Welcome to ABR Class 101

Thursday we went to see our Audiologists at PENTA again for a 2nd ABR. Thank you Courtney and Katherine(our audiologists) for making the 3 hour event not so bad. We had some good laughs. Peter and I are NOT audiologists but we will cautiously try to explain the results. Welcome to ABR 101:
First of all, the picture attached with this post is an audiogram. A lovely picture for those of us (like me) who are visual learners :)
We could not scan the whole chart, but the sides are as follows: Top to bottom is increasing intensity(loudness) and Left to Right is low frequency sounds to high frequency sounds. The lines you see surrounding all the letters are what they call the speech banana (where most speech occurs.)
Symbols: The circled A is what Amelia hears with her hearing aids on at the lower frequencies. We could not get the high frequencies b/c Amelia got fussy. X=Left ear O=Right Ear, Black marks=lst ABR, and Pink Marks=2nd ABR. When you see these X's and O's Amelia is hearing at and below them.

ABR stands for Auditory Brainstem Response. It measures neurological response to sound via electrodes on the head based on different sound frequencies. Both ABR's put her left ear in the mod-severe range for hearing loss. However, the 2nd ABR gave better results on the right ear. The loss in that ear seems to be more moderate than severe. For our analytical learners, here are some of her ABR test numbers: (keep in mind mild hearing loss starts at 25db and most talking is around 40db) Amelia- starts hearing at about 45-55db in the right ear and 50-65db in the left ear.
Friday we went to Atl. Area School for the Deaf to get her hearing aids adjusted. They did not need to be amped-up because of the new ABR combined with her response in the sound booth. Amelia with the hearing aids responded to 20db(loudness) at 500hz(low frequency sounds)..!!that's normal hearing range!! So the hearing aids are very beneficial.
Some clarifications & common questions we keep getting.
1. Will she need hearing aids when she is older? Yes, she has permanent loss.
It will not get better(unless stem cell research or something else comes
along.) It could get worse.
2. Why does she not "qualify" for Cochlear Implants? When we posted that in
beginning it was to be taken as a good thing. Children only get implants
if they are profound deaf......no hearing at all. We would not want her
to have to go down this road.