This study aims to explore qualitative aspects of hearing loss from the individual ' s perspective in order to better understand the experience of acquiring and adapting to deafness,and the impact these experiences may have on aural rehabilitation. 21 participants were interviewed using open ended, digitally recorded interviews, each lasting approximately one hour. Subsequent interviews were carried out as required. Participants were recruited from three groups. 5 participants were recruited from an NHS audiology clinic, these participants were attending the clinic in order to be assessed for a fi rst hearing aid fi tting; 6 participants were recruited from an intensive rehabilitation course in the USA, these participants were long term hearing aid users; a third group were recruited from a database of older people, these 10 participants were aged fi fty or older and believed they had begun to experience diffi culty participating in conversations but did not yet think this warranted further investigation.Interviews were coded using a process of open and axial coding drawn from grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Several themes emerged from the data and categories were Int J Audiol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by University Of Rhode Island on 12/26/14For personal use only.In the UK, more than one in ten people aged 55-74 years have a signifi cant hearing loss, of which the majority (80%) do not have a hearing aid. Alternative intervention strategies, such as auditory training, may help alleviate hearing diffi culties. Although auditory training has been shown to improve performance on the trained task in both normally-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners, there is little evidence to suggest it can generalise to everyday, functional outcomes. This study used a randomised, crossover design and aimed to assess whether auditory training provides benefi t in speech perception, communication and cognitive abilities in non-hearing aid users with mild hearing loss, aged 50 to 74 years.Home-based delivery of auditory training using computercontrolled, 3I-3AFC, adaptive presentation of phonemic contrasts (e.g. /a/ /e/) with feedback, was carried out for 15 minutes a day, for four weeks. 44 participants have attended the fi rst two visits, separated by four weeks; 23 have undergone training, whilst 21 acted as controls. There were no differences between the age and better ear hearing thresholds (BHTL) between the trained (T) and control (C) groups (mean age: T ϭ 64.7y, C ϭ 66.1y; mean BHTL: T ϭ 33.0 dBHL, C ϭ 31.9 dBHL). Compliance with training was high, with 20/23 participants (87%) exceeding the required amount (see Henshaw et al, this issue).Outcome measures obtained pre-and post-training included speech intelligibility-in-noise (triple digits, sentences), self-reported communication and listening (Glasgow Hearing Aid Benefi t Profi le, Speech, Spatial and Qualities of hearing questionnaire), memory (digit span, letter monitoring) and divided attention (Test of Everyday Attention). Interim analysis showe...