Скачать или смотреть What’s Important?

First, let’s clarify what “normal hearing” actually means. When we say “normal”, what we’re talking about is a quantifiable level of hearing (as shown on an audiogram, like this.) See that slightly u-shaped yellow band on the audiogram? That’s called the speech banana. When you get your hearing tested, tones are presented to your left and right ears separately.
You respond and your hearing levels are reported for both ears. Now, for people with hearing loss, their reported levels of hearing fall below 0 db and most of the times below 20 db. Here’s why that’s so important. Those letters you see inside the yellow speech banana include the 21 consonants of the English language. You’re familiar with the 26 letters in the alphabet, but guess what? When it comes to hearing, we don’t care about the 26 letters. We only care about the 21 consonants, and here’s why.