Hearing aids benefit people with hearing loss in so many ways. Perhaps one of the most significant is that they can help improve speech recognition.
How Hearing Loss Affects Your Ability to Communicate 
Most hearing loss is gradual and caused by the wear and tear of aging or prolonged noise exposure. This type of hearing loss, known as sensorineural hearing loss, often makes it harder to hear higher-frequency sounds first. This includes much of human speech, including consonant sounds.
If you have untreated hearing loss, one of the first things you may start to notice is that people often sound like they are mumbling or that you have to ask them to repeat themselves frequently. It may be especially difficult to understand what people are saying in busier environments with background noise, such as when you’re trying to enjoy a meal out with your family at The Veranda.
Eventually, you may find yourself experiencing more miscommunications at home and at work. This can lead to feelings of anxiety, frustration and isolation.
Ways Hearing Aids Make Speech Recognition Easier
The good news is that you don’t have to live with these constant miscommunications. Treating your hearing loss with hearing aids can help improve your ability to recognize and understand speech in all different types of listening environments.
Hearing aids make it, so you don’t have to work as hard to understand what people are. Depending on your particular model, they have the ability to do some or all of the following:
- Amplify voices in loud environments while suppressing distracting background noises
- Improve your ability to understand sounds at high and low frequencies
- Make speech sounds clearer
- Tune out ambient noise
- Automatically adjust your hearing aid program based on whether your current environment is loud or quiet
Improving speech recognition doesn’t just make it easier to communicate. Research has shown that people with hearing loss report both better speech recognition in noisy environments and a better overall quality of life after being fitted with hearing aids.
Schedule a Hearing Test
If you’ve noticed that you’re having trouble following conversations, schedule an appointment for a hearing test. The earlier you get treated with hearing aids, the sooner you can experience improved communication and keep your connections with your loved ones strong.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, call Gulf Coast Audiology today.