Aging and Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is often overlooked because our hearing is an invisible sense that is always expected to be in action. Yet, there are people everywhere that suffer from the effects of hearing loss. It is important to study and understand all aspects of the many different types and reasons for hearing loss. The loss of this particular sense can be socially debilitating. It can affect the communication skills of the person, not only in receiving information, but also in giving the correct response. This paper focuses primarily on hearing loss in the elderly. One thing that affects older individuals' communication is the difficulty they often experience when recognizing time compressed speech. Time compressed speech involves fast and unclear conversational speech. Many older listeners can detect the sound of the speech being spoken, but it is still unclear (Pichora-Fuller, 2000). In order to help with diagnosis and rehabilitation, we need to understand why speech is unclear even when it is audible. The answer to that question would also help in the development of hearing aids and other communication devices. Also, as we come to understand the reasoning behind this question and as we become more knowledgeable about what older adults can and cannot hear, we can better accommodate them in our day to day interactions.
There are many approaches to the explanation of the elderly's difficulty with rapid speech. Researchers point to a decline in processing speed, a decline in processing brief acoustic cues (Gordon-Salant & Fitzgibbons, 2001), an age-related decline of temporal processing in general (Gordon-Salant & Fitzgibbons, 1999; Vaughan & Letowski, 1997), the fact that both visual and auditory perception change with age (Helfer, 1998), an interference of mechanical function of the ear, possible sensorineural hearing loss due to damage to receptors over time (Scheuerle, 2000), or a decline in the processing of sounds in midbrain (Ochert, 2000). Each one of these could be a possible explanation; however it is often a combination of several of these causing a perceptual difficulty in the individual.
Helfer (1998) recognized the slowing of our temporal perceptual processes with increasing age. He suggested that this leads to auditory deformity, especially in the instance of time compressed speech. Speech comprehension requires rapid processing of stimuli that is not always completed in time-compressed speech because of the shortening of phonemes and a decrease in pauses. Helfer went a step further by taking into account that hearing is not just auditory but it is also visual, in that we use cues like looking at the person's mouth or facial expression while having a conversation.
Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha’s Vineyard details the history, etiology, and ethnography of deafness on Martha’s Vineyard between the seventeenth century to the death of the last inhabitant in 1952. Nora Ellen Groce, the author and principal investigator of this study, richly details the lives of both deaf and hearing inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard by referring to the remaining documents and interviewing several current residents who at the time were in their eighties and nineties. The residents, or in Groce’s terms, “informants”, were most helpful and enlightening in that many shared stories and memories of several of the deaf inhabitants. Not only does Groce use an oral and historical approach to studying the history of deafness on Martha’s Vineyard she also includes the genetic component as well and describes certain medical anomalies such as birth trauma and the theories of Mendelian genetics. This report addresses Groce’s analysis of the medical etiology of deafness, attitudinal differences between the mainland and Martha’s Vineyard on being deaf, and the lifestyles of Martha’s Vineyard residents that coincide and contrast with the mainland inhabitants. This report will also address the improvements and .
Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). 12. Anatomy & physiology for speech,
President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. was our 39th president. He served one term from 1977 to 1981 (Freidel). Before presidency, he attempted to build his political resume. His platform on which he ran gave him popularity. While in office President Carter held many accomplishments and failures. One reason being his relationship with the vice president and cabinet. His public persona was an important factor to be considered for reelection. There were various events that occurred during his presidency and affected his tenure.
John Steinbeck’s acclaimed novel, The Grapes of Wrath, embodies his generation’s horrific tragedy. John Steinbeck’s writing gives insight on the devastating effects of the Dust Bowl on thousands of families and those who helped them. While Steinbeck's novel focuses on the Joad's family journey, he also includes writing of the general struggle of many families at the time. In John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the usage of the term “Okies” degrades the workers, while the personification of the cars help depict the struggle of the journey, to exemplify the adaptation the migrant workers had to make to survive the new life.
