How to Train Your Hearing in a Targeted Way
With the following games designed to consciously train your hearing, you can not only improve your listening comprehension but also enjoy a meaningful pastime.
How Hearing Becomes Understanding
The human ear functions in a unique way. As soon as a sound is perceived, it triggers a kind of chain reaction. First, sound waves strike the outer ear, causing the auricle to transmit these sound waves to the eardrum. This causes the sensitive eardrum to vibrate, and these vibrations are in turn transmitted to the ossicles. This amplifies the sound, which then reaches the inner ear.
Here, special receptors detect the wave movements and convert them into electrical impulses. Finally, these signals are transmitted to the brain via the auditory nerve, where they are interpreted. If any part of this chain reaction fails, unfortunately there is no guarantee that you will actually be able to understand and interpret sounds correctly.
It starts with not understanding certain words, progresses to difficulty following conversations, and ultimately develops into a real communication problem: Most people tend not to notice their hearing loss for far too long—or deliberately ignore it. However, this does no one any favors, because not only will you become increasingly frustrated over time, but so will the person you’re talking to.
While your hearing loss becomes second nature to you, your brain gradually forgets how to process sounds correctly. To compensate for the missing information, your brain draws on existing experiences—which, however, don’t always fit the context. If you notice that the person you’re talking to has to repeat themselves often or that the birdsong in the garden is getting quieter and quieter, you shouldn’t take this lightly! Put your hearing to the test and take a hearing test with a hearing care professional or ENT doctor you trust.
How to Adjust to Your New Hearing Situation
Once you’ve taken the step toward getting a hearing aid, you’ll notice a tremendous improvement in your quality of life. However, because your perception of sound has now increased, you’ll first need to adjust to your new hearing situation. Your brain takes time to readjust to working closely with your hearing to interpret sounds that were previously barely perceptible. You can support this process with targeted hearing training! Because when you focus on listening, you simultaneously improve your ability to understand what’s being said.
1: What’s that rustling sound?
For these exercises, you’ll need to go out into nature. A garden, balcony, or patio works just as well. Sit down and close your eyes. Take a moment to relax and listen closely. What sounds do you hear? The neighbor’s children playing, cars rushing by, or perhaps the buzzing of a bee? Let these sounds sink in and decide what feelings they trigger in you.
This exercise is related to the emotional aspect of hearing. Because once you figure out which sounds trigger discomfort in you, you’ll find it easier to tune them out.
Are you looking for sounds that trigger feelings of happiness? You can read our article on “Sounds That Make You Happy” here.
2: Tracking Down the Rustling Sounds
This exercise builds on the previous one. Once you have successfully identified the sounds, try to figure out which direction they are coming from.
The goal here is to help you perceive the variety of sounds more distinctly and specifically strengthen your ability to localize sounds.
3: Lip-Reading
This exercise is perfect for all TV series junkies and movie lovers. The next time you’re watching your favorite show, just turn off the sound. Can you tell what’s being said just by watching the lip movements?
In most of our conversations, it’s not just what’s actually said that matters, but also facial expressions. As soon as you’re face-to-face with someone, you automatically pay attention to visual cues and try to interpret them. This includes, above all, lip movements, but the cheeks and tongue are also important. This exercise makes you more attentive to these cues and, at the same time, enhances language processing in the brain.
4: Yoga
For those who are also looking for a new athletic hobby on the side, we have the solution: yoga! Known as a means of relaxation, yoga also offers several benefits for your body. In fact, there are certain yoga poses that can support your hearing. The Tree Pose and Camel Pose, for example, stimulate blood flow to the ears and brain, thereby enhancing nerve function. According to some studies, regular yoga practice may help alleviate the symptoms of tinnitus.
5: Two Are Better Than One
For this exercise, you’ll need the help of two family members or friends.
Each person stands in a different part of the room, and you stand in the middle between them. Now both participants begin telling you something, and you try to follow both of them at the same time. Alternatively, this exercise can also be done using electronic sound sources.
This trains your ability to understand speech in noisy environments and helps you learn to process different pieces of information at the same time.
Don’t be discouraged if the training doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped. As we all know, patience is the key to success! Gradually increasing the difficulty of the tasks creates a lasting learning effect and allows you to adjust comfortably.
If you’d like to discover even more games for all ages, check out our articles “Little Mouse, Squeak Once!” and “Discovering Your Ears Through Play.”
