William J. Campbell M.S.
Audiologist
Benbrook Medical II
104 Technology Drive
Suite 102
Butler, Pa., 16001
724-482-0028
www.campbellaudiology.com

December 2012

It’s Not The Kids!!

Have you ever experienced difficulty understanding your teenager, or young grandchild’s conversations?  Chances are you’ve asked them to speak clearer and maybe a bit slower.  Based upon recent research in the psychology of hearing,  it is believed that middle aged adults (40-55) do not process rapid timing cues , such as temporal order, vowel/consonant-duration and gaps between words/letters as efficiently as younger adults,older children, and teenagers . These short lived temporal bits of information often suffer distortion in the daily cacophony of speech mixed with noise.  What can we do to lessen the mid-life ‘slowdown’?  The first thing is to maximize the speech-to-background noise ratio.  Explain to the child that it is proper communication etiquette to carry on conversation in the same room while facing an adult at a distance of 3-6 feet.  The naturally higher level of speech at this distance should be able to overcome troublesome background noise in many instances.  Secondly,  if  the water in the sink is running or the microwave oven is busy cycling, wait until all is quiet before initiating conversation.  It is not a sinister plot to consciously lay  ‘communication land-mines’ when speaking indirectly and/or rapidly while  running through the kitchen which happens to be filled with multiple noise sources.  They just have young ears with exquisite hearing !!  If your problem of understanding speech remains in spite of proper distance & background noise control , see an audiologist trained in such matters.  Most people can benefit from a combination of positioning strategies and/or a properly fitted hearing aid.

Suggested Reading

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,  Vol.119,  #4, April 2006,  pp 2305-2325 , 2455-2466

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 122,#1, July 2007, 458-466 

Journal of American Academy of Audiology; vol. 19, #2, February 2008, pp 135-146

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 124, #6, December 2008, pp  3972-3988

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, Vol. 20, #7, July/August 2009, pp 453-458

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 128, #1, July 2010, pp 172-181

Ear & Hearing, Vol. 31, #6, December 2010, pp 755-760

Journal of American Academy of Audiology, Vol. 22, #7,July-August 2011, pp 393-404