Top apps for listening comprehension and auditory training

Just like you can exercise to get a stronger body, you can exercise your auditory system for stronger hearing. This goes for anyone, including kids and and adults with hearing loss.

An easy and affordable type of auditory training, these game-based "exercises" can be done in the comfort of your own home via your smartphone or tablet.

Here are some of our favorites:

Hearing exercise apps for children

HearApp Kids (Free with in-app purchases available, iOS devices only)

HearApp guides children through a series of auditory exercises that help them identify and discriminate words and phrases. Developed by an Oregon-based biomedical research company, HearApp is intended to help people with hearing loss improve their listening skills. A user's progress is saved automatically, and up to four profiles are allowed.

AB Listening Adventures (Free, iPad only) 

Parents, caregivers and therapists will appreciate this app for children with hearing loss ages 4 to 10. The program is designed to guide development of listening and language skills using six different story-based games which focus on listening for multiple elements, plurals, pronouns or minimal pairs.

VocAB Scenes (Free, iPad only)

Children with hearing loss ages 4 to 10 will enjoy learning vocabulary with this app’s fun scenes, featuring outside water fun, beach play, pet store, swimming pool, camping and winter fun. Caregivers or therapist guide the child in listening exercises using three different games for each scene to promote listening and language development.

Auditory Workout ($24.99, iPad only)

Created by a certified speech and language pathologist for children ages 4-12 with auditory comprehension and processing disorders, the app contains more than 1,000 listening exercises focused on improving auditory attention and memory, and processing of verbal directions. The game features a basketball coach who rewards children with a basketball for each correct response. The game makers offer a similar app, Auditory Memory, geared toward kids with auditory processing disorder.

Apps for both children and adults

Hearing Hunt (Free, iOS)

Word search enthusiasts, take note! This might be the app for you. Users listen to word clues and play against the clock to determine which words to search. Advance to new levels by collecting stars and win coins with each word you find. word searches are randomized each time you play. This game features three levels of difficulty and works with Bluetooth enabled hearing devices. 

Hearoes (Free with in-app purchases available, iOS); Google Play also available

This interactive auditory training platform is designed to help new cochlear implant and hearing aid users familiarize themselves with common environmental sounds and vocabulary. Developed in conjunction with audiologists and speech pathologists, the thirty fun activities focus on five key areas of hearing to help new users build familiarity and confidence.

AudioCardio (Free with in-app purchases availabile, iOS); Google Play version also available

The premise of this app is that it helps you train your brain's ability to detect noise by playing sounds that are just under detectable levels for you. You then create a personalized "sound therapy" that you can listen to while doing other things. The app creators state that this will result in improved gains in your hearing.

(Don't see your favorite listening comprehension app here? Please email us!)

'Offline' hearing exercises

While online brain games are fun, you can also do some daily hearing exercises at home.

Partner exercises:

• Practice having conversations in noisy situations by simulating those environments at home. You can do this easily by turning on the radio or television to a normal volume, then have a conversation with others in the same room. Focus on the conversation while tuning out all other sound.
• Close your eyes and ask your partner to quietly move to different parts of the room and make noise. Can you identify the direction of the sound? How about the distance?

No partner? No problem! Here are a few solo activities to do at your convenience:

• Meditate. Because so much of sound recognition occurs in the brain, finding ways to improve concentration is beneficial for your hearing. Studies indicate that meditation not only improves attention, it also stimulates blood flow which is  important for hearing health.
• Identify sounds. This active listening exercise helps your brain practice recognizing sounds. Find a comfortable place to sit and close your eyes. Identify as many of the sounds in your environment as you can, then isolate each one and focus your attention on it for a few seconds.
• Sing. If you're interested in improving your ability to distinguish speech in noisy environments, practice your singing. A study concluded that this simple activity improved speech-in-noise perception among adults with age related hearing loss.
• Practice yoga or exercise. Exercise improves blood flow and improves your health in numerous ways.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you love technology, you may like our round-ups of other apps focused on helping you make the most of your smartphone or tablet:

• Smartphone apps for hearing loss - my top picks
• Hearing aid apps: What you need to know
• Apps for tinnitus: My top picks
• The best apps for phone captioning
• The best smartphone decibel meter apps to measure noise levels
• The best apps for learning sign language
• Cochlear implant recipients reconnect to music with new app