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"I wish you could just make a hearing aid
that fixes the way other people talk," a lady told me exasperated. Her
hearing loss did not make speech less loud but less clear. "I can hear them
talking to me but I can't understand what they say."
Partly to blame is her hearing loss, However, the English language in its
complexity has to share part of the responsibility. Almost everyone agrees
that English possesses more sounds than almost any other language, though
few agree on just how many sounds that might be, according to Bill Bryson
in THE MOTHER TONGUE: English and how it got that way. The International
Phonetic Alphabet, which most Speech Pathologists have to learn,
differentiates between fifty-two sounds used in English. If a person
listens carefully, there are many more than this. An analysis of speech at
the Bell Telephone Laboratories by Dr. John R. Pierce detected more than 90
separate sounds just for the letter "t".
"When we talk we make a multitude of fractional adjustments, most of which
we are wholly unaware of," continued Dr. Bryson. "We introduce a "p" sound
betweem "m" and "t" or "m" and "s" sounds, so that we really say "warmPth"
and "somePthing. People don't talk like this: Theytalklikethis.
Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolor left in the
rain. To understand what anyone is saying to us, we must separate these
noises into words, and the words into sentences so that we might in our
turn issue a stream of mixed sounds in response."
Unfortunately, impaired hearing adds a whole new layer of complication on
an already complex system of communication. Hearing loss makes some sounds,
like a "s" or "t" completely disappear in conversations. The two sentences:
"that's tough" and "that stuff" may sound exactly the same. Or the
question: "Do you want to go to the store?" can sound like: "
D...an.....go....uh uh ore?"
Most people with hearing loss do much better if the speaker will make a few
adjustments in the way they speak. Even when wearing hearing aids, the
hearing impaired person can do much better with a few modifications by the
speaker. According to Self Help for the Hard of Hearing (SHHH) Hearing Loss
magazine, there are some good suggestions for speaking to a person who has
hearing loss:
Get the listener's attention first before speaking
Touch them or call them by name. Saying the person's name and waiting for a
response can greatly decrease the need for repetitions.
Get close to the listener
Listening is much easier and more speech gets to the ear if there is not
too much air to dilute the signal. Most hearing impaired people can
understand speaking better if the voice is within three feet of the ear (or
an arm's length).
Do not shout
Shouting actually can distort the signal in the listener's ears. The vowel
sounds get so loud they cover up the less intense consonant sounds. Be sure
the listener has a clear view of the face so that facial expressions and
lip movements are visible.
Speak slightly slower
"In normal conversations we speak at a rate of about 300 syllables a
minute. To do this we force air up through the larynx and by variously
pursing our lips and flapping our tongue around in our mouth rather in the
matter of a freshly landed fish, we shape each passing puff of air into a
series of loosely differentiated plosives, fricatives, gutterals, and other
minor atmospheric disturbances. These sounds emerge as a more or less
continuous blurr of sound," Dr. Bryson continued. "If your hearing is
normal and I say, "Which do you like better, peas or carrots?" it will take
you on average less than a fifth of a second--the length of an eye
blink--to interpret the question, consider the relative merits of the two
vegetables, and formulate a reply." But the acoustic filter of hearing
loss, may make the word: "peas" completely unintelligible. And the word,
"better" turns into "butter." Speaking slower may decrease the need for
repetitions.
Rephrase rather than offering a repetition
Repeating a word which is not heard will not make it heard. If the word,
"better" turns into "butter" due to the hearing loss, it will remain
"butter". Rephrase the question: "Do you
like carrots more than peas?"
Turn off or move away from other noise sources
A person with hearing loss has a limited amount of ability to understand
the complicated speech signal. Other noises in the environment "clutter up"
the speech and make it difficult
to understand. The human brain which is connected to a normal hearing ear
has a magic ability to "pay attention" to what it wants to hear and
disregard what it does not want to hear. But the impaired ear loses that
ability as it struggles to sort out speech from the noise. Often, the
inability to understand speech when it is noisy is the first sign of
hearing loss.
Be patient, positive, and relaxed
"Communication is a complicated process and most of us speak with
remarkable laxness and imprecision and yet manage to express ourselves with
wondrous subtlety", said Dr. Bryson. Often, we just need to ask the person
with hearing loss for suggestions on ways to be better understood.
If you would like more information about hearing loss, hearing aids, or
communication issues, please call The Mid-East Tennessee Speech and Hearing
Center at 423-775-0303 or send a SASE to PO. Box 258 Dayton, Tenn. 37321.
© Copyright 2003 Margie Littell Ulrich. All rights reserved.
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