Nearly 20% of the world’s population struggles with hearing loss daily. The latest data shows that 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children have hearing loss (other studies have it as high as 2 to 5 in 1,000), and a large portion struggle with speech development as a result.
From the earliest days of our lives, how we hear the world affects how we communicate with it. Muffled sounds, limited feedback, and obstructed ear canals lead to future speech development issues if not addressed quickly.
Hearing is essential to a child’s ability to develop speech and language skills from the earliest stages of life. This includes how they understand sounds, learn languages, and communicate with others.
At Hearing Health Center, your hearing matters no matter your age. This guide helps you better understand the importance of early interventions for young people with hearing loss and how it affects their communication skills.
Early Childhood Language Acquisition
Infants listen to speech patterns and tones almost immediately after birth, which allows them to begin developing their language abilities. Hearing allows infants to recognize and imitate the sounds they hear, laying the groundwork for speech and communication.
However, this process is disrupted when a child experiences hearing loss.
Limited access to sound can delay language milestones, including babbling, first words, and simple sentences. Without early intervention, these delays can worsen, impacting vocabulary growth and the ability to form complete sentences.
Ongoing Speech and Language Skills
It isn’t just what the people around them say, but what the children say themselves.
Auditory feedback, or the ability to hear one’s voice, helps children learn how to pronounce words.
The loss of hearing impairs this feedback loop, making it challenging for children to correct speech errors and develop clear articulation.
The Importance of Early Detection and Intervention
That’s why it is so important to test early and often for signs of hearing loss.
Newborn hearing screenings and regular hearing tests help detect hearing issues early in a child’s life.
When identified early, interventions such as hearing aids and speech therapy can be implemented to support language development.
The goal is to give children early access to sound to naturally gain language skills and speech.
Types of Hearing Loss and Their Impact on Speech
Hearing loss can be categorized into three primary types: conductive, sensorineural, and mixed.
The different types affect your speech perception differently.
Conductive hearing loss occurs when sound waves are obstructed from traveling through the outer or middle ear to the inner ear.
This could be caused by something as simple as earwax buildup, fluid in the middle ear from infections, perforated eardrums, or abnormalities in the ear’s structure.
As an adult, if you’ve ever had too much earwax or fluid in your ear, you understand how difficult it is to hear sounds and conversations. Certain noises or speech frequencies might even be completely impossible to hear, as the low volume makes them difficult to understand.
Children with this conductive hearing loss might exhibit speech and language development delays due to inconsistent auditory input.
Sensorineural hearing loss results from damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or the auditory nerve pathways.
This damage can be due to aging, exposure to loud noises, head trauma, or genetic factors.
Individuals may struggle to distinguish between certain consonant sounds, leading to misunderstandings.
High-frequency hearing loss, a common form of sensorineural loss, can make it particularly challenging to hear sounds like “s,” “f,” and “th,” which are crucial for speech comprehension.
Mixed hearing loss is a combination of both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.
This indicates issues in the outer or middle ear and the inner ear or auditory nerve.
For instance, a person might have age-related inner ear damage (sensorineural) and a middle ear infection (conductive).
The dual nature of mixed hearing loss means individuals may face compounded challenges: reduced sound volume from the conductive component and diminished sound clarity from the sensorineural aspect, leading to difficulties in both hearing and understanding speech.
Depending on your age, mixed hearing loss could affect your ability to understand and participate in conversations.
How is Speech Affected by Hearing Loss?
The effects of hearing loss depend on factors such as the severity of the hearing impairment, the age at which it occurs, and whether intervention measures are in place.
A few speech characteristics associated with hearing loss include:
Delayed Speech Development in Children
Children with hearing loss may experience delays in reaching speech and language milestones.
You may notice a limited vocabulary, difficulty forming sentences, and challenges with grammatical structures. This includes struggles with plural forms, past tense, and possessives because they cannot hear the subtle differences in sound.
Pronunciation Difficulties
Hearing-impaired individuals often face challenges in articulating certain speech sounds, particularly high-frequency consonants like “s,” “sh,” “f,” “t,” and “k.”
These sounds are typically softer and more complex to hear, leading to omissions or mispronunciations in speech.
Voice Volume
Individuals with hearing loss have difficulty controlling their voice pitch and volume without the ability to hear feedback.
This commonly results in monotone speech or a lack of natural variations in intonation, creating an unusual or less expressive speech pattern.
