At the beginning of each auditory rehab session, after I ask my patients how they are doing and what new hearing experiences they have had since our last meeting, I ask them about their CI use habits.

At the end of April 2020, I realized that COVID-19 added an additional challenge for people with CIs—daily use of cochlear implants by many of my patients had decreased. A short survey I ran in a Facebook group for deaf and hard of hearing people supported my hypothesis, demonstrating that this trend was not specific to people with CIs and was also common among adults with hearing loss using hearing aids.

The reasons are logical. Spending most of our time at home, communicating with a limited number of people, and having few (if any) social activities had affected motivation and need for some people to use their hearing devices regularly and throughout the day. A prior post discusses this topic.

Consistent use of one’s cochlear implant(s) is especially critical for new CI users, individuals who are still adjusting to their new hearing and learning to use their CI to understand speech. Staying at home and having minimal social interactions means that people do not have sufficient opportunities to practice and improve their new auditory skills.

What can you do to develop your hearing skills at home?

Using assistive listening devices (ALDs) may be helpful as they can help someone to maximize their quality of the signal through a computer, cell phone, and/or television. ALDs can dramatically decrease the interference via environmental sounds. If someone does not yet have an assistive device, it is important to practice listening in a quiet room with a closed door.  Others at home should avoid making noises as competing sounds may impede performance and make it difficult for someone to concentrate on listening tasks. 

Ten challenging (and fun) listening activities that may be pursued at home:

1.   Ted Talks. Choose an exciting talk, add subtitles, slow down the playback speed, and you are ready to go! 0.75 playback speed may be the best. The slower option of 0.5 may be too slow, making speech sound smeared and unclear. 
2.  News. There are news websites that allow the viewer to read and listen at the same time. You can choose to practice your speech understanding using news websites designed for English learners in which the news is presented at a slower speaking pace. On www.newsinlevels.com you may practice your listening skills at three different language levels. Simple, straightforward language is easier to understand than more complicated language since it is easier to fill in the gaps of words you might have missed. Newsineasyenglish.com is another site that allow someone to listen at a slow or fast speaking pace. 
3.   Voice-reader/read aloud apps. Text-to-voice apps allow someone to listen to various written materials; in many apps, you can make adaptations and choose the voice you prefer (male or female) and the speed that works best for you.
4.   Listen to songs. Listen to your favorite songs repeatedly. Start with listening while you follow the written text. Then try to understand some words without it text. Different versions of the same song may challenge you with varying levels of difficulty. Read more here .
5.   Listening to podcasts with transcripts. Try to listen to podcasts in small segments, with repetition and using transcripts as needed. If it is possible to listen to the podcast via YouTube, you will be able to slow down the speech rate, as mentioned above.
6.   Phone Calls .  If you feel like you are almost there and want to improve your telephone skills, then this is the time!  Enlist people who will be cooperative and patient and ask them to help you in achieving your desired outcome. Send them general instructions, like the ones listed here.  Be aware of the variables that may affect your difficulty or success in making a phone call. This will allow you to adapt the challenges you face to your current ability. Training that is tailored to your specific needs will help you succeed and provide the confidence you need to continue practicing and making calls.  You may find relevant instructions here.
7.   Listen to your own speech. You can record yourself reading sentences and stories, and then listen to the recording. Listening to yourself speak in daily life helps your progress, and this is one way of training yourself to do it.
8.   Using auditory training apps. You can work on improving your listening skills in various contexts such environmental sounds, speech sounds, words, sentences, music, and telephone use.  There are many computerized auditory training programs; one of the most extensive (and free) programs is Angelsound™. The CI manufacturers offer auditory training programs which are available on their websites. 
9.   Video calls. Ask friends and family members you usually text with to have a weekly video call with you. Ask them to sit in a quiet room while talking with you, use a headset with a microphone, and ensure that there is plenty of light on their face allowing you to have additional assistance from seeing their face. If you can already understand simple sentences without speech reading, they can ask you simple questions while covering their mouth or turning off their camera. It is recommended that both of you use computers, not your cellphones.
10. Seek a support group in your area or online. To read more about the potential benefits of a support group for adult CI users, review this post.

Try to reserve one hour every day specifically for auditory training and be sure to use your CI for at least eight hours a day; more is better. Consistent use and auditory practice will yield the best results.

Good Luck!