Issue 16.12
For years, providers in the hearing healthcare field have failed to understand the true desire of individuals seeking our services. In fact, even to this day many of the local and national providers promise the next ‘revolutionary product’ or ‘extraordinary discounts’. At Nilsson Hearing Clinics, as an independent provider, we know we have access to every manufacturer of hearing devices at the best-value available, guaranteed! BUT, hearing devices alone are NOT THE ANSWER you are looking for, ARE THEY?
At Nilsson Hearing, It’s not just about Audibility (Volume); It’s about creating order (Understanding and Comprehension) out of Acoustic Chaos (Background Noise and Unwanted Sounds).
Effective hearing care has moved far beyond making sounds audible with amplification alone. Increasing speech intelligibility depends on so much more. Amplifying sounds while preserving not only the dynamics of the signal but also many of the fine temporal structures and subtle acoustic cues is essential in modern hearing care; hence our focus on training your Auditory System for Better Comprehension, Faster Processing, and ultimately, Improved Memory!
The brain is wired to absorb all of the sensory information around us and to organize it into meaningful precepts. It untangles and separates different sound sources – such as one voice from another; sounds coming from the kitchen versus sounds coming from the TV in the next room; traffic noise versus playground noise, etc. The more accurately and naturally the information can be presented, the easier it becomes for the brain to create order out of the apparent acoustic chaos of an environment.
Auditory input is extremely complex: rapidly-changing acoustic events can contain everything from intricate timing cues, harmonics and loudness information to a phenomenal amount of information embedded in the frequency spectrum. The purpose of modern hearing care is to help the brain restore order to what seems like chaos, using whatever sources of information are available, including: visual cues, situational cues and acoustic information such as spatial cues and speech characteristics.
HOW do we accomplish this and provide the answers you are looking for?
By harnessing the brain’s natural 3-step process of Understanding Speech
Organize- In any environment, the auditory system relies on spatial cues and other acoustic information in order to make sense of the many environmental sounds. The brain organizes various streams of sounds as identifiable percepts.
Select- When a sound environment is organized, the brain is able to select a particular sound source and ignore intrusive background noise. This ability is crucial; as well as allowing us to direct our attention to a particular person it enables us to switch our attention from one person to another; something we always do when interacting in a group.
Follow- When listening, the auditory system instinctively tunes into the individual characteristics of the voice in focus – i.e. level changes and stress patterns. The higher the fidelity and the better preserved the natural dynamics of the speech signal are, the easier it becomes to follow speech and ignore competing sounds. Any energy saved can then be channeled into other cognitive processes such as reflecting, remembering and responding.
So, if you are age 50 or better and are struggling to understand in noisy situations, please contact Nilsson Hearing Clinics and ask for your Complimentary Baseline Evaluation and Consultation. These evaluations are available at multiple offices in Southern Utah and are a great way to establish a baseline for your hearing and to find the solution you are looking for.
To receive literature on hearing loss, its treatment and prevention contact Nilsson Hearing Clinics today.
Web address: www.NilssonHearingOnline.com Phone: (435) 628-3192 Email: office@nilssonhearingonline.com