For a person, hearing is a way of knowing the world. It is one of the necessary conditions for the development of sound language and the basis of communication between people. Any defects in the perception of sounds that occur in a child, especially during the period of speech and language development, cause a delay in this process, often completely disrupting it. This has consequences in all spheres of life, especially in the field of education and social behavior.
CONTENT:
- The difference between hearing and listening
- Types of hearing
- Functions of hearing
- When do we start hearing?
The difference between hearing and listening
Hearing sounds is not the same as actively listening. We hear - we perceive sounds thanks to the organ that is the ear. The reception of sounds is to notice the action of the stimulus or the fact that the stimulus has ceased to act - this is hearing. However, the brain actually recognizes the type of sound and interprets it accordingly.
The world of sounds is a source of information about the world. There are different categories of sounds that act as signals:
- sounds of the outside world [animals, people (crying, laughing, screaming), sounds of nature, sounds of various devices]
- musical sounds
- speech sounds
Types of hearing
We also have different types of hearing. One of them is PHYSIOLOGICAL HEARING - (PHYSICAL), that is, the ability to perceive acoustic phenomena, notice sound waves with a frequency of 16 - 50,000 vibrations per second. (frequency of vibrations for speech is 100 - 8000 vibrations per second). If, for various reasons, there is a decrease in audibility in certain frequency ranges, this will cause inaccuracy in the perception of certain speech sounds (for example, worse audibility of frequencies above 4000 vibrations per second - differentiation difficulties). Incorrect physiological hearing is the cause of hearing loss and deafness.
Another type of hearing is MUSICAL HEARING. This is a complex property, in which several different, not always dependent on each other, qualities can be distinguished: pitch (melodic), harmonic (analytical), rhythmic, timbre (timbre) and dynamic hearing. Pitch, that is, the ability to distinguish the pitch of sounds, can be relative and absolute. The presence of relative hearing allows you to determine the pitch of a sound based on the recognition of the interval that separates it from the reference sound. Absolute pitch registers the absolute pitch of each sound. About 5% of people have such hearing. It is probably an innate ability and manifests itself in early childhood.
Physiological hearing is the basis of sound perception, but only the perception of acoustic stimuli is not enough for the full perception and transmission of speech. With age, a small person develops the ability to distinguish
and distinguish speech sounds from the sound series. She learns to identify, recognize when at least two acoustic sensations are different and when they are not. In order for this process to proceed correctly and not disturb the child's development, PHONEMATIC HEARING (phonological) must function correctly. This ability requires prior fixation of traces (auditory patterns) of sounds in the posterior part of the superior temporal ganglion in the temporal region of the left hemisphere of the brain. Phonemic hearing disorder causes the instability of the sound structure of sounds, which manifests itself in the difficulty of distinguishing words close in sound, for example, kasa - kasha, can cause a violation of articulation
and difficulties in learning to read and write. For the child's speech to develop properly, he must also be able to distinguish sounds that belong to the same class of sounds, this is the ability to distinguish the realizations that make up a certain phoneme, for which PHONETIC HEARING is responsible.
Functions of hearing
Language is words, utterances, to which we give the appropriate sound with the help of accent, melody and rhythm. PROSODIC HEARING is responsible for the differentiation of these prosodic elements. If for some reason it does not work properly, we may experience difficulties in understanding the emotions, intentions of the interlocutor, and our speech is monotonous and unclear.
Proper AUDIT CONTROL of utterances, i.e. auditory perception of one's own utterances, is necessary for the correct development of speech, especially pronunciation. It is necessary to simultaneously involve the structures responsible for auditory perception and oral praxis: kinesiology and kinesthesia. A child usually uses the most energy when speaking, so the auditory control may be insufficient and the child, despite the question, "Did I say 'safa' correctly?" - can notice incorrect articulation, the same, makes articulation errors in spoken language.
That's not all!
Another necessary auditory function is the SKILL OF VOICE-WORD ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS, i.e. conscious selection of sounds/syllables
in speech with observance of order and combination of sounds/syllables into a sound whole. In order for a word or a whole sentence to be pronounced in the correct order, a well-functioning AUDITORY MEMORY is needed, which allows you to recall images of speech sounds. Thanks to it, we remember auditory patterns of words, that is, we remember their length (number of sounds, syllables in a word) and order. It is also the ability to store in memory a number of words connected by logical and grammatical connections. It is necessary for both transmission and reception of language.
We attach meaning to the words we remember. The SEMANTIZATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS is responsible for this, that is, the ability to associate speech sounds with their meaning. As a result, we deal primarily with the combination of auditory samples of words with the corresponding concepts, giving meanings to statements and, therefore, with the formation of various reactions to stimuli.
When do we start hearing?
The hearing organ of the fetus is formed and begins to function from the 23rd week of pregnancy. At first, the peritoneum and amniotic fluid strongly attenuate incoming sound stimuli. This is good because the brain, and thus the central auditory pathways, mature much later along with the protective mechanisms of the ear. Already in the womb, the child shows anxiety associated with excessive noise.
After birth, the younger and smaller the baby, the more sensitive it is to loud sounds and, in turn, the weaker its natural protection against noise. A newborn, and even more so a premature baby, despite normal hearing, reacts only to very loud sounds. Over time, reactions to the voice of a loved one, a call, environmental sounds become faster and clearer. However, only in a 2-year-old child does the threshold of response to sounds correspond to the true threshold of hearing. The development of the reaction to sounds occurs in parallel with the development of motor skills and speech of the child. This is due to the correct formation of the central nervous system under the influence of which auditory stimuli are received.
In everyday life, we don't think about how many different complex processes have to happen in our ear and brain in order for us to hear. We begin to think about this most often when there are certain difficulties in development. It is important to be aware of the fact that hearing problems are not only a reduced hearing threshold - hearing loss, but also many other complex processes that can often develop incorrectly, despite normal physiological hearing.