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Has anyone tried the Lace AI Pro app to retrain your audio perception?

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One of the Audiologists on YouTube recently posted a video claiming that a patient had a remarkable result from an App that uses progressive training techniques to help retrain the brain to interpret speech in noisy environments. Has anyone tried the Lace Pro app? Here’s a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMXdsWfd16Y89

And here’s a link to the company that offers the app: https://www.laceauditorytraining.com/105

This appeals to me because it’s pretty obvious that my inability to hear speech in noise is partly a brain processing issue, not just an ear issue.

Thanks for your thoughtful contribution!

Mike in PDX

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On one of the social media platforms there was a lot of negative push back about the MSRP of $499.00 The overwhelming point was the sector of population that would benefit most from this is on fixed income and this isn’t an affordable option.

Edited

With some codes it can decrease to ~$329. You would have to consider what you prefer: paying, for example, weekly for speech therapy or paying a one-time fee for the app.

For me, $330-500 is also a lot, just saying.

I watched the video, and am not convinced the program would help me. My word recognition scores on my last 8 or so are in the 80s and 90s, with one in the 70s. While I don’t think I hear anywhere near that well in noise, I’m guessing that the degree of improvement talked about in the video would be a lot more for people with low . I’m not any kind of hearing professional, so could well be wrong, but I’m not willing to bet $500 on that I am.

Edited
@eek said:

I’m guessing that the degree of improvement talked about in the video would be a lot more for people with low WRS.

You’re not guessing, you’re right. In one of the first videos about LACE PRO, Dr. Cliffs showed graphs that demonstrated patients with poorer hearing in noisy environments benefited the most, compared to patients with mediocre or even little problems.

EDIT:

My sentence above don’t mean that people with mediocre and little problems with speech in noise couldn’t get benefits from the app.

It has an option for you to invite a friend to submit a voice sample, then the will convert all of the training to the friend’s voice. I’ve used 2 friend’s voices exclusively for 2 weeks and love it. It is a priceless bargain to get a lifetime licence to listen to their hard to understand voices any time of the day that I feel like it and for as long as I want to train. It’s available in Canada now and likely lots more countries.

Edited

In reply to @orgullodemexico

Social media can be useful to provide ideas, but it is not a reliable decision maker on its own, so you have to dig deep. Contrary to sm claims, $400 for a lifetime license is not a lot considering it delivers priceless value. For instance, I am able to train with the voices created of 2 people that I can’t understand, which is one of the options.

Edited

I said “likely” because it’s software which costs nothing to scale up worldwide in English speaking countries, and Canada has a small 40M population where LACE has offered it there a month ago. There are a lot more lucrative countries than Canada to go after in the long run. That’s why programmers form companies - to scale up and make money. So why wouldn’t it be offered in other countries once they get distribution set up for launch? I’m not sure why you think they don’t want to expand unless you don’t understand this company wants to make money. Your one word comment saying “sad” doesn’t explain what your idea is.

@Steve12 said:

Your one word comment saying “sad” doesn’t explain what your idea is.

I don’t expect to buy LACE in my own language. I would prefer to buy its English version, because I want to learn English speech understanding, which is now very difficult to me. So I am surprised why they don’t see it as an opportunity.

In reply to @eek

There are sections for rapid speech training, figure out the missing word in conversation, speech in noise and working memory. I do the first 3 numerous times each day, using the voices of some friends that I can’t understand - they submitted voice samples to LACE which were then converted into the program. I think anyone will get benefit from training, especially when your hard to understand friend’s voices become the program..

Edited

Either Missing Words got an upgrade recently or else I progressed up a level in Missing Words, because now the multiple choice has 7 words to select from instead of 4, which makes it harder to guess when I miss some of the other words. I like the mumbled option as opposed to the easier option where the person says blank and I at least know where the problem is (the user will quickly figure out that the “mumbled” word is really gibberish, because it does not mumble the answer word) because I have to figure out what were the 2 gibberish words and pair 2 of the 7 choices that fit the context of the sentence.

I purchased it on a reduced cost basis by using a code provided in Dr cliff’s channel. I used it daily for about 6 months but grew bored and stopped. The benefit was subtle, not a major change. I have just started using it again. It does seem to help, but not a big change.

Thanks for your opinion, I sometimes come back to this topic to look for answers like yours.

Yes. I am using this app to improve my auditory processing. My understanding is that to achieve significant improvement one has to do the exercises for 15-20 minutes every day for several weeks.

I have been using Lace Pro for the last 70 days. It takes me 10 minutes to do one Speech in Noise lesson which is the only category I need as I quickly topped the other categories. I decided to buy Lace Pro AI because I like Duo Lingo so much and listening to Dr. Cliff’s wildly enthusiastic endorsement it seemed like a no brainer. However I now wish I had researched more before I signed up. The app is very flat footed compared to an truly interactive app such as Duo Lingo. I do one lesson a day and find it mind numbingly boring so I pace around the house as I do it to get through it. The topics and sentences are really interesting, but it is the process and mechanism that has let it down. Because I have not progressed, ie improved my scores in hearing speech in noise, I went back to the research base and discovered that after about 2013 where research findings are listed arising from the DVD version and other studies, all subsequent entries are in the form of enthusiastic testaments from audiologists, quoting the earlier (not related to Lace AI Pro) research. It’s a slight of hand, not born out of dishonesty I think, just failure (as is true of me) to look carefully enough. That is, there is no evidence of research done to demonstrate hearing improvement using Lace AI Pro. I then asked Claude AI to go search and sadly, although the search was extensive and wide, it confirmed there is no evidence base to the claims made for Lace AI Pro. The research base is all for earlier work. I see some people reporting improvement and that earlier research indicates that new hearing aid users were more likely to see improvement than those who have been using hearing aids for some time. For me that’s 5 years. I’m sure I would have a sunnier view if I’d had success but as it is I notice how clunky this app is. It’s also sloppy with the ai voice misreading some of the written text. In addition I can feel a growing impetus to ‘cheat’. That is, the instructions say to indicate you have heard correctly even if you missed a word or two but got the general sense and meaning. You are asked to say out loud or mentally what you have heard before seeing the answer but over time, seeing written what you thought you heard builds a confirming bias. Voice recognition software is widely available which would have overcome this so it is disappointing, especially at the price. Looking back at what happened to my own audiologist, I think she was as taken in as I was. I was a willing and enthusiastic participant as this took off in in Australia. It now looks like some kind of pyramid selling scheme with huge financial payments to the owner from independent audiologists. But……maybe tomorrow my scores and hearing speech in noise will improve and I’ll think it’s the best thing since sliced bread!

Micky3- Thanks for doing all that work and reporting it to us!

I tried Lace Pro a few months ago and was disappointed too. Like you, I really only used the hear in noise training. At first it was kinda fun and I’d do more than one lesson at a time, but it soon got boring and repetitious. The app presents speech recordings and adds various amounts of noise to challenge your brain. If you can understand the speech, the app adds more noise until you miss a couple of tests, then it drops the noise level back down again for a few tests. The concept seems to make sense and I felt it was fairly well executed.

Unfortunately, the noise is added in fairly large steps. I found that I could always make out the speech at what I will call level 4, but never at what I will call level 5. After a week or two, this became very discouraging as I wasn’t seeing any progress.

If I could make a change in the Lace Pro app, I’d make the noise steps smaller.

Thanks for reminding me of this app that I’ve neglected for the last three months. I just got some new and I think maybe I should see how they work with Lace Pro.

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