If you read news on social media every day then, fairly quickly, you will be able to see what is fact and what is fiction. Reading and understanding is important for anyone to improve your knowledge and make better decisions for your everyday life and work. It’s the same for hearing, and understanding. So if you, and your loved ones, are losing our hearing then wearing a suitable hearing aid will help you to understand what you hear, on the news and when you are speaking with your colleagues, family and friends.
Better Hearing, Better Understanding
From time to time you may feel like some of the people you chat with are mumbling when they speak, or their words are muffled. You may have to prompt them or ask them to repeat themselves. It can become annoying, or even embarrassing, at times. Is it them, or is it you? Maybe it’s both of you. Hearing loss affects our ability to understand speech more than we sometimes realise. If you have been generally healthy all your life then wearing spectacles when you lose your eyesight or wearing a hearing aid when you lose your hearing can be unsettling. It may require a period of physical and mental adjustment.
Vowels and Consonants
One of the most common signs of hearing loss is difficulty in understanding speech. You might be able to hear someone talking but not understand exactly what they are saying. Simple phrases can get confused such as: “What time is it?” with “What kind is it?”. Routine activities like watching TV or talking with your family at the dinner table can become less enjoyable and more stressful.
Certain sounds and letters can be harder to hear than others. When we speak there are lower-pitched sounds (A, E, I, O and U) and higher-pitched sounds (S, F, Th, Sh, Ch, K, P, and H). If you can’t hear the higher-pitched consonants, it can be difficult to understand what someone is saying. Vowel sounds help to alert you that speech is present, but it’s the consonants that give speech meaning by distinguishing one word from another. People with high-frequency hearing loss, usually caused by natural aging or exposure to excessive noise, have difficulty understanding even when they know speech is present.
Free Hearing Test
Even mild hearing loss can affect the sounds of speech, making it difficult to understand words with consonant sounds, especially in noisy environments. Don’t let this drive you bananas. The range of average human speech measured in frequency in Hertz (Hz) and loudness in Decibels (dB) are used by professional audiologists when they test your hearing. If you can hear but can’t understand, then drop in Clarisound for a free hearing test by one of our friendly, professional audiologists.
Fitting and wearing a suitable hearing aid will restore your hearing and understanding and let you and your loved ones enjoy life to the fullest.