
Voice print of the phrase “Say Things With Feelings” — left print demonstrates normal hearing while a moderate to severe high-frequency hearing loss is shown on the right side (Voice Print created by the Author using Sygyt VoiceVista software)
Without the consonant sounds, the listener is left with only partial words or phrases to work with. This sets up a situation where the listener has to guess (albeit subconsciously) what words are being said. The more familiar the listener is with the context of the message, the better the chance that the guesses will be correct. This fill-in-the-blank scenario is called “auditory closure” and is the natural way that our brain operates when we are listening to a speaker and not fully comprehending the words (e.g.: a speaker with a strange accent or speech impediment). Auditory closure is a normal process regardless of one’s hearing abilities. It has to do with the fact that our mind will not tolerate ‘speech holes’.
You might think of this as a giant, ongoing, and dangerous game of Mad Libs® where we are constantly choosing words to fill in the blanks. Dangerous, because if we too often choose the wrong word, we open ourselves to misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and damaged relationships. In fact, Dr. Manny Steil, one of the founders of the International Listening Association, says that “ineffective listening is considered to be one of the most expensive human shortcomings in today’s business environment.” As I mentioned before, hearing is about sounds while listening is about understanding. Hearing is one of our five senses. We hear 24/7 whether we like it or not. Listening, on the other hand, is a choice and requires cognitive work.
We have all, at one time or the other, heard the ‘rules’ of active and effective listening… pay close attention, ‘work’ at listening, take meaningful notes, resist external distractions, paraphrase the speaker, keep an open mind, don’t draw conclusions until the speaker has finished. These suggestions provide an excellent framework for removing some of the key psychological and environmental barriers to effective listening while improving understanding for the listener with ‘normal’ hearing.
But NIHL imposes additional physical and cognitive barriers, because its difficult to understand what’s being said if you can’t discern the words. But for all of those with, and to all of those who will eventually have a hearing loss, there are a few simple techniques to increase the effectiveness of your listening:
– Have your hearing tested by a licensed audiologist and determine if you’re a candidate for hearing aids. The new digital hearing aids can be programmed to match your hearing loss over the entire hearing frequency range.
– Listener Take Charge — the listener needs to take the responsibility for ensuring that he or she understood what the speaker said in both words and context. The speaker has no way of knowing whether the listener understood, misunderstood or just zoned out during the conversation. By assuming the responsibility, the listener can validate what they think they heard with what the speaker meant.
– Be aware that someone is speaking to you. By just nodding when you hear the sound of someone’s voice, or providing a very general response, the speaker will assume that the message is received as spoken, often creating serious misunderstandings and their related consequences. Take charge and ensure understanding.
– Don’t allow a cross-room conversation. If someone is trying to talk with you from another room, or even from across the room, go to them or ask them to come closer to you. Not being able to see each other eliminates the sensing of the non-verbal parts of the conversation, aside from reduced volume and clarity and increased echo and reflection. Being close helps to promote misunderstandings.
– Face the speaker head-on. Not only do we gain a lot of information by speech reading, but there are many non-verbal clues that are provided through facial expression and body language. Missed non-verbals can make a light-hearted joke into a cause for an argument.
– Don’t hide the fact that you have difficulty hearing. Speakers are generally quick to accommodate people who are having a difficult time understanding them.
– If you miss a part of the conversation, ask to have it repeated, and if the speed of the talking is too fast, ask the speaker to slow down.
– If you are trying to listen for specific, factual information — such as names, times, places or phone numbers — ask the speaker to repeat the specifics back to you. Many numbers and words sound alike and a misunderstanding could be costly.
– Remember, the purpose of most conversations is to impart and exchange information. If you don’t understand what’s being said, you’re not only wasting time, but laying the groundwork for potential problems going forward.
– There is some good news, however. Noise induced hearing loss is 100% preventable and is not degenerative — **the loss can be stopped — but the damage cannot be undone**. Continued noise abuse will exacerbate the loss while moderating one’s exposure to loud noises — and interspersing periods of relative quiet — will help to contain the damage.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), you can protect your hearing by:
– Knowing which noises can cause damage (those at or above 85 decibels)
– Wear earplugs or other hearing protective devices when involved in a loud activity (special earplugs and earmuffs are available at hardware, sporting goods stores and audiologist offices)
– Be alert to hazardous noise environments
– Protect the ears of children who are too young to protect their own
– Make family, friends, and colleagues aware of the hazards of noise
– If you suspect hearing loss, have a medical examination by an otolaryngologist (a physician who specializes in diseases of the ears, nose, throat, head and neck) and a hearing test by an audiologist (a health professional trained to measure and help individuals deal with hearing loss).
– If you are told you need hearing aids, get them and use them. Hearing loss is a major factor in causing dementia.
In the end, it is important to remember that hearing is about sounds, and listening is about understanding. A hearing loss may diminish our ability to hear certain sounds, but we still control the listening process and we can insure that while our ability to hear may be diminished, our ability to understand is not.