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There are many issues that relate to the efficacy of the undergraduate degree in the field of communicative disorders. Some have advocated for the elimination of the degree while others vigorously fight to maintain it. Some believe that there should be clinic associated with the undergraduate degree while others argue to have the degree but without clinic. Some state departments of education allow persons with an undergraduate degree in communicative disorders to practice in the schools, others do not. Colleges and universities are afraid that without an undergraduate degree program, their departments will be seen as vulnerable to elimination in the academy. Other colleges and universities want to close their undergraduate programs to concentrate on their master's and doctoral degrees, especially because of the shortage of doctoral level faculty to adequately staff all their programs. All of these issues and many more play into the debate about the continuation of the undergraduate degree in the field of communicative disorders. Today you are going to hear from three members of the Council who have very different viewpoints on the issue. We hope to stimulate discussion that will be productive in helping you and your departments determine the efficacy of your undergraduate degree in the field

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Intended Audience & Purpose: This conference is intended for otologists, audiologists, hearing aid specialists, psychologists, and nurses, who provide clinical management services for patients with tinnitus. The purpose of this conference is to provide a review of current evaluation and management strategies for the treatment of tinnitus.

BACKGROUND: New and improved methods of feedback suppression are routinely introduced in hearing aids; however, comparisons of additional gain before feedback (AGBF) values across instruments are complicated by potential variability across subjects and measurement methods. PURPOSE: To examine the variability in AGBF values across individual listeners and an acoustic manikin. RESEARCH DESIGN: A descriptive study of the reliability and variability of the AGBF measured within six commercially available feedback suppression (FS) algorithms using probe microphone techniques. STUDY SAMPLE: Sixteen participants and an acoustic manikin. RESULTS: The range of AGBF across the six FS algorithms was 0 to 15 dB, consistent with other recent studies. However, measures made in the participants ears and on the acoustic manikin within the same instrument suggest that across instrument comparisons of AGBF measured using acoustic manikin techniques may be misleading, especially when differences between hearing aids are small (i.e., less than 6 dB). Individual subject results also revealed considerable variability within the same FS algorithms. The range of AGBF values was as small as 7 dB and as large as 16 dB depending on the specific FS algorithm, suggesting that some models are much more robust than others. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest caution when selecting FS algorithms clinically since different models can demonstrate similar AGBF when averaging across ears, but result in quite different AGBF values in a single individual ear.

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It is well established that modern directional microphones in hearing aids provide listeners with an improved speech understanding in noise. De-spite this, the impact of directional microphones in real life conditions is limited. In fact, hearing in noise remains one of the biggest problems for hearing aid users. Fortunately, recent developments in super-directional technology, at least in laboratory settings, promise to deliver significant benefits to hearing aid users. Experiments suggest large improvements in speech understanding in noise and significant preference for highly directional systems. This advantage is often extrapolated to suggest equal advantages in real world listening situations. However, it is increasingly apparent that hearing in noise entails various complex tasks for the listener. Consequently, super-directional technology may be advantageous in some situations but may also have some limitations in its usage. Here we present a discussion of super-directional microphone technology based on several studies. In our research we have examined various factors that influence benefit such as beam width design, adaptation speed, preservation of spatial cues, vent sizes, acoustic scene, and reverberation. Our evidence appears to be confounded by individual characteristics of the listener such as age, hearing loss, personality traits, and cognition. All these factors combined will guide our discussions and thoughts about future research and development of super-directional systems