Decreased word perception

[doc2x]

I went to my audiologist after wearing my HAs (Siemens: in the ear) for 14 months (with several adjustments.) Although sounds are louder with them in, my speech discernment did not seem to be improved. He repeated my audiogram and also gave me another Word Perception Test. He reported that my audiogram was the same as 14 months before, but my speech perception had deteriorated. He also said it occasionally happens, and he would try some more adjustments and maybe some different HAs, but he implied that sometimes neither improves the situation. Confused by how this speech perception loss could happen without some ear or central nervous system changes, I asked him what is the mechanism. He said that the condition is occasionally encountered by audiologists but the cause is "unknown". I have read many hearing articles and forums on the web, but have never heard of this. Can someone out there please enlighten me and advise me as to what to expect? Thanks. doc2x

[CryMeARiver]

I'd like to know the answer to this myself. I've had a hearing loss for 20 years and since day one my word recognition did not match what would be expected of my mild to moderate tonal loss. At every test each year my word rec score decreases while my audiogram remains stable. None of the hearing aids I have purchased over the years have helped with speech understanding. I've tried to study this for years but no answers.

[hearnow]

I went to my audiologist after wearing my HAs (Siemens: in the ear) for 14 months (with several adjustments.) Although sounds are louder with them in, my speech discernment did not seem to be improved. He repeated my audiogram and also gave me another Word Perception Test. He reported that my audiogram was the same as 14 months before, but my speech perception had deteriorated. He also said it occasionally happens, and he would try some more adjustments and maybe some different HAs, but he implied that sometimes neither improves the situation. Confused by how this speech perception loss could happen without some ear or central nervous system changes, I asked him what is the mechanism. He said that the condition is occasionally encountered by audiologists but the cause is "unknown". I have read many hearing articles and forums on the web, but have never heard of this. Can someone out there please enlighten me and advise me as to what to expect? Thanks. doc2x

By how much did your speech discrimination change? Often you cannot tell by one subsequent test as factors such as concentration, test retest variability, test materials, time of day (clients energy levels) all play a role. I would ask for another test of speech discrimination, maybe early in the morning, and see if anything has changed. BTW how old are you if I might ask as this can also play a role in Central auditory processes?

[goditto]

I am in the same situation of speech recognition decreasing faster than one would expect based on my audiogram. Here is how I understand it: The audiogram is measuring ability to detect soft sounds. But there are other parameters that are also affected by SN hearing loss: pitch discrimination (and I can tell this is strongly affected in my case) and temporal discrimination (hearing slight differences in sound onset). These last properties are important for speech understanding. So I assume if my audiologist could measure these other characteristics of sound processing, we would see some decrease in function.

It is frustrating to have this problem. I am jealous when I read about other people being so excited about their HA, because I don't have the same reaction.

But I am happy I got hearing aids because they do help some. The combination of HA and lipreading is working, sort of. I have only had my HA about 6 weeks and I can tell I'm "bonded" with them because I turned my car around to get them yesterday when I was halfway to work.

goditto

[Hask12]

I have a progressive hearing loss and as my loss has become worse my speech comprehension has deteriorated also. My right ear used to be the better of both ears but the comprehension in the right ear has now leaped past the left ear so that my last test results showed rt ear comprehension at about 46% with left ear at 52%. Doctors tell me my problem is probably genetic, although I have not had genetic testing done. Hearing aids can only do so much. They try to filter out background noise so you can comprehend speech better. But hearing aids don't fix anything. If you test comprehension at 50% then that's pretty much what you will understand with your aids in in a quiet environment. All aids can do is try to filter out distractions and try to give you a better chance at understanding what is being said.

[xbulder]

By how much did your speech discrimination change? Often you cannot tell by one subsequent test as factors such as concentration, test retest variability, test materials, time of day (clients energy levels) all play a role. I would ask for another test of speech discrimination, maybe early in the morning, and see if anything has changed. BTW how old are you if I might ask as this can also play a role in Central auditory processes?

Speech in Noise is a different animal. I would get a Hint test, wich takes about 10 minutes. There is a interesting article about CAPD (i think it was hearing review),
Perhaps you need to get help from an FM system