Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Prevention During Better Hearing and Speech Month

As an audiologist and a human being nearing age 40, I know the lifetime cumulative effects of noise blunt my ears—and those of my patients: an increase in saying “huh?,” tinnitus and sound sensitivity, coupled with a decrease in tolerance for once-cool bars and restaurants. These classic signs indicate not just aging, but noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), or at least what we could call noise-induced hearing difficulties. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published a Vital Signs report stating nearly one in four of people in the U.S.—ages 20 to 69 years—shows signs of possible NIHL. And we know from other studies that rates of NIHL in U.S. teens—ages 12 to 19 years—significantly increased over the years as well. I recently heard Nina Kraus, professor of auditory neuroscience at Northwestern University, speak on “Making Sense of Sound: How the Brain Extracts Meaningful Information From the Acoustic World Around Us.” One of the highlights for me was her point that “background noise disrupts the brain mechanisms important for language development.” Kraus’ work showed me that our profession doesn’t often consider how noise in general affects learning, language development and auditory processing throughout our lives. We tend to think of noise exposure in terms of attending one-too-many rock concerts without earplugs or listening to headphones all day long at unsafe levels or certain jobs carrying high risk for occupational noise e...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Advocacy Audiology Speech-Language Pathology hearing loss hearing protection noise-induced hearing loss private practice Source Type: blogs