Though some have severe and undeniable hearing loss, including those who are born with hearing impairment or deafness, others experience a slow decline in hearing ability over the course of their lives. Though they may have had clear hearing in the mid-life years of their thirties, forties, and fifties, this ability may have waned in the later years of the sixties, seventies, and beyond. With a slow decline in hearing ability, it may be difficult to identify. Even those with healthy hearing are unable to hear in every situation, such as a very loud restaurant, music venue, or amusement park facility.

And so, how can you identify if you have hearing loss or are simply struggling to hear in a noisy environment? A few simple clues can help you identify if you may have hearing loss, but the ultimate solution is to have your hearing tested regularly to address the issue with a hearing professional. There is no need to live with the struggle of untreated hearing loss with such an array of assistive technology available today.

Conversational Struggle

One of the first clues that you may be experiencing hearing loss is that you struggle to hear all the elements of a conversation. Within a conversation, you may hear a certain word only to realize later through context clues that the speaker had intended to say something else. This discrepancy may be due to softly spoken consonants that are easy to mix up. Without the aid of context clues, you may go on misunderstanding the meaning the speaker had intended. Another conversational struggle has to do with the environment of speech.

As mentioned above, every person has a situation that will make it impossible to hear, such as a very loud concert, and yet you can calibrate your ability to hear against other people, even in some noisy environments. If you find that the person with whom you are speaking has no trouble hearing while you are struggling, it may be a sign of hearing loss. You may find yourself leaning in to the conversation or even moving your ear close to the speaker in order to assist your own hearing. Yet another form of conversational struggle is with particular types of speakers.

Hearing loss occurs at the nexus of amplitude and frequency, or loudness and pitch, and a combination of these two may come in surprising ways. Some people have trouble with a particular frequency, even at a loud volume, such as the higher frequency of a woman’s voice. Others have trouble with a soft voice even in a lower register, such as a man who tends to mumble. Perhaps the most difficult combination is a child’s voice, which is both higher in frequency and softer in volume. If you find that you are unable to understand people with any of these types of voices, you may be experiencing hearing loss.

Environmental Clues

Although the struggle to hear in conversation is the most common sign that you may be experiencing hearing loss, other environmental clues can point out hearing loss, as well. Some people notice hearing loss while moving out and about through their days. Perhaps the siren of an ambulance or other emergency vehicle takes you by surprise, not evident until the vehicle is almost upon you. You might not hear the phone ringing in the other room, even though you used to be able to hear from that location. A common environmental clue that you may be experiencing hearing loss is the volume of household devices, such as televisions, radios, and stereo systems. You may have these items at a comfortable hearing level, only to find that a visiting family member or visitor remarks at how loud the sound level is. If you have this experience more than once, you may take it as a clue that you may be experiencing hearing loss.

Visit Us at Encore Hearing

If you have experienced any of these early warning signs, the only reliable solution is to have your hearing tested by a professional at Encore Hearing. Though you may wonder about your hearing ability, a test will be able to identify the particularities of your hearing profile and will allow your hearing specialist to design a solution that is right for you.