_Auditory Receptive Communication
_Human face-to-face communication has two aspects, expressive communication and receptive communication. Communication assumes that there is a common language; it is necessary that both parties share knowledge of this language, and the topic, if communication is to succeed.
The most common medium for human language is sound; we express sounds to convey our meaning, and we receive sounds to understand the other person's meaning.
When we talk about "everyday hearing", we refer to this process of receiving meaning from another person by way of sound. The efficiency of this process will determine whether a person has a “hearing problem” or not. In reality, for most people who are not severely or profoundly deaf, the problem can be restated as "difficulty listening to other people in challenging listening environments".
The quality of the listening environment determines our listening success. In turn, this not only results in the successful reception of information transmitted by the talker, but, importantly, a feeling of community or bonding is created between the communication partners. Auditory receptive communication failure not only means that the information is not received, but the bond between the talker and listener is strained. While the loss of information can be an important nuisance, the threat to the social bond can often have more significance. This threat is not often explicitly recognised by clients or audiologists.
Audiology in general, and specifically Macroaudiology, is concerned with this low-level definition of communication. Communication, both receptive and expressive, is a vast and complex topic, far exceeding the boundaries of audiology. It is important to remember though, that this rich world of communication exists, under-pinned as it is for most of us by the hearing process, and failures of the hearing process will restrict a person's access to this world.
The most common medium for human language is sound; we express sounds to convey our meaning, and we receive sounds to understand the other person's meaning.
When we talk about "everyday hearing", we refer to this process of receiving meaning from another person by way of sound. The efficiency of this process will determine whether a person has a “hearing problem” or not. In reality, for most people who are not severely or profoundly deaf, the problem can be restated as "difficulty listening to other people in challenging listening environments".
The quality of the listening environment determines our listening success. In turn, this not only results in the successful reception of information transmitted by the talker, but, importantly, a feeling of community or bonding is created between the communication partners. Auditory receptive communication failure not only means that the information is not received, but the bond between the talker and listener is strained. While the loss of information can be an important nuisance, the threat to the social bond can often have more significance. This threat is not often explicitly recognised by clients or audiologists.
Audiology in general, and specifically Macroaudiology, is concerned with this low-level definition of communication. Communication, both receptive and expressive, is a vast and complex topic, far exceeding the boundaries of audiology. It is important to remember though, that this rich world of communication exists, under-pinned as it is for most of us by the hearing process, and failures of the hearing process will restrict a person's access to this world.