Simplified Sentence Structures
Individuals with hearing loss might use simpler sentence constructions, often relying heavily on nouns and producing shorter sentences.
This simplification can stem from difficulties in acquiring and using complex grammatical forms.
Challenges with Grammatical Elements
Using grammatical markers such as verb inflections, adverbs, prepositions, and pronouns may cause noticeable difficulties.
These challenges can lead to speech that sounds less fluid and more fragmented.
Strategies for Mitigating Speech Challenges
Early intervention is the most crucial strategy for mitigating speech challenges among young people. From an early age, assistive technology, specialized therapies, and alternative communication methods significantly improve communication abilities and the quality of life for individuals with hearing impairments.
The younger you are, the more significant timeliness is.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasizes that infants diagnosed with hearing loss should receive intervention services as soon as possible, ideally before 6 months.
These services often involve therapists working closely with families to teach communication strategies and integrate learning into daily routines.
On the audiologist’s end, properly-fitting hearing aids improve audio input and speech comprehension. Because every person is different, working with a trusted audiologist allows for personalized care and treatment to ensure optimum results.
Consistent use of well-fitted equipment is a foundational step in developing normal auditory, speech, and language skills.
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) provide tailored interventions to help individuals with hearing loss build, sustain, or improve their communication abilities. Therapies might focus on articulation, language growth, and auditory training.
Implementing specific strategies in school settings can support students with hearing loss. These range from systematic vocabulary instruction to the use of visual aids. Depending on the need, techniques such as semantic mapping and providing context for new vocabulary words may be used to reinforce language skills.
Is Your Child Struggling with Hearing Loss? Call Hearing Health Center Today.
Early interventions protect long-term hearing health and assist in developing language skills. The trained audiologists at Hearing Health Center are prepared to help you and your family with regular hearing exams, hearing aid fittings, and more.
To get started, schedule an appointment at any of our five locations today!
You might think your hearing problem only affects you, but your spouse, family, friends, and co-workers might have already had it up to here.
Untreated hearing problems are a major cause of stress in relationships, especially with those closest to us.
Researchers who conducted a qualitative study of couples, where one partner had hearing loss, found that hearing loss produces feelings of frustration, embarrassment, and distress…especially for the partner without hearing loss.
Day-to-day communication, whether about important matters or trivial, is the cornerstone of a healthy relationship. When communication breaks down, frustration creeps in. Frustration leads to resentment, then to further breakdown in intimacy.
Both partners in the study bemoaned the loss of spontaneity, small talk, and sharing small, unexpected incidents. Those small asides, including jokes and humor, bring about shared companionship and reflection. And relationships, especially marriages, experience a significant loss in the absence of that communication. And both partners agreed there had been a meaningful change in the nature and content of their communication because of hearing problems.
EMOTIONS CONNECTED WITH DECREASED HEARING ABILITY
- Frustration
- Resentment
- Loneliness
- Curtailing social activities
- Decrease in intimacy, joking, interacting with friends and family.
- Decrease in shared activities (even watching TV)
- Loss of companionship
- Less communication (words are kept to a minimum)
TIPS FOR TALKING TO YOUR PARTNER ABOUT THEIR HEARING
- Tell them it is affecting your relationship. Your partner might be concerned about the stigma of wearing hearing aids, but saying, “what,” “huh,” “pardon me,” all the time is often irritating to others and frustrating to have to repeat everything.
- Tell them you are concerned for their health. When hearing loss is left untreated, the speech and language areas of the brain can atrophy, leading to auditory deprivation and putting a person at increased risk of cognitive decline. Early detection and treatment of hearing problems is the number one factor under your control to prevent and delay dementia.
- Tell them you are concerned about your own health. The additional stress of worrying about your other half’s health and safety can take a physical and emotional toll on your own health. Plus, it is no fun to listen to the TV or stereo when it is cranked up too high, and could be damaging your own hearing, or having to shout or constantly repeat yourself.
- Make an appointment to have your own hearing evaluated and ask them to go with you. First, it is something you should do anyway. The Alzheimer’s Association recommends everyone over fifty get a baseline hearing evaluation. Secondly, it’s always good to have another set of ears to hear what the hearing care provider has to say, no matter who that patient is.
HOW HEARING AIDS IMPROVE RELATIONSHIPS
Wearing hearing aids not only improves your hearing, but it also improves your intimate relationships. Opening that extra channel of communication can stimulate conversation and reduce frustration, providing better understanding of one another.
