The Connection Between Hearing Loss and Speech Disorders
While hearing loss is most commonly connected to older age, the truth is that hearing loss can affect individuals of any age. Hearing loss is relatively common, with more than 1 in 10 Americans experiencing some degree of hearing impairment. Some individuals are born with a hearing impairment, while others may become hearing impaired due to certain illnesses, trauma to the head, or overexposure to loud noises. Whatever the cause of hearing loss, the effects on communication can be wide-reaching and complex.
Hearing plays a major role in effective communication, learning capacity, and speech and language development. Speech therapy is an important supportive resource for many individuals affected by hearing loss as it helps them overcome communication challenges, increase their independence, and navigate daily life with confidence and ease. If you or a loved one might benefit from speech therapy for hearing loss, getting started with us is as simple as scheduling your free introductory call today!
Are Hearing and Speaking Connected?
Beginning at a very young age, we depend on hearing to gain knowledge about language, vocabulary, and speech. Hearing and speaking are closely connected, as the ability to hear plays an important role in speech production and language development. Children learn speech and language by hearing and listening to the sounds and words in their environment. Hearing the speech of others helps to inform them and understand language structure, rhythm, tone, and articulation. Children learn to communicate by mimicking the speech of others, making hearing an essential part of speech and language skill development.
What is the Relationship Between Hearing Loss and Speech?
The relationship between speech and hearing loss is significant as hearing is an essential aspect in the development of speech skills, correct speech production, and maintenance of communication abilities. Hearing loss can cause difficulties in speech and language processes in a variety of ways, including:
Speech Development in Young Children: Many young children with hearing loss, especially those at a very young age, experience delayed speech and language development. Children with hearing loss often struggle to learn new words and expand their vocabulary, find forming sentences difficult, and experience significant challenges developing proper grammar simply because they cannot easily hear spoken language.
Speech Production in Adults: Adults who experience hearing loss later in life often develop changes in the way that they speak simply because they can no longer hear and monitor their own voice (known as auditory feedback.) This can result in changes in volume, pronunciation, and articulation or the development of slurred speech.
Speech Clarity: Those with hearing loss often struggle to produce certain speech sounds, especially sounds such as “s,” “sh,” and “f.” Speech is typically less distinct in those with hearing loss, often making it difficult to be understood by others.
If you or a loved one is struggling to understand or be understood by others due to hearing loss, speech therapy can help. Get started by scheduling your free introductory call today!
Why Does Hearing Loss Cause Difficulties with Speech and Language Functioning?
As mentioned above, hearing plays a major role in how we learn, develop, and produce speech. When an individual is unable to hear properly, they don’t receive important auditory input necessary to develop and master speech and language processes. Hearing loss means limited exposure to:
The Speech and Language of Others: Exposure to verbal communication from others helps to inform our own communication abilities, including sentence structure, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and rate and volume of speech. Hearing loss makes it difficult or impossible to learn from the exposure of the communication skills of others. This reduced exposure can be isolating, resulting in fewer opportunities to practice speech and language skills and participate in conversations with others.
Sound Differentiation & Sound Omission: When using verbal communication, it is essential to understand the key differences between certain speech sounds, especially similar sounds such as “s” and “sh,” “l” and “r” or “p” and “b.” Hearing loss inhibits one's ability to distinguish between these sounds, often leading to unclear speech or frequent mispronunciations. Some individuals with hearing loss will omit or distort certain sounds simply because they are unable to hear them when spoken by others.
Auditory Feedback: Hearing our own voice as we speak allows us to self-monitor our speech and make adjustments when needed. This is known as auditory feedback. When an individual is unable to hear themselves properly, it becomes more difficult to monitor their speech and control volume, clarity, and tone when speaking. This means they are also unable to identify and correct mistakes as they make them, such as inappropriate pitch or volume or mispronunciations of certain words.
Delayed Processing and Cognitive Overload: Individuals with hearing loss have to work much harder to process and understand the speech of others. Many rely on visual cues such as lip reading or maintaining intense focus in order to comprehend what is being said and respond appropriately. Some individuals with hearing loss also need more time to process the information, often delaying their responses during conversations, making speech sound disjointed or slow.
How Does Speech Therapy Help with Hearing Loss?
Speech therapy is an essential form of intervention for individuals of any age with hearing loss. Speech therapy for hearing loss involves helping the individual to develop, maintain, or improve their speech, language, and communication skills. There are many ways that speech therapy can help an individual communicate despite their hearing loss, including:
Early Intervention: For children who are born with hearing loss or develop it at a young age, speech therapy focuses on the development of basic language skills, including vocabulary, grammar, and simple sentence structure. The speech therapist may also focus on helping the child to produce certain speech sounds that are more difficult to hear, such as “s,” “sh,” and “th”.
Speech Clarity: Speech therapy for hearing loss often includes articulation therapy, as well as a focus on voice control and speech fluency. Articulation therapy involves coaching the individual on tongue, lip, and jaw placement to effectively produce certain speech sounds. The speech therapists will also focus on targeting issues related to voice control, such as pitch, volume, and tone when speaking.
Establishing Communication Strategies: The speech therapist will provide guidance and advice around devices that may improve hearing abilities, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants. They will also explore alternative communication strategies, such as sign language or the use of communication devices. In some cases, they may teach the individual to lip read and closely observe facial expressions, mouth movements, and gestures to understand others.
Speech therapy for hearing loss provides tailored approaches to address the particular communication challenges each individual is facing. A speech and language pathologist can help an individual with hearing loss improve the clarity and fluency of their speech, support their ability to process auditory information and provide them with strategies and techniques to communicate effectively in a variety of environments and situations.
If you or a loved one is struggling to communicate due to hearing loss, help is available. Get started with one of our incredible speech therapists by scheduling your free introductory call today!