An estimated 28.8 million U.S. adults[1] could benefit from hearing aids. These helpful devices amplify speech sounds to help you reconnect with the people in your life. When you first get hearing aids, you might find that, though voices are louder, you have trouble understanding the speech you hear. That phenomenon happens when hearing loss causes your brain to go for an extended period without its usual amount of speech processing.
Improving Speech Processing With Auditory Training
Auditory training is a helpful series of exercises that retrains your brain to process speech. One fun form of auditory training you can try is listening to audiobooks.
How Audiobooks Help Your Brain Process Speech
Audiobooks provide a simple way to incorporate more listening into your everyday routine. Because you choose the material and listen at your own pace, they’re a low-pressure form of auditory training.
If you want to use audiobooks as part of your listening practice, keep the following tips in mind:
- Pick something familiar. Listening to a book you already know can make it easier to focus on the speaker’s voice instead of trying to understand the story. Once you’re comfortable, you can move on to new material.
- Read while you listen. Try using a print or digital copy of the book while the narrator reads. Seeing the words can help you identify anything you may have missed and connect the sounds you hear with the words on the page.
- Practice remembering details. When you finish a chapter, take a moment to think about what happened. You could even write down a few important details. This gives you another opportunity to practice processing and remembering what you heard.
- Experiment with different narrators. Not every voice will sound equally clear to you. Hearing loss can affect certain frequencies more than others, so you may find that some narrators are easier to understand than others. Try different voices until you find one that feels comfortable.
Audiobooks aren’t a replacement for professional auditory training, but they can be an enjoyable way to give your brain more opportunities to listen to and process speech after you get hearing aids. For more information on managing your hearing loss or acclimating to hearing aids, contact Benke Ear Nose & Throat Clinic today.
[1] National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2024). Quick statistics about hearing, balance, & dizziness. National Institutes of Health. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing