My early childhood hearing loss and my communication today

[Anonymous]

I had an operation to restore a hearing loss as a child. The operation worked. However, my hearing loss as child occurred slowly before the first grade when it was identified. My extended family also came from another country, and I spent time with grandparents and family who didn't speak English in the home.

Fast forward today. I still get hearing tests. My hearing seems to be okay. However, my communication patterns were set in early childhood. I have a difficult time following conversations unless it is at a small table setting, and I usually will engage in conversation with the person seated next to me.

[Anonymous]

Ok. And?

[Anonymous]

Point? Question?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had an operation to restore a hearing loss as a child. The operation worked. However, my hearing loss as child occurred slowly before the first grade when it was identified. My extended family also came from another country, and I spent time with grandparents and family who didn't speak English in the home.

Fast forward today. I still get hearing tests. My hearing seems to be okay. However, my communication patterns were set in early childhood. I have a difficult time following conversations unless it is at a small table setting, and I usually will engage in conversation with the person seated next to me.

this describes my son as well. He had ear infections and several tubes placed to drain the infection between the ages of 15 months and about 7 years. He had intermittent hearing loss starting at 9 months which got better on and off as the tubes worked and then fell out and he got more infections over the years. Fast forward, he has fine "hearing" now in terms of being able to hear the sounds in an audiology booth test. But, he has trouble discerning speech and picking out sounds out of background noise. In a noise restaurant, he really can't follow a discussion at the table and can only talk with someone next to him with great concentration. Functionally he has what is known as "auditory processing disorder". Wearing an FM tuner is really helpful to him. Your health insurance should cover an auditory processing test. Georgetown and GW hospital/university practices do "central auditory processing disorder" testing, but not all ENTs in private practice do.

It probably is also the root of other problems he has (e.g. terrible speller because he doesn't really hear the individual sounds in a word well).

The FM tuner is a very small type of hearing aid that sits behind the ear and extends a thin wire into the ear canal. It is paired with a lavalier mike that you can give to a speaker or put on a table. It boosts the speech of the person/people near the mike over the ambient noise. Very useful in the classroom, group speech settings, lectures, meetings, etc.

[Anonymous]

PP, yes, thank you. That sounds exactly like my hearing issue. I can't carry on a conversation at a table in a restaurant, except with the person sitting next to me.

OP, here, the issue is, I appear to be rude. Or, I am a woman, and I appear to be whispering in the guy's ear, or sometimes I can hear deeper male voices better than softer female ones. It makes me look like I am ignoring the women.

Reminds me of the teacher talking in the Charlie Brown cartoons.

I am not sure if I can give someone a microphone and ask them to speak in it, while I wear a hearing device.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, yes, thank you. That sounds exactly like my hearing issue. I can't carry on a conversation at a table in a restaurant, except with the person sitting next to me.

OP, here, the issue is, I appear to be rude. Or, I am a woman, and I appear to be whispering in the guy's ear, or sometimes I can hear deeper male voices better than softer female ones. It makes me look like I am ignoring the women.

Reminds me of the teacher talking in the Charlie Brown cartoons.

I am not sure if I can give someone a microphone and ask them to speak in it, while I wear a hearing device.

I don't have this, but my Dad has hearing loss, and if you are comfortable doing so the simplest way for you to clear up the rudeness factor is to let folks know you have a hearing problem.

[Anonymous]

I think you need to work with a speech therapist on communication issues. A speech therapist can be effective in assisting with the hearing and speech issue. But your post itself reflects a communication problem. It could just be writing, but you present as someone who, because of your early hearing problem, may have missed some of the rudiments of how social conversation and communication works. It's hard to glean from your post what your "opening gambit" is. Sometimes people have a hard time talking to people like this. Communication can't go forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to work with a speech therapist on communication issues. A speech therapist can be effective in assisting with the hearing and speech issue. But your post itself reflects a communication problem. It could just be writing, but you present as someone who, because of your early hearing problem, may have missed some of the rudiments of how social conversation and communication works. It's hard to glean from your post what your "opening gambit" is. Sometimes people have a hard time talking to people like this. Communication can't go forward.

Disagree totally. OP presented her issue much the way many others due. Some OPs are less demanding or direct in their posts. But her post perfectly presents her issue. Some readers prefer to be told how to respond. But the post itself is perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to work with a speech therapist on communication issues. A speech therapist can be effective in assisting with the hearing and speech issue. But your post itself reflects a communication problem. It could just be writing, but you present as someone who, because of your early hearing problem, may have missed some of the rudiments of how social conversation and communication works. It's hard to glean from your post what your "opening gambit" is. Sometimes people have a hard time talking to people like this. Communication can't go forward.

Disagree totally. OP presented her issue much the way many others due. Some OPs are less demanding or direct in their posts. But her post perfectly presents her issue. Some readers prefer to be told how to respond. But the post itself is perfectly fine.

NP here. I disagree. She didn't ask a question or request advice. It's hard to know what kind of feedback she is looking for.

[Anonymous]

5:59 here. I don't know if it's the case or not that OP has trouble with communications. It's hard to tell from a single post and it's hard to tell with online communications. But an experienced and artful speech pathologist will be able to tell.

[Anonymous]

OP here, the post at 18:12 got it.

[Anonymous]

I second the recommendation for an evaluation for auditory processing disorder http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Understanding-Auditory-Processing-Disorders-in-Children/. However, not all ENTs can't do it. It needs to be done by an audiologist. We used Dr. Jay Lucker who is an audiologist and a speech language pathologist http://www.ashburnpsych.com/clinicians/jay-r-lucker-ed-d-ccc-aslp-faaa/ What you're describing is pretty classic APD (difficulty discriminating between sound where there are competing sounds). However, you may also have a language/communication disorder that is independent of challenges processing sound. My DS doesn't have APD, but he does have a language/communication disorder and some of what you describe fits him. HTH.

[Anonymous]

Hearing loss is a terribly isolating condition. I speak from experience. Have had severe-to-profound loss my entire life.

It's also exhausting. Trying to keep up with conversations is really exhausting.

[Anonymous]

You might look at the book "When the Brain Can't Hear," on auditory processing disorders. both my DH and two boys have hard time separating out from background noises (auditory discrimination). So for example they have a harder time when fans are loud, as in HVAC. There are some ways to accommodate, including FM listening devices. If I were you and could afford it, I'd get an eval done - GW is one place. Don't go to an audiologist.
There are some computer programs to try to address this, but I think they are more for young kids.

[Anonymous]

I agree you should be evaluated. There are many speech services, therapies, etc. in the DC area. I hope you get help with some.