They reduce miscommunication.
What was that? Did you say, “answer the phone” or “Sarah is home?” Hearing loss can result in a lot of confusion for the person experiencing it. Mistakes made from mishearing your partner could result in fighting and a decline in overall happiness. Relationships are enough work as it is without factoring in the added burden of hearing loss. A hearing aid is a simple solution to reducing miscommunication and maximizing your hearing potential.
They lower frustration and tension
Living with hearing loss requires extra effort. But it requires a lot less effort if you take the available options to improve your hearing. Doing so will not only relieve the stress you experience every day but reduce the stress it places on your loved one. Constant communication is necessary in a relationship, and communication comes much easier when you can hear one another.
Hearing aids make it easier to have a real conversation
People with hearing loss tend to withdraw into themselves because conversation becomes embarrassing and difficult. You may not realize it at first, but you are putting distance between yourself and your loved one by avoiding conversation, whether that be in person or on the phone. Hearing aids, which take some getting used to, allow you to engage in conversation and maintain your connection with your partner much better than if you did not wear them.
They allow you to tune in to each other
All the extra communication opportunities hearing aids provide you allow you to become better tuned to your partner’s needs. Cohabitation becomes much easier when a couple’s understanding of each other improves. Plus, when your partner sees you trying to improve your hearing condition, they are more likely to put in an effort also.
Whether you are a new patient that hasn’t had a hearing test since 3rd grade, or a patient who has been wearing hearing aids for years, you probably think you’re doing just fine.
Well maybe you are and maybe you’re not! The thing is, you probably don’t even know.
- Who knows you better than anyone? Most likely, it’s the person who is most important to you…the person whose voice you hear all the time. They may notice issues, difficulties and struggles you may not even be aware of. “The level of the TV has increased, he doesn’t want to go out to restaurants as often, he’s spending more time alone and seems depressed, he doesn’t remember what I say.” These are just some of the things the “familiar voice” often reports. We get a much better understanding of you when you bring someone who knows you.
- Testing and measuring your hearing is only a small part of your comprehensive evaluation. More important than the amount of hearing loss you might have, is assessing how well your brain processes speech. Even if the sound is loud enough, do you understand what is said? The results are most accurate when the voice you are trying to process is familiar, and important to you.
- Annual checkups and re-evaluations are critical to maintain your best hearing ability. Sometimes, the hearing levels remain the same, but behavior and processing ability change. A familiar voice often alerts and apprises us of these changes they’ve noticed in the past year.
It’s been a difficult, trying year – but now the Holidays are here. Hopefully it will be a joyous time to share with your family, and it might be the only time all year you get together with your whole family.
Of course, you want to talk to everyone, get to know new additions (spouses, grandkids, and friends), share stories and memories, and laugh. When you have hearing loss, the holidays can be stressful and worrisome.
Large dining room tables make conversation difficult. Everyone is talking at once and the football game and music in the background makes it almost impossible for you to participate.
You can do several things so you don’t feel left out, and not enjoy yourself.
- Limit background noise. Ask the host to turn down the TV or music.
- Try to sit in the middle of the table.
- Take breaks. Listening and concentrating so intently is exhausting. Go outside, find a quiet spot, and give your ears and your brain a rest. Then you will be ready for more socializing.
- Bring your humor. Forget being embarrassed. So what if you say the wrong thing or answer incorrectly. Laugh at the mis-hearings. They can be hilarious.
- Wear your hearing aids and make the most of them. You have two computers in your ears. They are smart, really smart, with special settings for different situations and environments.
- Hearing aids have special gadgets and accessories to make hard situations easier – tiny microphones to put on the table to pick up voices and deliver them to your ears, chair loops that connect directly to your hearing aids. Don’t be afraid of technology. It’s easier than you think. Experiment.
- Cupping your hand to your ear is a signal for others to talk louder
- Have reasonable expectations. You are not going to hear everything everyone says. That’s ok. With visual cues (facial expressions, lip reading), and context, you can usually get the gist of, and participate in the conversation.
- Don’t fake it. Don’t just nod and pretend you hear or laugh just because everyone else is laughing. It can end up being embarrassing for you or insulting to someone else. Be honest. Be brave. Ask them to repeat. Tell them you have difficulty hearing/understanding.
