Benefits of Telecoil: Staying in the loop

Summary

A hearing aid maker's small study of speech understanding through a hearing loop, and of whether demonstrating the telecoil at the fitting helps users remember and use it.

Key findings

• 28 users of the maker's own hearing aids took part, 14 with behind-the-ear and 14 with completely-in-canal models. Seven of the behind-the-ear users had the telecoil demonstrated at their fitting; the other seven were only told about it.
• In a reverberant laboratory room, with sentences at 65 dBA and +10 dB SNR and the listener 3 m from a talking manikin, behind-the-ear users scored 9% of words with their directional microphones, 66% through the telecoil and a hearing loop, and 56% with a 2.4 GHz remote microphone; the telecoil and the remote microphone did not differ significantly.
• After one month, all 7 users who had the demonstration recalled what the telecoil mode was for, against 2 of the 7 who had only been told.
• After two months, at a simulated cinema with a hearing loop, 2 of the 7 who had the demonstration and 1 of the 7 who had not switched to the loop programme on their own; the others stayed in their default programme.
• Concludes that counselling and in-office demonstration matter, and suggests encouraging patients to compare settings in realistic situations.

Limits

A maker's flyer about its own hearing aids, with no named authors, no dates of testing and no statistics for the demonstration comparison; seven people per group. Self-initiated use at the simulated cinema was low in both groups, which the conclusion does not discuss. The flyer is dated June 2022 (6/22), although its file name says April.

Read the original

cdn.mediavalet.com/usil/starkeyhearingtech/9XWBLQtc6E-UaYLkXHuSrg/xzi1xwCmpkef7cSGZmwjfQ/Original/Telecoil%20Feature%20Summary%20APR22_F.pdf

Link checked 9 October 2026. We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

• Are telecoils switched on and set up well enough for loops to work?Not reliable yet
• How do listeners learn that a venue has assistive listening, and which signs and symbols do the rules ask for?Partly answered
• What works in theatres and cinemas, and what do the rules ask of them?Partly answered

Cite this source

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