Is Auditory Training a Good Idea to Retrain your Brain to Hear?
Do you know you listen to sounds through your ears but it’s your brain that makes those sounds meaningful to you?
If you have hearing loss, hearing aids and other devices will amplify sounds so that you can hear better. However, your brain may still be struggling to interpret what you hear, especially if you have age-related hearing loss. Hearing aids only deal with sounds and not your brain.
Neurological research over the years has reported that it is the brain that plays a central role in hearing. The ears may be responsible for capturing sound, but it’s the brain that processes the information further, stimulating people to take actions. Because of this ear-brain connection, even a mild hearing loss can create some major changes in the brain, which can negatively impact your
• Auditory memory
• Sound processing speed
• Ability to discriminate sounds
This explains why hearing-impaired people find it difficult to process sounds in a noisy or loud environment like restaurants or parties even after wearing hearing aids. And that is where auditory training comes in. Auditory training can slow down, stop and even reverse hearing problems and complications that originate in the brain.
WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM AUDITORY TRAINING? Auditory training is sometimes referred to as “aural rehabilitation” or “hearing exercises”. The training involves a mix of in-office sessions and at-home exercises, just like in physical therapy. This form of therapy is currently popular amongst cochlear implant patients (especially children) as well as people diagnosed with other auditory issues like auditory processing disorder.
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM AUDITORY TRAINING? Just like a physical therapist gives you a set of exercises to help strengthen your muscles, an auditory training program focuses on key skills like working memory and auditory processing speed.
To be able to understand and actively participate in a conversation, you need to tap on your working memory, the short-term memory that holds onto the speech, words and their context. The research suggests that declines in working memory can drag down speech understanding in older people.
Auditory training may also target your auditory processing speed. Older people often have trouble keeping up. The average person speaks approx. 150 words per minute; however, it is common for the auditory processing speed to drop steadily in many people, as they age.
With the help of auditory training, the hearingimpaired individuals are able to filter out distractions to hear speech in noisy environments.
Does Auditory Training Work? In a study, older volunteers who wore hearing aids were asked to practice for three and a half hours a week with a program designed to challenge their ability to understand speech in noisy backgrounds.
After eight weeks, it was noted that they could correctly identify 25% more words in spoken sentences, even with the presence of background disturbances.
But a lot of the people who participated were not much interested in continuing their training as they felt the program might not help in real-life situations or was a complete bore.
However, when the auditory training combines with quality traditional or wireless hearing aids, it can be of great assistance to those who have difficulty distinguishing between sounds in noisy settings.
Hearing Aid Specialists SA Castle Plaza Shopping Centre
992 South Road Edwardstown SA 5039 Phone: 08 8374 1272 Email ID: reception@hassa.com.au Website URL: http://www.hassa.com.au/