Many of my elderly patients often inform me that the moment they started noticing their hearing loss was when they had a hard time communicating with their grandkids. While the obvious explanation is that people with grandkids are simply older and more prone to hearing loss, the more nuanced explanation is that the most common form of hearing loss for older people doesn’t become apparent until they start communicating with grandchildren. Let’s explore more.
What is the most common type of hearing loss?
The most common type of hearing loss for older adults is a high frequency hearing loss. As a result, sounds that were audible at the same volume in the low frequencies may become inaudible in the high frequencies.
A high frequency loss is analogous to a dog whistle. A dog whistle is a whistle that is only audible to, well, dogs. The reason for this is that a dog whistle makes noise at a high frequency of 23 KHz whereas people normally can’t hear anything above 20 KHz however dogs can hear frequencies as high as 65 KHz. Which is why sounds from a dog whistle can only be heard by dogs, and superman of course.
The above graph shows what a typical high frequency hearing loss looks like where frequencies above 2KHz show a sharp drop in a person’s ability to hear noise at 30 db volume.
How Does a High Frequency Hearing Loss Impact Understanding Children?
You may be wondering what a high frequency hearing loss has to do with you not being able to understand your grandchildren but the reason is because children talk at higher frequencies than adults.
It should be no surprise that children speak at higher pitches than adults. Typically Children speak at a frequency of 250 – 400 HZ whereas most adults speak around 85 hz – 180 hz. Even though 250 – 400 hz is generally still in the normal audible range of someone with a high frequency hearing loss, certain sounds when speaking create higher frequencies than others which makes a high frequency hearing loss more noticeable.
To elaborate, the sounds /s/, /f/, /th/, and /sh/ are spoken at a higher frequency than other sounds. For children, these sounds can generate frequencies of 4,000–8,000 Hz which as seen from the graph above is in the range where a high frequency hearing loss starts to become more apparent at normal volumes. This is why you may mishear your grandchildren when they say “she saw something” as “he saw something”, or “pass me the salt” becomes “pat me the salt”
How to fix a high frequency hearing loss?
The best treatment for a high frequency hearing loss is prescription hearing aids which can amplify sounds specifically in higher frequency ranges. It should be noted that Over The Counter amplifiers are not recommended. OTC amplifiers work as a basic microphone and increase the volume of noise across all frequencies. However, patients with a high frequency hearing loss only need higher volumes at high frequencies. OTC amplifiers are often extremely uncomfortable for those with a high frequency hearing loss since low pitched noises will often sound too loud.
Prescription hearing aids, like those offered at integral audiology, are professionally fit to only amplify the sounds for frequencies that need to be amplified which is a much more comfortable experience for the patient.
What are the next steps?
If you are noticing that you have a hard time understanding your grandchildren. Then take the next step and schedule an appointment at Integral Audiology in Cornelius NC today
