What can you do on your own? Sit in your garden, on your balcony, or on a bench in the park. Close your eyes, take a deep breath in and out. Focus your full attention on the sounds around you. What do you hear: birds, rustling leaves, conversations, maybe traffic? Consciously let this variety of sounds wash over you. Which sounds do you like, and which ones not so much? Then try to figure out which direction they’re coming from and whether they might be moving around you.

This playful, intentional listening is much more than just hearing—it’s real training for your ears. By deciding which sounds you like, you train the emotional aspect of hearing. By consciously distinguishing and tracking sounds, you specifically strengthen your ability to localize sounds.

This is just one of many exercises you can do on your own to train your hearing. The goal: to identify different sounds, block out background noise, and improve speech perception—for example, to be able to follow a conversation. The result is better hearing for everyone—and, in particular, a higher quality of life for people with hearing loss and tinnitus.

The longer hearing loss goes undiagnosed and untreated, the more those affected lose the ability to hear properly. New hearing aids or hearing implants, such as cochlear implants (CI), often bring with them a flood of sounds that were previously inaudible. Those affected must relearn how to interpret and locate these sounds. To help the brain adjust to these new auditory experiences, both adults and children can benefit from hearing or audio training, which is offered by hearing care professionals, otolaryngologists, tinnitus centers, and psychosomatic clinics.

Listening training consists of programs with a variety of listening exercises designed to improve speech comprehension and auditory perception. Through regular training of this kind, the brain learns to process new acoustic signals more effectively, and one’s communication skills improve.

Audiotherapy involves not only auditory stimulation as part of hearing training, but also counseling and psychosocial support. This is because, after being fitted with hearing aids or cochlear implants, many hearing aid users initially feel a certain degree of uncertainty in social situations and fear misunderstandings or stigmatization, for example, in the workplace. Through audiotherapy, they learn to cope with a diagnosis of hearing loss, hearing impairment, or tinnitus.

Specially trained audiologists tailor their approach to the individual circumstances of each person who uses hearing aids or cochlear implants.

• The first step is to come to terms with a diagnosis of hearing loss and to explore new possibilities for shaping one’s personal and professional life.
• In addition, audiologists inform their patients about their entitlement to services and the providers of those services.

Through this holistic approach, audiotherapy complements the medical treatment and care provided by hearing care professionals.

Hearing therapy or audiotherapy can also be used as a supportive treatment for tinnitus—that is, when people perceive sounds such as ringing, buzzing, or hissing in the absence of an external acoustic stimulus. To this end, targeted exercises are used specifically to train the ability to ignore the tinnitus.[/vc_column_text]

Have you recently started using hearing aids or cochlear implants and feel like your hearing isn’t quite there yet? Don’t worry! Your brain first needs to get used to working closely with your hearing again to interpret sounds that were previously barely perceptible. Targeted hearing training improves not only your hearing but also your ability to understand speech.

You’ll find inspiration for playful hearing exercises in our articles “Listening Carefully Is a Skill to Be Learned,” “Little Mouse, Squeak Once!” and “Discovering Your Ears Through Play.” These entertaining exercises are suitable for the whole family and can be easily and conveniently incorporated into everyday life whenever you have a moment.