Psychological Impact of Hearing in Infants and Adults

Running Head: HEARING IN INFANTS AND ADULTS
HEARING IN INFANTS AND ADULTS
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1HEARING IN INFANTS AND ADULTS
Hearing has a very deep effect on the mental state. It affects a lot of stages in life starting
from temperament, cognition and life satisfaction. Thus, a lot of psychological and psychosocial
factors are associated with the loss of hearing. Some of these factors are depression, anger, anxiety,
frustration and loneliness. This essay is going to discuss about the psychological impact of hearing in
adults as well as in infants. The essay will also highlight about the consequences that are being faced
by the individuals after loss of hearing ability.
Mental well-being is an integral part of quality life. Studies reveal that infants can identify
pattern in the voices that are entering their ears and can learn the sequences that help them to identify
the words (Moeller & Tomblin, 2015). The development of infant language can occur in two ways,
one by frequent use of new words and the other is using words in different references and different
contexts. Therefore, the quality and amount of language that a child perceives is important in the
overall development of a child’s language. In case of adults, hearing is a core component of being
associated with the society. It gives them a sense of attachment with that of society, their family
members and friends. The greater loss of hearing is associated with greater social isolation. Reports
suggest that noise can also have a negative impact on the cognitive learning of the children and the
effect is much more deep compared to that of adults (Klatte, Bergstrom & Lachmann, 2013). Infants
have a poorly developed auditory attention skills that play an important part in the difficulties
perceived by them during listening. Noise can also have a profound effect on the state of mind of
adults. It can accelerate the stress levels along with increase in anger as well as cardiovascular effects.
Studies show that noise exposure is associated with headaches and fatigue (Kamp &Davis, 2013).
Noise can also have a bad impact on the listening skills of normal people. The consequences of high
noise in individuals with normal hearing is found to have lower cognitive skills. It also causes
impairment in the recognition of word. Studies have shown that the repercussion of high noise can
result in the decrease of memory and learning ability (Picou, Gordon & Ricketts, 2016).
Hearing loss can be challenging at any age. Loss in the ability to hear can cause difficulty in
interaction with the outer world. The loss in hearing ability may or may not cause psychological
problems in a child. The psychological problems may be associated with the social atrocities that are
linked with hearing loss. These might lead to communication and behavioral problems in the children
associated with hearing loss. The impact of hearing loss is also related to relationships, as
communication is very important in any relation. Research shows that when the volume of the
television set is increased beyond a certain limit, various effects are observed. These effects include
anxiety, difficulty in communicating with the family members, avoiding social functions and
interactions and alteration in home environments (Brainbridge & Wallhagen, 2014). Impairment of
hearing is also related to lower self-functioning of the individual. Thus, it can lead to loss of freedom