I am so happy to be able to write up  some of Dad’s book on line.  He was very significant in my choice of career, and was a great mentor to me.

More from his book:

The invention of the transistor in the 1950’s reduced the power requirement to a level which enabled the first aids to appear which Incorporated their own batteries.  The body of the aid, though somewhat smaller, was still worn, usually, on the chest, and was connected by a wired to a separate ear-piece.  Subsequent miniaturization techniques produced the behind -the-era aid.  Since then other, still smaller, aids have become available which may be worn in the ear or in the ear-canal  (editors note – don’t forget this was written about 15 years ago; new technologies in feedback cancellation, and improved battery technology, means that tiny and elegant BTE hearing aids are now available – for example at Blamey & Saunders Hearing).)

Your medical advisers have diagnosed the causes of your hearing loss and have suggested that some improvement to your hearing, and there fore to the quality of your life, might be gained by the use of a hearing aid.  This will almost certainly be the case , but – let us be frank – a hearing aid takes a bit of getting used to, and a fair amount of practice is required to get the best from it.  Indeed at first it might be difficult to fit the thing on at all, and then to realize what it is that you are actually hearing, as opposed to what it is that you think you ought to be listening to. (Editors note – hearing aids are hugely improved since my Dad wrote this, and he also had a very severe hearing loss,  but he’s still right that you have to be prepared to put some dedicated effort in to let your brain reinterpret the world of sound that has been missing)