My son is a computer engineer. He wants to talk me into fitting my mother who is 98 with blue tooth capable hearing aids and the new Apple Watch. She currently has hearing aids but does not do well on the phone. She does have a caption phone but it has a delay and sometimes isn’t correctly interpreting the conversation. With COVID phone conversations are even more essential. Mom is an above average elder, still living in her own home and taking good care of herself with a little help from family. She has a great audiologist with an appointment next week. I want to know the feasibility of this idea before the appointment with the audiologist and before presenting the idea to Mom. Her sight is good, doesn’t even wear glasses!
Comments
Bluetooth Hearing Aids
I am not 100% certain I understand what you're asking? I'll take a guess anyways... Feel free to clarify if it doesn't help. Hearing aids can and do work with cellphones over Bluetooth. Most are mFI, which means they work exclusively with iPhone. A few support Android. The audiologist will know. Using hearing aids with a direct connection to the phone is without question the best audio experience possible. Essentially you have custom headphones tailored for your ears and level of hearing. The direct input cuts out space, enhancing clarity. The usual setup is binuaral meaning uses both ears, so stereo sound. Assuming the user has hearing in both ears, the binural experience provides the best opportunity for understanding speech. Again, a good audiologist can go over this. And hopefully be able to provide a demonstration and/or trial. It is absolutely worth trying.
As for the Apple Watch, I'm not sure what the question is there. They're convenient, and fun. It will not help with the hearing issue, the aids need to work with the phone directly.
How well is her grasp of technology?
Hi. Though I don't know about the watch itself, I do know that my father who is getting older is not a tech person. He'll push buttons until something either works, or gets frustrated and cranky until a computer issue is fixed. If he says to me one more time, "What's my password?" I might just have to commit patricide. Seriously, no joking here, since COVId, she would need help setting things up, and learning the watch. Now even if it just gives you and others around you a piece of mind should she fall, God forbid, I can see how you'd like to make this happen. However once shown something, would she retain the memory to use it independently? I mean no disrespect, I just mean I wasn't sure how she would pick up something. I hope you get things worked out. And God bless her for her age and attitude toward life.