Book Review - Jul/Aug 2000
'Understanding Hearing Loss' Kenneth Lysons
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Understanding Hearing Loss
Author: Kenneth Lysons
Year: 1996
Pages: 175
Cost: 9.95GBP paperback
Available from: Amazon books
Kenneth Lysons manages cover a vast amount of information in a relatively short amount of space. His book looks at the mechanism of hearing, causes of hearing loss and possible treatments for hearing loss in some detail. The information goes beyond the basics, but without becoming too difficult for the layperson to understand.
The book also looks at the effects of hearing loss on employment, family and social relationships, and provides useful information on how people adjust to hearing loss. Part of the adjustment process can involve hearing aids, and Lysons provides an excellent section on hearing aids, their history and use, and how to purchase hearing aids. There is also a chapter about cochlear implants, which provides information about how they work, how they are implanted and how they are used.
There is also a chapter on the principles of lipreading and communication strategies. This provides useful background information, but is not intended to teach people how to lipread. Some of Lysons suggestions for lipreading practice are now somewhat out-of-date, and not considered to be very effective ways of learning to lipread. However, the advice on communication strategies is generally excellent.
Errata: there are mistakes on the lipshapes chart on p121. The second group of sounds reads f.u., but should read f.v; and the seventh group of sounds reads v, but should read r.