Aural rehabilitation is the process of identifying and diagnosing a hearing loss, providing different types of therapies to clients who are hard of hearing, and implementing different amplification devices to aid the client’s hearing abilities. Aural rehab includes specific procedures in which each therapy and amplification device has as its goal the habilitation or rehabilitation of persons to overcome the handicap (disability) caused by a hearing impairment or deafness.
Aural rehabilitation is frequently used as an integral component in the overall management of individuals with hearing loss and refers to services and procedures for facilitating adequate receptive and expressive communication in individuals with hearing differences. Aural rehabilitation is often an interdisciplinary endeavor involving physicians, audiologists and speech-language pathologists.
Audiologists and speech-language pathologists are professionals who typically provide aural rehabilitation components. The audiologist may be responsible for the fitting, dispensing and management of a hearing device, counseling the client about his or her hearing loss, the application of certain processes to enhance communication, and the skills training regarding environmental modifications which will facilitate the development of receptive and expressive communication. The speech-language pathologist is typically responsible for evaluating the client’s receptive and expressive communication skills and providing the services to anchor improvement. The speech-language pathologist also provides training and treatment for communication strategies, speech-perception training (e.g., speechreading, auditory training and auditory-visual-speech-perception training), speech and voice production, and comprehension of oral, written, and sign language.
