How Can I Improve My Poor Discrimination?
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A man asked:
Is anything that can be done about poor discrimination (word recognition) besides learning techniques for coping with it? I have worn hearing aids for many years but have never received a plain answer to that question.
There’s really not all that much that can be done for poor discrimination besides learning how to best cope with it. Here are some things that may help though.
1. Poor discrimination is often the result of not being able to hear the higher frequencies well, or at all, since most of the “intelligence” in speech resides in the higher frequencies. If you can still hear the high frequencies somewhat, then having hearing aids and/or assistive devices that are specifically adjusted to amplify these higher frequencies to your optimal level will help. So will using high-fidelity sound equipment. The better the quality of the sound, the better we can understand it—even with our poor hearing.
If you cannot hear the high frequencies at all, then using a frequency-transposition hearing aid may help you by shifting sounds down to the frequency range you can still hear. Some people have good success with these special hearing aids. There are a couple of companies that make these hearing aids. Perhaps the best known is the Sonovation line of ImpaCt frequency transposition hearing aids, but the Widex Inteo also has this feature too. Widex calls it the “Audibility Extender”.
2. Amplification technology can only go so far. When it can’t help anymore, then getting cochlear implants will very often remarkably help improve your discrimination (and hearing too of course). When hearing aids can no longer significantly help you, this is the next logical step to take.
3. As far as coping strategies go, speechreading used in conjunction with your hearing aids can also remarkably improve discrimination. Studies have shown that when used with hearing aids, speechreading can push your discrimination back up around the 80% level. Finally, if all else fails—use real time captioning—then your discrimination is essentially back to 100% (assuming, of course, that your captionist can hear the speaker accurately).
May 2nd, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I have just finished reading several pages of your posts and I can say you are a gifted writer. I have found myself sitting here for the last two hours reading. I plan to order 2 of your books shortly.
My comment to this post is that USF in Florida has a program they use for hearing aid/cohlear implant training to build up your word recognition. I have been using this for a few months and found that it is helping my patients, especially with concentration skills.
Also Phonak has a new aid out called the Naida which has Sound Recover(freq transposition) and I have had amazing results from this aid. Check out my website and you can read some of the stories about them.
Thank you for such good information on your site, keep up the good work.
April 10th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
I have cookie bite hearing loss. My last test my hearing had not gone down, but my speech discrimination has. My audiologist wants me to see a specialist. When I asked him if he used the same level tone as before, he said he use a comfortable setting. I hate to spend money for a specialist–but the setting he has for my hearing aids now echo and I cannot understand people as well–been wearing phonic hearing aids for 2 yrs (speaker goes in ear.
April 11th, 2011 at 6:37 am
Hi Linda:
When your audiologist tests you for word recognition (or speech discrimination) the results can vary depending whether it is a man or woman saying the words, whether it is live or recorded, and whether the volume is set the same.
For example, in my case, my discrimination scores change a lot depending whether the volume is set at a “low” comfortable level or a “high” comfortable level.
Therefore, you are right to be concerned if your hearing hasn’t changed, and your discrimination scores did unless the level was the same as before, and the other factors I mentioned are the same too.
Now, when it comes to hearing aids and discrimination, there are ever so many possibilities for setting your hearing aids (tens of thousands of possible combinations) so it takes time and skill to get it just right so you have the best possible discrimination.
From what you describe, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if your hearing aids are not set to best maximize your discrimination.
Regards
Neil
April 15th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Thanks, my son thinks the same!!! Nice to have a place to ask questions!!!