance and care. Are you searching for a better patient-provider experience while adding more telehealth means? We have Amptify to assist with aural rehabilitation.
Amptify, the first digital program for hearing loss, offers to those desiring hearing loss resolutions for patients and those who wish to improve their hearing. This hearing loss therapy consists of diagnostics and hearing aid distribution with no follow-up hearing loss therapy, aid, or counseling — all of which are clinical best practices.
Amptify is a unique program developed by Nancy Tye Murray, Ph.D. of Washington University. This program uses different games on smartphones, laptops, or tablets. You can use this program anytime, anywhere, and for any amount of time. The games are engineered to be fun and challenging, with each precise targeting skill. The games become more formidable as you improve.
Optimal hearing includes two parts: our ears and our brain. Amptify reinforces what we do with what we hear. Think of this as training for our brains through aural.
Digital Therapy for Hard of Hearing Patients
Amptify users experience a merging of digital fitness and aural restoration that augments their hearing devices and delivers a scientifically-backed and patient-proven treatment for hearing loss.
Sponsored parties can access Amptify by downloading the iOS or Android apps, which include clinically validated aural and cognitive exercise video games. These exercises can help develop speech perception skills, enhance listening confidence, and improve conversational fluency.
Amptify players also acquire access to interactive hearing health classes, a supervised peer-support community, and a certified Amptify Hearing Health Coach. Trainers (or coaches) provide one-on-one help and motivation, track participants’ weekly exercise and curriculum improvement, and deliver personalized service and recommendations on enhancing and advancing each participant’s hearing goals.
What can we expect to see in Amptify?
Auditory Video Games
The games are professionally crafted to provide compliance and enjoyment through animation and bright graphic design. The games’ instructional approach targets the growth of speech discrimination skills and exercises for those cognitive skills required for discourse understanding, including auditory awareness, processing speed, and word memory.
The auditory training games have also been shown to produce positive results in maximizing users’ ability to use their residual hearing. The research focused on the games alone has shown that the instructional design that underlies the aural training games oversees improved speech discrimination (Barcroft et al., 2016), decreased perceptual effort (Sommers et al., 2015), enhanced listening enthusiasm and advancements in those communication concerns that patients deem challenging.
Online Hearing Health Coach
If weight loss programs have coaches, so can hearing health patients. In the first week, users are paired with a hearing health coach who helps, encourages, and provides hearing-related information. In the first two weeks, the coach begins with introductory material that augments the curriculum. In consecutive weeks, participants have been placed in a group their coach leads. Coaches are also under training before becoming certified trainers, so quality training is assured.
The audiologist ensures quality control and is available to answer questions or manage issues that might be technical, such as when a member might want to understand the details of a hearing aid directional microphone. Users reply to good support and the accountability of understanding a professional is monitoring them.
Customized social peer community
We create communities of users so that each community includes both homogeneous and heterogeneous partners who share the exact hearing health coach. The trainer leads dialogues and promotes conversations. This part of the program links to traditional group aural rehabilitation and illustrates a “virtual answer” to the live group experience.
Via their online interactions, partners can convey their experiences, find commonalities, and discover new ways to address hearing loss through vicarious experiences. Over time, they build a network and a feeling of empathy and support.
Is it available?
Amptify was made available for general use on March 21, 2021. Enrollment is easy. Amptify provides brochures to clinics and a “cheat sheet” about how to describe the program. The Listening Lab Singapore provides free listening rehabilitation sessions with selected hearing aid model purchases. Its goal is to meet the needs of individuals seeking faster improvement through their hearing aids. We also recommend exercises with your hearing aid device(s) to help improve your listening skills. We have been offering quality hearing care services to hearing loss patients, including a professional hearing test and a lifetime aftercare program. Visit any of our branches to find out more about this service.
About The Listening Lab
Listening Lab is a home-grown company whose mission is to help our clients restore their hearing to enjoy the life that they desire. Experiencing hearing loss can be detrimental to one’s quality of life. Hence we commit to providing high-quality hearing solutions.
Our hearing solutions include hearing tests and treatment and prescribing hearing aids. Clients may come to get their hearing checked, and we will assess whether hearing aids are required.
If hearing aids are required, clients can choose from a variety of the best hearing aid brands we provide. Each of the products offers unique features that complement daily use and perform well in helping our clients enjoy the life that they desire.
Barcroft, J., Spehar, B., Tye-Murray, N., & Sommers, M. (2016). Task-and talker-specific gains in auditory training. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(4), 862–870.
Sommers, M. S., Tye-Murray, N., Barcroft, J., & Spehar, B. (2015). The effects of meaning-based auditory training on behavioral measures of perceptual effort in individuals with impaired hearing. Seminars in Hearing, 36(4), 263–272.
