Hearing Loss, Clarity, Not Volume

Did you know that while our ears hear it’s our brain that listens?

Communication is a vital part of our lives whether that is interacting with our family and friends or simply to purchase something in a local shop. Hearing loss affects 1 in 7 people, varying in degrees from a mild hearing loss to severe, therefore depending on the hearing loss the impact will affect each individual in different ways.

Everyone is affected by hearing loss

Hearing loss does not only impact on the person but also on those around them and can lead to tension and annoyance for all involved. However, being mindful of some simple tips can help to reduce the frustration for all concerned. Firstly it’s important to realise that while our ears hear it’s our brain that listens, for example the most common hearing loss is high frequency therefore the ear delivers low frequency speech cues such as (b, m, n, g, r,) and the brain tries to fill in the missing high frequency cues such as (k, t, s, th,).

How You can help yourself

Now once we are aware that the brain is trying to fill in the blanks by looking at the person when we speak to them we are allowing them to use visual clues, speak slowly as rapid speech is very difficult to follow, if possible reduce background noise (turn of the television or radio if it is on rather than trying to talk over it).

Don’t speak to the person from a different room. If you are having difficulty being understood try replacing a word rather than just keep repeating the same sentence. As certain words are mainly made up of high frequency sounds, by substituting a word it can make all the difference.

Change words to ones that are easier to hear

For example: houses, first, taste, almost, are high frequency words, substituting these for their lower frequency counterparts: home, one, flavour, nearly, can make it easier for the person to understand and it is very easy to do for example: I’m almost at my house becomes I’m nearly home

 If you have any questions about hearing aids, hearing loss or hearing care, call us on 01 832 4007 or contact us online.