Audiologists diagnose, test, and help people compensate for hearing problems. They work with people of all ages and can provide early interventions to help children with hearing impairments acquire language and learn without trouble. They work in a variety of settings and are of great importance to the medical community.
An audiologist is a healthcare professional who has been trained through significant clinical work and education to assess, diagnose, test and help people compensate for hearing problems. When hearing problems are diagnosed, they can help people deal with these problems or make recommendations for medical treatment that can end or resolve these problems. Under current US law, as of 2007, all audiologists entering this field must have a minimum doctorate in audiology from an accredited university.
As an estimated 28 million Americans suffer from some form of hearing impairment, the job of an audiologist is very important, and it should be noted that the hearing impaired do not just include older people. There are many children with significant hearing impairment and teenagers and young adults who struggle with this problem to a lesser or greater degree. Proper diagnosis by an audiologist can often help people lead very normal and purposeful lives. When hearing impairments go undiagnosed, especially when they are minor to moderate, they often have a significant impact on people’s lives and can affect school performance, social interaction and self-esteem. Hearing problems may also be misdiagnosed as mental illness, ADHD, other learning disorders, or speech/language impairment.
The audiologist can work in a wide variety of settings and is trained to work with very young children and adults of all ages. Some audiologists work for schools and help provide screening and diagnosis for hearing problems in very young children. They can work specifically with children identified as hearing impaired and make suggestions to parents on how to resolve the problem.
For some children, diagnosis may mean getting hearing aids, or having surgery, or at least seeing a doctor, to evaluate the child for structural defects or ongoing medical issues that can be addressed. Early diagnosis of lifelong hearing problems is significantly valuable, as speech/language acquisition strongly depends on a person’s ability to hear the spoken word accurately. Audiologists can provide early interventions and help parents, schools, or special education teachers with strategies that will give a hearing-impaired child a much better chance of successful language acquisition and trouble-free learning opportunities.
An audiologist may also work as a freelance clinician, in hospitals, in clinics that test hearing and help fit hearing aids, or in a variety of research settings. The focus on different aspects of hearing can change, depending on the preference for the work that the audiologist expresses. However, they all deal with one or more aspects of hearing loss, and how to develop strategies or research that might indicate how to prevent or compensate for hearing impairment, or deal directly with patients to assess hearing and help people with hearing impairments.
Audiologists are not doctors, but they are of great importance to the medical community. Babies who receive certain forms of antibiotics can have their hearing tested even when they are very young by audiologists. Audiologists also help physicians by diagnosing or referring patients to them who may have correctable impairments. The audiologist’s work is as much social as it is medical, as hearing loss can impact many different aspects of life, at any stage of life.
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