Speech Understanding

Speech can be loud enough to be heard and yet remain difficult to understand. It is a rapid stream of sounds varying in intensity. For example, vowels are strong while consonants are weaker and often harder to recognize.

Normally, strong sounds are perceived as loud, while weak sounds are perceived as soft. When each speech sound is perceived at its normal loudness, words are easily recognized and it is possible to carry on a conversation even in the presence of background noise.

With hearing loss, strong intensity sounds are still perceived as loud, but medium intensity sounds seem very soft instead of "comfortable". The weak consonants, instead of being very soft, are often inaudible. When some sounds are too soft or inaudible, speech becomes "jumbled" and difficult to understand especially in noise.

For example, the word "stop" can be perceived as "Op" or "O" or tOp" or "StOp". Many hearing devices typically amplify both weak and strong speech sounds by the same amount, much like using a single magnifying glass. When the volume is increased to make the very weak sounds audible, stronger sounds are over-amplified. Frequent volume adjustments are often useless in noisy situations. Words remain distorted and easily confused.

Technology by GN ReSound is designed to help re-establish the proper loudness relationships between sounds. It does so by first electronically separating sounds into low pitched groups (bass) where most of the stronger vowel sounds occur and high pitched groups (treble) where most of the weaker consonant sounds occur. Next, the amplification is automatically adjusted, within milliseconds, with the low pitched sounds and the high pitched sounds amplified or "magnified" independently of one another. In a quiet environment, the weaker or softer the incoming sound, the more it is amplified or "magnified"; the stronger or louder the incoming sound, the less it is amplified or "magnified".

Just like a magnifying glass

We've used the analogy of a magnifying glass to visually illustrate what the differing levels of amplification might look like for the word STOP where the size of the magnifying glass indicates the level of amplification. A larger magnifying glass is used for the sounds "ST" because they are softer (consonants) and require more amplification. A smaller magnifying glass is used for "P" because it is somewhat louder than "ST" and therefore requires less amplification. An even smaller magnifying glass is used for "O" because vowel sounds are stronger and louder than the "ST" and "P" and require less amplification.

Individual programming of amplification

The proper amount of amplification can be programmed to address your individual hearing loss and sensitivity to softer and louder sounds. In addition, as your hearing loss and sensitivity to sounds change, your GN ReSound hearing device may be reprogrammed to accommodate those changes.