HearS Screener

HeArs is an app designed by Smarty Ears funded by the START Preliminary Proof of Concept Fund at the Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU).  HeArs is designed to serve as a tool to screen children for their ability to understand single words in the presence of competing noise. 
HearS is designed to be used by audiologists and speech language pathologists. If used by families as a preliminary screening for evaluating your child's ability to understand speech in background noise, please contact an audiologist or a speech-language-language-pathologist for more information. 
Background noise can impact how children listen, learn and communication in a variety of settings. HeArs functions by screening a child’s initial basic language skills in identifying common words in quiet mode, and then screening the child’s ability to identify monosyllabic words in two possible types of background noise, interrupted or classroom noise, in speech-to-noise ratios between 15SNR and -12SNR. 
Our team believes that HeArs can be an asset in the early detection of children who may present with limited ability to understand speech in background noise in a large scale which can be implemented as a classroom/school/district wide screening in addition to the already required hearing screenings performed in school districts. 
Two test modes are included which allows for re-evaluations with a different set of words if the child fails in the first screening attempt.
HeArs includes proprietary state-of-the-art technology to determine environmental noise readings and calibrate the appropriate audio presentations specifically for each student depending on their performance. 
HeArs words have been carefully designed to assess the child’s performance response to SNR, phonemes, and voice gender.
A professional report is automatically generated and data easily share between professionals and caregivers.

Users must be audiologist or speech-language pathologists, or to seek a doctor’s advice in addition to using this app and before making any medical decisions.

2. Sullivan, J., Thibodeau, L., & Assmann, P. (2013), Auditory training in interrupted noise improves speech recognition in noise for children with hearing impairment, Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 133(1).
 
3.Sullivan, J., Thibodeau, L., & Assmann, P. (2012), Performance-intensity function in interrupted and continuous noise for children with hearing impairment. Journal of Educational Audiology, 30-37.