Being able to hear vowel sounds is helpful and will alert you that speech is present, but it’s the consonant sounds that give speech meaning and help you distinguish one word from another. In speech, the vowel sounds (A, E, I, O and U) are low in pitch while consonant sounds like S, F, Th, Sh, V, K, P and others are high in pitch. While not always the case, high-frequency hearing loss is often the cause of feeling like you can hear but can’t understand. But, high-pitched sounds (such as children's voices) need to be much louder before you can hear them. If you have a sloping hearing loss, it means you are able to hear low-pitched sounds (such as thunder), sometimes even as clearly as someone with normal hearing. People with high-frequency hearing loss are said to have a “sloping” hearing loss. When your hearing is tested, the results are plotted on an audiogram. In this case, the chief symptom may be difficulty with word understanding, especially in noisy situations. Hearing loss comes in all degrees from mild to profound.īut most people, especially older adults, have mild-to-moderate hearing loss, especially the type that makes it harder to hear high-pitched sounds. Hearing loss involves not only the ears, but also the brain where sound is translated into meaningful words. What’s the number one complaint hearing care professionals hear from their new patients with hearing loss? Ask them and they’ll likely say it’s, “I can hear, but I can’t understand.” If this is what you’re experiencing, you may have hearing loss.
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