Have you ever heard of the term “speech banana”? This silly phrase refers to a banana-shaped zone on the chart of sound frequencies where most human speech and human-made sounds occur.
Reading an Audiogram
If you’ve ever had your hearing tested, your results were printed out in the form of an audiogram. An audiogram is a graphical depiction of the sounds you can hear; it is a grid with frequency (in Hertz, or Hz) on the horizontal axis and volume (in decibels, or dB) on the vertical axis. Common sounds are plotted on the graph according to their pitch and volume, with louder sounds positioned at the bottom and high-pitched sounds positioned to the right.
The Speech Banana on the Audiogram
Spanning the top third of the audiogram (about 125–6,000 Hz by 10–70 dB) and shaped like a smile or a banana, the speech banana is the zone on an audiogram where all the consonant and vowel sounds that comprise human speech are plotted.
You can use the speech banana to visualize how your hearing loss will affect your ability to hear speech. For example, if your audiogram determined that your hearing threshold is 250 Hz at 60 dB, you may struggle to hear the “j” or “m” sound, resulting in some misheard words, such as confusing the word “jug” for “hug” or the word “them” for “then.”
Hearing Loss and Its Effect on Communication
It’s a common misconception that hearing loss means everything sounds quieter or muffled, as if the volume is turned down on the world. In truth, you usually lose your hearing by the frequency, meaning that some sounds still seem crystal-clear to you, while others fly under the radar. Even very mild hearing loss can still impact your ability to understand and communicate with those around you.
Also, remember that your hearing test was conducted in a soundproof room with noise-cancelling headphones. This means that the speech banana shows your hearing ability in very favorable circumstances; in real-life listening scenarios, there could be background noise, distance between you and the speaker or competing voices that further complicate your ability to hear speech clearly.
When to Seek Help
It’s estimated that only one in five people who suspect that they have hearing loss seek help for their condition. Untreated hearing loss is linked to social isolation and higher rates of depression and anxiety; humans are social creatures, but when communication is made difficult, it can lead people to withdraw from social interactions.
If you’ve been struggling with understanding speech, don’t delay seeking help. Call Decibel Hearing Services today to either schedule a hearing test or follow up on a previous audiogram.