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"Disturbed children" and "Grumpy old men".
by Hakan Falk, "Energy Saving Now"
For some 15 years I worked with acoustics and noise control. My last larger project was in the beginning of the 1980's. Most of the time I worked for or together with Stellan Dahlstedt in Sweden, who is regarded as "the father of Swedish acoustics". This was a good period and he was one of the most important persons in my life, both personally and professionally.
Early in my activities as consultant and member of "The Swedish Acoustic Society", I met Bengt Jonson. He worked at The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, with development of simplified methods for diagnosing hearing losses. Today the results of his work is used in every hospital and health check facilities. I was fascinated by his work and what he had to say.
During the last 35 years, I very often took any opportunity to tell about what I call "disturbed children" and "grumpy old men". It has to do with hearing losses, not the ones that are obvious, but the very large part of population who have minor hearing losses. The most difficult is an asymmetric minor hearing loss, i.e. a loss of hearing that is larger on one of the ears. To explain this, I will first go through the symptoms of a person with minor asymmetric hearing problems,
- It takes longer for the person to put together and understand what people are saying. This is often interpreted as a lack of capability to understand.
- Difficulties to hear what people say in noisy environments, like dinners etc. The asymmetric loss, means that the person have large difficulties in concentrating on directions and follow discussions. The person is often out of sync with what is discussed.
- The person often talk in a monotone and less melodic way and with raised voice when it is something important. This is often interpreted as aggressivity or anger and make others feel uncomfortable.
- Frequent misunderstandings of what other people say.
- As a result of above it is some difficulties in socializing with others.
The minor hearing loss, can have catastrophic impact on a persons life, both at young and old age.
"Disturbed children".
If you look at the symptoms for minor hearing loss and autistic or mentally disturbed, it is some major similarities. It is also difficult to diagnose a minor hearing loss with a child.
It is a well known problem that before the mandatory and more advanced techniques to test the hearing, many children with hearing problems was diagnosed as mentally disturbed, treated for it and in some cases even put in to institutional care. This has been a problem that has not got to much publicity, but it is horrifying. With the improvements of hearing tests, this situation has been improved.
I am however surprised by the lack of knowledge about minor hearing losses and consequences by the medical and psychiatric community. I have met many professionals who was not aware of this serious diagnostic problem and did not have adequate knowledge about the functions of hearing. I have also been told that the problem is much smaller, but faulty diagnoses still are possible.
I am therefore a strong proponent of better education for psychologists, about hearing and a mandatory thorough testing of patients hearing before any diagnoses.
I have actually a few personal cases of parents who had suspected "disturbed children" and that listened to what I had to say. They tested the hearing of their children and in more than half of the cases, it proved to be a hearing problem.
"Grumpy old men".
The symptoms we are talking about are also common with what we often describe as "Grumpy old men". The reason why it is generally connected to men, is the often mandatory military service and firing of guns or that men more often than women are exposed to noisy working environments.
The social problems with the condition can be major and it is many divorces caused by this. I had many couples that thanked me for explaining and that claim that it saved their relationship. The women could often not understand why the husband went through a personality change and interpreted it as change in the relationship.
Hakan Falk
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"Disturbed children"
and
"Grumpy old men".
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