Relearning to Hear

It might help to know that even a person with normal hearing would have to adjust to hearing aids and how they process and deliver sound to the inner ear. It won’t sound like your normal hearing used to—but you will be able to hear sounds you’ve been missing, and enjoy your sense of hearing again.

When you put on hearing aids for the first time, you’ll begin hearing sounds you haven’t heard in some time. Your brain actually has to re-learn how to hear these sounds, particularly the complex range of frequencies in human speech. This can take some time. It also requires practice. Research suggests that speech comprehension does increase over a period of several months after hearing aids are purchased. With consistent and attentive use, you should be able to hear the sounds you’ve been missing, more easily.

Here’s what many people report when first wearing hearing aids:

• It takes some time to adjust to wearing hearing aids.
• Hearing in quiet environments improves.
• Hearing in situations with background noise improves, but probably not as much as your hearing in quiet places.
• You might begin to notice sounds you haven’t heard for some time, such as the hum of household appliances, or the chirping of a cricket.