Join us this week on Sound Advice as Doug Leonard from ASI, Audiological Services of Iowa, dives deep into the world of LACE AI. Discover how this innovative program offers a cutting-edge approach to enhancing communication and listening abilities for individuals with or without hearing aids. Whether you're struggling before receiving hearing aids or seeking to improve auditory processing, learn how LACE AI provides tailored exercises and personalized training to meet your needs.
This week on Sound Advice with audiologist Doug Leonard from ASI, Audiological Services of Iowa, we're going to be talking about LACE AI. A lot of folks may be a little leery about AI. Here's an instance where this is really super cool, not only for people with hearing loss and hearing aids, but for those who are maybe struggling a little bit before they get hearing aids, you can use this great program. Now, Doug, it's called LACE AI, Listening and Communication Enhancement, It's been around in different forms for years, but right now I think it's probably at its best.
It is, and it's something that I've looked at over the last couple decades. I mean, one of the things that we fall down on as an industry in audiology and hearing care is the rehabilitation side of it. I liken it a lot to orthopedics. You know, you could have a great surgeon, very skilled surgeon. They could choose the best knee prosthetic to put in your leg to make you have better mobility. and do a great surgery. But then as the patient, if you don't do your rehabilitation afterwards with the physical therapy department, it's not going to be successful. And we have done that with patients over the years. We give them hearing aids. We try to diagnose their problem. We try to choose the right amplification for them, program them properly. But then we don't have that rehab program. And that's what I think LACE can take the place of. So what is the program like? Well, how do they do this? Yeah. So if folks can check this out, it's on online. It's called laceauditorytraining.com. If you look at that, we are a certified provider for lace. The patients will purchase a license essentially and download this on their phone. It's all through a smartphone. And it's a series of exercises that they will do through their smartphone. And it could be through AirPods if they have an iPhone. It could be through their hearing aids if they're a patient that has Bluetooth compatible hearing aids. And it's a series of exercises that train them to process sound better. And it starts out very simple. And it gauges the training based on how the patient does. And so they will do some different listening exercises. And you can choose categories. It's amazing. You can choose things you're interested in. And they have people that will say things and then they'll start to put in background noise. You know, it asks, did you hear that correctly? And you need to be honest with this training. One of the features I think is awesome with it is you can have a familiar voice record. So say you have trouble hearing your spouse particularly. You can send them a link via email and they can click on that and they can download a passage. They'll give you a passage to read as the spouse reads. that will record your voice. And then that future training can be done in the voice of your spouse, which is what AI can do these days. So amazing auditory training through Lace AI. It is, again, something that's available through my practice. Another thing that it has in the modules and in the training is working memory. And we all are concerned about memory issues. So just some fun games and things that we can do to keep our memory sharp as well.
It is really, really cool. You want more information? Talk to the great folks at ASI, Audiological Services of Iowa. Doug, what's the number here in Carroll? Yeah, they can call us, 792-5933. Give them a call. Find out more about this terrific program as we get ready for May, Better Hearing Month. Lace AI, once again, is what we've been talking about today.