Enjoy the holidays. Have fun with your family. Every moment is precious, don’t miss it!
The hearing loss of one family member affects the whole family. I not only see how it affects my patients and their families, but I also lived it when my grandfather moved in with us. Here is my story.
The day my grandfather moved in with us was the day my grandmother unexpectedly died. We were all grieving and going through some terrible days. One thing we as a family did not realize when taking in our grandfather was his hearing loss. Our grandmother was his hearing aid. She would repeat, spell, write, and go right up to him to converse. We had watched this for years but none of us really understood the enormous impact it would make on us. She lived like this for years, with us drifting from conversing with him to just conversing with her and never even saw it happening.
Talking to him was difficult and frustrating. Repeating ourselves was a constant and sometimes we would just stop talking all together. We could not have a normal dinner. We would talk around him then have to yell at him to catch him up with what he missed. He would interject with off the topic remarks or just ignore us completely. Our family had two televisions in the family room; one for him with headphones that he would crank all the way up and the other one for us at a normal volume. My grandfather would wake up before us in the morning and not realize how loud he was in the kitchen, banging pans and cupboards, which would frustrate the whole family. He could not answer the phone at a comfortable volume, which would then blow our ears out if we picked up the phone after him because he adjusted the volume all the way up. These are just some of the little things that affected not only him, but the whole family.
After he got hearing instruments, our daily life changed completely. He heard little sounds and knew when people were coming up behind him. He wasn’t as loud in the morning. He could answer the phone and make phone calls, which he rarely did before! At dinner, he actually participated and we all enjoyed conversation and dinner. Our relationship went from frustrating and annoying to comfortable and enjoyable! Life became what it should have been all along…happy!
This is just one story. There are many other stories just like this out there that have gotten the help they need to change their whole family dynamic around. Don’t waste precious time being frustrated not being able to talk comfortably to your loved one. Stop repeating to each other. We only had a little less than two years with my grandpa living with us before he passed away. But it was two beautiful years finally getting to know him without the frustration of his hearing loss. It was well worth it!
– story shared by Dr. Kara Houston
Author: Dr. Jaclyn Riel
Walking into a busy restaurant, a work meeting, or even a family gathering, you may feel overwhelmed and frustrated with all the sounds your hearing instruments are picking up. This is normal! Even people with normal hearing have difficulty in these situations. Here are some tips to help you hear your best:
1. Always sit facing the person that you are trying to hear, and put your back to the crowd/noise! Do not sit with your back to a wall and face the crowd.
2. Make sure there is adequate lighting. A dark restaurant makes it difficult to read facial expressions and lips.
3. If you are in a large meeting, ask if the room is looped or if they have assistance for the hearing impaired.
4. Use a remote microphone to hear the speaker (if your hearing aids are compatible).
5. Turn down the noise if possible (turn off the television, turn down the radio).
6. Do not be afraid to tell people when you didn’t hear them! If you do not understand something, ask that the speaker repeat or rephrase. You would be surprised by how many other people also missed what was said!
7. Find a quiet place to talk. Stay away from speaker systems and music while talking with others.
- THOU SHALT NOT SPEAK FROM ANOTHER ROOM.
- THOU SHALT NOT SPEAK WITH YOUR BACK TOWARD THE PERSON WITH A HEARING PROBLEM (OR THEIR BACK TOWARD YOU).
- THOU SHALT NOT START SPEAKING AND WALK AWAY.
- THOU SHALT NOT START SPEAKING AND TURN AWAY FROM THE PERSON WITH A HEARING PROBLEM.
- THOU SHALT NOT SPEAK IN COMPETITION WITH SOMETHING ELSE (TURN OFF THE WATER OR TURN DOWN THE RADIO, ETC).
- THOU SHALT GET THE ATTENTION OF THE PERSON WITH THE HEARING PROBLEM (DO NOT START SPEAKING WHILE THEY ARE READING OR CONCENTRATING ON TV).
- THOU SHALT TRY TO SPEAK FACE-TO-FACE AT ALL TIMES.
- THOU SHALT TRY TO REMOVE OBSTRUCTIONS WHILE SPEAKING (YOUR HAND FROM YOUR FACE, THE CIGARETTE FROM YOUR MOUTH, ETC).
- THOU SHALT TRY TO SPEAK DISTINCTLY.
- THOU SHALT TRY TO BE PATIENT.