Baby with a telephone why hearing health is important

It is easy to take our hearing health for granted. From listening to the radio to holding a conversation with friends, sounds fill our world to make our lives much more enjoyable. Beginning before we are even born, we rely on our hearing ability to learn and grow. By listening to the language and sounds around us we gain a greater understanding of our world.

The ability to hear clearly goes hand-in-hand with communication, safety, and education. Issues with hearing have a significant impact on your child’s ability to socialise and learn. Unfortunately, if your hearing is damaged, the effects are mostly irreversible. Therefore, consulting a hearing specialist and getting a hearing test are essential. They are steps to ensuring your child has the best possible start in life. Not only that, they they are also important steps for adults to take. Our hearing changes as we age. Hearing tests help us maintain better hearing in later life.

Hearing Helps Keep Us Safe

Our hearing is natures automatic sensory safety system, pre-installed in our, bodies. It allows us to embark upon our everyday life with unconscious caution. Not only that but it equips us with an added layer of awareness of our surroundings. More simply put, our hearing is the most excellent tool in our survival kit.

For example, healthy hearing will detect a fire alarm or hear someone crying out for help. On the street, when a car toots, it’s horn you are warned of danger before you see it. This sound gives you crucial extra moments to scuttle to safety. At your workplace, you would hear a coworker calling out to you before the danger arrives. The examples are endless.

If you’re struggling with your hearing, you may be putting yourself, family members, co-workers, and even wider society at risk. If you’re concerned about your hearing health, visit an ear specialist for a hearing health check. This is also an excellent idea for the seniors in your life who have health needs specific to their age.

Healthy Hearing Helps Us Learn

As humans, communication is one of our greatest skills. However, before we can speak, we must learn to understand spoken language. If we cannot clearly hear that language, it makes the learning process infanitly more difficult.

In education being able to speak in order to demonstrate your understanding is also essential to developing knowledge. This is why pre-existing hearing problems are often identified in children when they first go to school.

Children do not realise they have a hearing issue because it is their ‘normal.’ Parents do not notice because they child naturally adapts to communicate with the minimal use of spoken language. Then their child begins school, where spoken words are a critical component of exchanging ideas and conveying knowledge. Communication barriers indicate that the child is struggling with spoken language and hearing issues are identified.

Poor hearing throughout education may also lead to an array of learning problems. It can also slow the rate at which an individual can learn new skills. This is one of the reasons why schools are beginning to initiate hearing screening programs to help families and children in the Australian education system detect hearing problems.

It Enriches Our Experiences

Think of the times you’ve enjoyed chatting with a friend, the beautiful sounds of a child laughing or going to a community choir singing event. These experiences add colour and magic to our lives which, in turn, brings positivity and clarity to our mental health. The ability to hear communicate closely correlates with our ability to socialise. This means that the conversations and the personal interactions we have with each other rely heavily upon our hearing health.

Additionally, the context of a sound, the tone, and verbal cues, encourage the correct interpretation of a message. It also helps us to express ourselves, to develop and understand feelings. Together, all of these elements of sound enrich our understanding of the immediate environment, helping us to enjoy life’s beautiful sounds.

Our ability to hear correctly directly impacts our ability to communicate with the world around us, immerse ourselves in new experiences and enjoy life to the fullest. Fortunately, today’s technology provides many options for hearing treatment, enabling you to continue interacting with and contributing to your society.