May is National Speech-Language-Hearing Month! NSLH Month is organized by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and it’s all about communication: raising awareness of communication disorders, taking care of our communication health and recognizing the medical professionals who are passionate about communication health.
The Effects of Untreated Hearing Loss on Communication and Connection
If you’re living with untreated hearing loss, it may be having a bigger impact on your daily life than you initially realize. Our brains are highly adaptable; it learns to “make do” with less sound information and either fill in the gaps on its own (which increases cognitive load), identify other reasons for the missing gaps (“Why is everyone mumbling?” ) or forget about sounds it can no longer hear (such as the sound of birds singing out your window).
This can lead to miscommunications, missed conversations and frustrations on all sides, which may ultimately lead someone to withdraw from or avoid social interactions out of frustration or embarrassment. This is a common phenomenon, but it leads to feelings of social isolation and increased chances of anxiety and depression. That’s why hearing loss is considered a communication disorder.
Hearing Aids Reconnect You to the World
Find connection again with hearing aids! Hearing aids help you participate fully in family gatherings, follow conversations without difficulty, reduce misunderstandings and feel confident in social settings again.
Hearing aids capture sound waves with a microphone and amplify them into your ear, giving your ears the boost they need to hear them. They utilize smart digital processing to read the sound waves and amplify the pitches you need the most help hearing. For example, if you have high-frequency hearing loss (which is the most common type), your hearing aids will amplify the high pitches that you struggle to hear.
Better yet, they use the same smart processing to identify human speech and will automatically prioritize it. This is incredible technology that separates modern hearing aids from the devices of decades past. Conversations are so much easier to follow with this technology.
Signs It’s Time for Hearing Aids
As stated above, our brains are adaptable, so you may not realize right away that you’re losing your hearing. Or perhaps you’ve noticed that your hearing is starting to deteriorate, but it’s actually more severe than you realize. Here are some common signs that you need a hearing test:
- Frequently asking people to repeat themselves
- Believing everyone is mumbling
- Difficulty hearing children’s voices (or other high-pitched voices)
- Difficulty following conversations in noisy environments, even if you can hear what’s said
- Feeling fatigued or easily frustrated after a day of heavy listening
- Turning up the volume higher than you used to
- Telephone conversations are harder to understand
- Your loved ones have mentioned it
Celebrate National Speech-Language-Hearing Month Here!
National Speech-Language-Hearing Month is the perfect opportunity to make some time to care for your hearing health. If you’ve noticed any of the signs listed above and believe it’s time to start your hearing loss treatment journey, come see us at The House Institute. Call today to schedule a hearing test.