Dr. Rebecca Rich and her team at Aberdeen Hearing and Tinnitus Center use their Auditory Connections Program, an auditory therapy that utilizes different frequencies of music, to help both children and adults.
Aberdeen Hearing & Tinnitus Center
Dr. Rebecca Rich became an audiologist to help fill a need in the Aberdeen community. “I had my masters in speech therapy and was working at Avera primarily with children ages three and younger, and we were in need of an audiologist in the area. I really liked the audiology classes I had taken while studying speech therapy, and so it was always kind of in the back of my mind that if I ever went back to school it would be for that. When I saw the need for an audiologist here, I decided to pursue the challenge.”
After receiving her doctorate, Dr. Rich opened the Aberdeen Hearing & Tinnitus Center, located at 2220 6th Avenue SE. The clinic provides a wide variety of services for everyone from young children to adults, including diagnostic hearing tests, tinnitus evaluation and management, auditory processing disorder evaluations, hearing aid selection, dispensing, fitting and repair, and more.
One thing that makes her practice stand out is its new Auditory Connections Program, which has been up and running for a little over a year. Dr. Rich says the program is a therapy for the auditory system that is designed to stimulate the brain through different frequencies of music. “The goal is to open pathways and relieve emotional barriers in the brain that create blockages and affect how we think and process information.”
The program has the ability to help people improve in so many different areas like reading, language, motor skills, emotional regulation, attention, concentration, and sensory and auditory processing. “It really is for everybody. The general person can get so many benefits in their day-to-day functions from it. Everyone on staff here has tried it and we’ve felt more organized, had more energy, and noticed a better memory. We’ve seen it help people with things like attention deficit disorder, autism, depression, anxiety, and the early stages of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s,” Dr. Rich says. Sessions take place for one hour, five days a week, and depending on individual needs, can be completed in entirety in as little as one month.
Auditory Connections is unique in the way it can work for so many, and also because there isn’t a therapy program like it anywhere else in South Dakota. Dr. Rich has patients who travel from the Mobridge, Milbank, and Sioux Falls areas to Aberdeen just for Auditory Connections. Recognizing another need she could help with, this June she established an outreach location in Watertown that will be open a couple days a week for her patients from other parts of the state.
Starting both Auditory Connections and her Watertown clinic has made this a busy year for Dr. Rich and her team. “It’s so nice to have people come in here and to be able to help them with so many different issues and challenges, and to help them have success in their lives and see their results. It’s been a fun adventure” // – Jenny Roth
Aberdeen Hearing & Tinnitus Center is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM, and Fridays from 8:00 AM to noon. You can reach them by phone at 605-725-4327, or visit www.aberdeenhearing.com.
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