The Best Hearing Rehabilitative Exercise is Reading Aloud
With each delivery and fitting of hearing devices, we give our patients a beautiful book of poetry titled Seasons of a Beating Heart by Justine Biondi. We ask that they take this book home and read aloud while wearing their hearing devices.
The process of hearing is without a doubt, the most complicated and mysterious of our five senses. There are approximately 500,000 different sounds that we can recognize and within this catalog of sounds are 44 that are the most important to our lives, called phonemes. Phonemes is what we use to communicate with each other.
Phonemes are soft, mostly high frequency, and used in rapid sequence to construct words. However, these words need to be correctly received, processed, and identified by a listener. What one thinks they hear is based on the information the brain gets and might be different than what should have been heard. The brain needs to recognize the sound correctly and determine accurately what meaning it has.
As hearing diminishes, the brain slowly gets less information about how each of these phonemes should sound. When a person talks, the hearing-impaired listener is trying to put things together in real time while dealing with all kinds of missing parts and uncertainties.
Therefore, we ask that each patient who purchases new hearing aids read this poetry book aloud. By doing this, they know what words they are reading and how it sounds. This easy, yet very effective aural rehabilitation exercise builds awareness and confidence. Reading aloud while wearing hearing devices gives the hearing-impaired individual the chance to relearn how each phoneme differs from the others. The reader knows what sound they are creating since they are the ones making the sound, no matter how they hear it. Therefore, when the “B” used in the word Base is heard a bit differently than the “P” used in the word Pace, there is a chance for aural rehabilitation to happen. After some practice, the reader more easily hears these differences and is then able to recognize the correct phoneme. Now the brain can have a better opportunity to recall with confidence what is being spoken as others speak.
When others speak there is a much better experience that comes with enjoying and participating in conversation. The person is active and engaged with family and friends and has added purpose and value to their quality of life.
Seasons of a Beating Heart is a poetry collection written over the last several years, spanning from teenage years into early adulthood. It is a raw and honest depiction of the many emotions felt by the heart. Over the years, Justine, the author of this collection, has fallen in love, lost loved ones, struggled with self-love, been a bystander to divorce, and has questioned her journey. As personal as these experiences have been, she believes they are not unique to herself. Everyone with a beating heart will experience love, loss, happiness and heartbreak. Justine’s hope in publishing her poetry is for those reading it to feel seen, heard, and understood. Her hope is for people to know they are not alone in their journeys, no matter what emotions currently consume their hearts. Even the coldest winters cannot prevent us from blooming, and bloom, we will.
Seasons of a Beating Heart is a poetry collection written over the last several years, spanning from teenage years into early adulthood. It is a raw and honest depiction of the many emotions felt by the heart. Over the years, Justine, the author of this collection, has fallen in love, lost loved ones, struggled with self-love, been a bystander to divorce, and has questioned her journey. As personal as these experiences have been, she believes they are not unique to herself. Everyone with a beating heart will experience love, loss, happiness and heartbreak. Justine’s hope in publishing her poetry is for those reading it to feel seen, heard, and understood. Her hope is for people to know they are not alone in their journeys, no matter what emotions currently consume their hearts. Even the coldest winters cannot prevent us from blooming, and bloom, we will.
