Robert Traynor

Robert M. Traynor, Ed.D., is a hearing industry consultant, trainer, professor, conference speaker, practice manager and author. He is a founding member of HHTM and had previously written a regular weekly column for the site for many years. He has decades of experience teaching courses and training clinicians within the field of audiology with specific emphasis in hearing and tinnitus rehabilitation. He serves as Adjunct Faculty in Audiology at the University of Florida, University of Northern Colorado, University of Colorado and The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Seeing with your Ears – Echolocation – Part I

This week at Hearing International we will begin a series on Echolocation. There have been reports of humans using echolocation as part of mobility training for the blind. Seeing with your ears? Is that possible? As audiologists we all know lot about hearing and hearing rehabilitations, amplification and other techniques, but using the auditory system to see may be a bit foreign to us. If

Hard of Hearing Athletes of the 2012 Olympics – True Champions!

Last week Hearing International discussed hard of hearing Olympians of yesteryear. This week we concentrate on athletes with hearing loss who are participating in the 2012 London Games. As of August 7, the Gold medal count for the USA was 29, 3 medals behind China and 10 ahead of the next closest competitor, Great Britain. ————————————————————————– One of the USA standout teams in

Hearing impaired Olympic Athletes – True Champions!

Many thanks to my colleague editors at HHTM for a great two-week break. Hopefully, Hearing International readers enjoyed the encore performance of some of the Best of Hearing International over the past couple of weeks. Since the 2012 Olympics are currently going on in London, It seemed reasonable to discuss some recent hearing-impaired Olympians and their contribution to the Games.

Best of Bob’s Posts: Mysterious Case of Vincent Van Gogh’s Pinna

Sherman (2009) states that Vincent Van Gogh is not only universally recognized as among the great artists in history, but also as the tortured genius and crazy painter who sliced off his own ear. Art-loving audiologists from around the world have long been baffled by Van Gogh’s loss of his right pinna and his much-discussed hearing impairment. Vincent Van Gogh,

Best of Bob’s Posts: Can Cerumen Removal Be An Erotic Experience?

In Japan many things are erotic that would not be considered such in our culture. The Japanese have taken the eating of certain eels, raw fish, and other native foods to erotic heights. In Japanese culture, ear cleaning is a uniquely intimate procedure that demonstrates a huge amount of trust when someone else is allowed to introduce fairly sharp instruments into your ear canals (that’s

The Deafness of George III – A cause of the War of 1812? – Part IV

This week Part IV of our Hearing International saga honoring the War of 1812 tries to put this story together to investigate if deafness cojntributed to the War and it could have been avoided if the King actually had better hearing. So….What Do We Know? Over the past three weeks of exploring the War of 1812 and its causes we have

The Deafness of King George III – A cause of the War of 1812? – Part III

This week Hearing International continues to honor the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and presents the third article in the series investigating if the War of 1812 could have been caused by the Deafness of King George III of Great Britain. The saga continues with an investigation of his successor, King George IV. As is the custom, George III’s

The Deafness of George III – A Cause of the War of 1812? – Part II

This week Hearing International continues to honor the War of 1812 and presents the second in the series of articles that looks at the issue of whether the War of 1812 could have been caused by the deafness of King George III of Great Britain. To that end, it is necessary to review the life and medical history of George III,

The Deafness of George III – A Cause of the War of 1812? – Part I

Hearing International looks at the War of 1812 on its 200th anniversary. We will consider in a multipart series the question: Could the War of 1812 (called the Anglo-American War in Britain) and, possibly, the US Revolutionary War have been caused directly or indirectly by King George III’s possible deafness? First some background information on the War of 1812. The US Perspective Going to war with

Does Signal Jamming Really Cause Cochlear Implant Buzzing?

Last week at Hearing International we reviewed the military’s need to jam signals in the operation areas. As we found out it basically saved the lives of soldiers deployed to various areas where hostile action was required. This week Hearing International investigates the actual issue of if buzzing is caused in cochlear implants by signal jamming and if so what