Study suggests that non-linear frequency compression helps children with moderate loss

Contemporary digital hearing aids typically provide substantial benefit to children with mild to moderately severe hearing loss. However, for many hearing-impaired children, difficulty remains with certain aspects of speech recognition and production, such as the phonemes /s/ and /z/. The Phonak Nios micro-hearing aid utilises non-linear frequency compression (NLFC) technology, designed to lower frequencies within the designated range, with clinician-programmable cut-off frequency and compression ratio. The primary objective of NLFC is to restore audibility of highfrequency inputs up to approximately 8000 Hz utilizing an algorithm that implements compression of acoustic input exceeding the programmed cut-off frequency, shifting high frequencies to a lower more audible range without interfering with frequencies below the cut-off.