Aging and Hearing Loss :: Cognitive Geriatrics Essays

Aging and Hearing Loss Hearing loss is much overlooked because our hearing is an invisible sense that is always expect to be in action. Yet, there are people everywhere that suffer from the effects of hearing loss. It is important to study and understand all aspects of the many opposite types and reasons for hearing loss. The loss of this particular sense can be socially debilitating. It can affect the communication skills of the person, not only in receiving information, but in like manner in giving the correct response. This paper focuses primarily on hearing loss in the elderly. One thing that affects older individuals communication is the problem they often experience when recognizing time compressed linguistic communication. Time compressed speech involves fast and unclear conversational speech. Many older listeners can detect the sound of the speech being spoken, but it is still unclear (Pichora-Fuller, 2000). In order to help with diagnosis and rehabilitation, we need to understand why speech is unclear even when it is audible. The firmness of purpose to that dubiousness would also help in the development of hearing aids and other communication devices. Also, as we come to understand the reasoning behind this question and as we become more knowledgeable about what older adults can and cannot hear, we can better accommodate them in our day to day interactions.There are many approaches to the explanation of the elderlys difficulty with rapid speech. Researchers point to a decline in processing speed, a decline in processing brief acoustic cues (Gordon-Salant & Fitzgibbons, 2001), an age-related decline of temporal processing in general (Gordon-Salant & Fitzgibbons, 1999 Vaughan & Letowski, 1997), the fact that both visual and auditory perception change with age (Helfer, 1998), an interference of mechanical exercise of the ear, possible sensorineural hearing loss due to damage to receptors over time (Scheuerle, 2000), or a decline in the processin g of sounds in midbrain (Ochert, 2000). Each one of these could be a possible explanation however it is often a combination of several of these causing a perceptual difficulty in the individual.Helfer (1998) recognized the slowing of our temporal perceptual processes with increasing age. He suggested that this leads to auditory deformity, especially in the instance of time compressed speech. Speech comprehension requires rapid processing of stimuli that is not always completed in time-compressed speech because of the shortening of phonemes and a decrease in pauses. Helfer went a step further by taking into account that hearing is not just auditory but it is also visual, in that we use cues like looking at the persons mouth or facial expression while having a conversation.