Article in NYT helped my mother hear better!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/technology/audio-devices-give-new-options-to-those-hard-of-hearing.html

Hi. I'm not a member of this group but wanted to post this article and our personal experience here in case it will help anyone.

My elderly mother has lost much of her hearing, especially in the last few years. She has always been one of the liveliest voices in our family gatherings, often presenting a unique perspective, always with wit and humor. (She is a lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool liberal! Everyone loves her and values her presence. So it's been heartbreaking to see her smiling and nodding in a group at a restaurant and knowing she isn't hearing a word anyone says. Especially knowing her mind is still as sharp as ever. She's also told me that she feels isolated and depressed because of it. She's tried many types of hearing aids, some very expensive, but has had only some success. In crowded rooms and public places especially, she has a hard time hearing, even with good hearing aids. So when I read this article, I thought I might give it a try with her. The microphone and earbuds the man in this article is using are top of the line and expensive. I didn't want to invest a lot in case it didn't really help my mom, so we just tried using regular earbuds you can buy for ten bucks. Instead of using and additional microphone, we just used the phone itself for the mike. We downloaded a couple different apps on my iPhone and found one we liked called Ears. The results were more successful than we had even imagined! She sits the iPhone in the middle of the table and can hear every word everyone says, even in a crowded restaurant!! I almost cried when I saw her laughing and joking with my cousin at lunch last week. Now she's going out to lunch regularly and also to the movies, something she hasn't done in years. She is ecstatic! Since I couldn't just give her my phone, we bought her an iPod Touch, which will work the same without the phone plan.

I know it seem crazy that a $5 app and a pair of earbuds (granted you already have the phone or device) made such a difference. I'm not advocating anyone give up their hearing aids. I'm just posting this because if it can help someone else as much as it helped my mother, it's more than worth the little bit of typing I'm doing here.