CHAPTER
THREE
Mapping Your Audiogram
Kris English, Ph.D.
Understanding
your personal hearing challenges. As with anything
new, it will seem a little complicated, so this
chapter breaks down its components for easier
understanding. In my discussion with you, I
will present “Mini-Summaries” of
each section, provided throughout to review
vocabulary and concepts, and occasionally “Audiogram
Alerts” are provided to highlight a particular
point of concern. In time, you will be an expert
in describing your audiogram. Obtain a copy
of your audiogram before reading this chapter,
so we can work together in this exploration.
You’ll have the opportunity to fill in
the graph in Figure 3-2 with your audiogram
once we get through enough of this chapter for
you to understand what you’ll see.
An audiogram
has three main components:
1. A range of pitches, from
low to high.
2. A measurement of loudness,
from soft to very loud.
3. Your hearing levels for each
pitch for each ear. |
Another term used to describe
these beeps is “pure tones.” You
may have noticed each beep was like a single
note on a piano, with no chords or harmonics.
The human ear can hear pure tones much lower
and higher than the ones shown on the audiogram,
but it would take too much time to test them
all. For efficiency’s sake we focus on
what people are most interested in hearing—human
speech. So the pure tones found in human speech
are selected for testing and are the ones reported
on your audiogram.
It may seem a little strange to say these pure
tones have anything to do with human speech,
but when analyzed electronically, each speech
sound has been found to be a unique and complex
combination of these pure tones. That’s
why your hearing care professional started with
pure tone testing, as a way to describe the
“building blocks” of your hearing
ability.
