.: LACE Overview
LACE is an acronym for Listening And Communication Enhancement. Conceived by leading audiologists at the University of California at San Francisco, LACE is an interactive computerized aural rehabilitation program that has already helped thousands of people who live with some degree of hearing loss increase their listening skills by 40%. Just as physical therapy can help rebuild muscles and adjust movements to compensate for physical weakness or injury, LACE can develop skills and strategies that can help compensate for those situations when hearing is inadequate.
Hearing ≠ Listening
Get The Message
We don't really hear in our ears; we hear in our brain. Hearing aids can help a person detect softer sounds, but they don't necessarily provide good listening skills. Read More»
Even people with normal hearing can be poor listeners. Good listening skills is one of the essential components in effective communication.
Other components include rapid thought processing, auditory memory, use of language skills, and interactive strategies. Additionally, the confidence that what you thought you heard was what was actually spoken is vital.
These abilities can be damaged both by hearing loss and by the natural aging process. LACE is designed to enhance the ability to communicate by training the brain to best utilize these skills.
LACE Works Together With You
Hear the difference
LACE is always adapting to your listening skills. The difficulty level of the task is based on the accuracy of your response to the previous task, so LACE is never too difficult or too easy.
LACE provides a variety of interactive and adaptive tasks that are divided into three main categories.
1. Degraded Speech Task Examples
Once you've set your computer's speaker volume to a comfortable level, click on the play buttons below to hear a brief example of the degraded speech tasks.
Speech in Noise
Listening in loud places
Easy: Harder:
Rapid Speech
Listening to fast talkers
Easy: Harder:
Competing Voices
Listen for the child's voice
Easy: Harder:
2. Auditory Memory & Cognitive Skills
- Target Word – short and long term memory training
- Missing Word – improves speed of processing and use of contextual cues
3. Communication Strategies
- Strategies to help in daily communication activities
- Helpful Information about hearing loss and how to prevent it
LACE Version 3 Is Here!
Check Out What's New
Neurotone is delighted to announce a new release of LACE, Version 3. The list of improvements is long, with many of them geared towards motivating users to keep progressing through the early stages and ultimately succeed in getting through all twenty sessions. Some of the new features include video playback, videos with captions, standardized testing with improved result graphing, an enhanced training schedule and (our most requested feature) a 'Replay' button for every degraded speech task.
LACE is available through your local hearing healthcare professional or directly from Neurotone and to professionals at accommodation rates.