I believe that we can be morally justified in disobeying laws, which we consider to be immoral and there are several reasons for this. I believe that it is only possible to happily live in accordance with our own moral code, it may also be possible to live without too much dissatisfaction within the bounds of laws, which dictate a stricter moral code than our own. However I do not believe that it is possible to happily exist under a system of law whereby we are obliged at times to break our own code of morality. In this situation we are likely to find ourselves in a constant struggle ...
Since his presidency Carter and Rosalynn have developed several nonprofit organizations including The Carter Center next to his presidential library in Atlanta. He has also authored over twenty books. In 2002 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to peace, democracy and human rights throughout the world.
President Carter entered office with a humble but solid background. He grew up on a peanut farm in Georgia but continued on to serve in the Navy and become the Governor of Georgia. President Carter studied at Georgia Southwestern College and Georgia Institute of Technology before transferring to the United States Naval Academy and earning a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in 1946. He also did graduate work involving reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union College. The topics he studied were very relevant to the energy issues he conquered during his presidency. After serving in the Navy for 7 years and frequently moving to better positions, President Carter was elected to serve as a member on the Georgia State Senate. He made many advances in the quality of education for all children. However, he made many more changes once he was elected as Governor of Georgia. First, he launched a statewide kindergarten program and made strides to improve education for mentally handicapped children. As Governor, President Carter also promoted equal rights for women and all races. His great actions as Governor gave him experience to become an effective President and make changes to improve the gover...
Strong, Robert A. “Jimmy Carter: A Life in Brief.” Miller Center, University of Virginia. Web. 10 May 2014.
...tween Israel and its neighbors. After leaving the White House they fell into immediate debt. By writing projects they were able to alleviate the debt they had and were now able to open the Carter Center. In the March of 1983 the two worked with Kenneth W. Stein and other associates of the Carter administration, and invited the top leaders of a wide range of cities and countries to participate. Rosalynn Carter created and serves as the chair of The Carter Center Health Task Force.
possible? The old man does not have that good of hearing. Also, at that same
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (November 2002). Retrieved October 17, 2004, from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/coch.asp
Spradley, T. S., & Spradley, J. P. (1978). Deaf Like Me. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University.
Incomprehensibly, The Grapes of Wrath is both a praiseworthy radical investigation of the abuse of horticultural workers and the climaxes in the thirties of a verifiably racist focusing on whites as victimized people. The novel barely specifies the Mexican and Filipino migrant workers who commanded the California fields and plantations into the late thirties, rather intimating that Anglo-Saxo...
National Institute of Health. (2011). National Institute on Deafness and other communication disorders: Improving the lives of people who have communication disorders. National Institute on
James Earl Carter, also known as Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States. Jimmy Carter was born in Plains, Georgia on October 1, 1924 (Millercenter). His parents use to own a peanut farm which was where he grew up. His father was a businessman and a farmer. His mother was a nurse in Georgia. She quit her career after she got married because she was pregnant. Jimmy was the first President to be born in a hospital. He was a smart kid. He made a lot of money by working at the farm. By the age of thirteen he bought six houses around Georgia which were used for other people to rent. Jimmy’s father was shocked and proud of Jimmy at the same time. Jimmy was very active as a teenager. When he attended Plains High School he played basketball. Not only did he play basketball but he also ran crossed country in high school. In Annapolis he played a lot of football. When he was growing up at the farm they had a tennis court made from the dirt that Jimmy use to play on. Jimmy Carter enjoyed a plethora of music. He liked country, classical and folk music. Some of the musicians he liked were Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, and Paul Simon. When he graduated High School he noticed World War 2 which really motivated him to join the military service. There was a lot of competition. He was extremely interested so he started studying in Georgia Institute of Technology. Carter was 100 percent sure that he wanted to go to Annapolis. He graduated exactly at the end of the war and in the top ten of his class in August 1943. End of his year he met his sister’s friend named Rosalynn Smith. They met the junior year of high school. The first time Jimmy asked her to marry him she didn’t want to marry him. The next year, Ros...