Reagan Gets a New, Tiny Hearing Aid

WASHINGTON — President Reagan is wearing a new type of hearing aid that has remote control so that he can turn up the volume and filter out background noise such as that of helicopters, a White House spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The new device reduces the “feedback” that the President had from previous hearing aids, said Leslye Arsht, deputy White House press secretary. She said it also helps him to hear better on the telephone.

Howard Girsky of Siemens Hearing Instruments Inc., Piscataway, N.J., said that the new ITE model is so much smaller than the one Reagan used to wear that “you have to look closely to see it.”

The President wears a hearing aid in each ear.

Girsky said the device tunes out extraneous noise such as the roar of helicopter motors. He also noted that Reagan now can “hear the reporters better.”