Approximately 15% of American adults report having some trouble with hearing. If you’re one of those 15% and you suspect that you’re in the beginning stages of hearing loss, you may be able to strengthen your hearing ability and hone your listening strength through a process known as auditory training. Better yet, auditory training can be done on your own, at home.
How Hearing (And Hearing Loss) Works
In order for you to hear a sound, the sound wave must travel through a complex set of steps from your ear to your brain. The sound wave travels down the ear canal and strikes the eardrum, which amplifies the sound wave and directs it deep into the inner ear, into an organ called the cochlea. Small sensory cells within the cochlea react to the sound wave, translate it into electrical signals, and transmit those signals to the brain. Your brain then processes the sound information from the sensory cells, and that is how you consciously hear the sound.
Hearing loss occurs due to some deterioration or dysfunction in one or more elements of these steps. Most often, the connection between the sensory cells in the cochlea and the brain is aging or weakening. The good news is that you can train your ears and brain and strengthen your listening abilities.
How Auditory Training Works
Auditory training is a type of therapy that focuses on improving your auditory processing skills. Just like any other muscle, your brain needs regular stretching and exercise to maintain its strength. Auditory training is just like taking your brain to the gym. There are several different auditory training exercises, including speech-in-noise training, memory exercises and text following. For the most part, these exercises will involve focusing on listening to audio and demonstrating your comprehension of what you have heard.
Auditory Training at Home
Audiobooks can be a highly effective method for auditory training. Listening to a story or an informative nonfiction book creates an intensive listening scenario that requires acute speech perception (i.e., hearing and understanding the words you hear) and listening comprehension (i.e., deriving meaning from what you hear and applying it).
With an audiobook, a narrator is reading a book to you. You must follow a plot and remember key events and character names. This is auditory training at its finest, and you can hear an engaging story while doing it. Podcasts or other audio media featuring a narrator will also provide these benefits.
When to Seek Help
Of those millions of Americans who report trouble with hearing, many people wait ten years or more from the time that they first notice a problem before seeking help. Auditory training can help strengthen your residual hearing, but it doesn’t replace professional hearing help. If you’ve noticed symptoms of hearing loss, it’s time for a hearing test and to discuss hearing loss treatment with a hearing health professional. Call Wilmington Audiology Services today to schedule an appointment.