What is auditory discrimination?

Auditory discrimination refers to the ability to perceive, compare, distinguish and recognise various sounds through hearing so as to assign a meaning to them.

Auditory discrimination is characterised as the ability to distinguish the unique features of individual phonemes within a pair. A phoneme is defined as any language sound that differs from others in one or more characteristics known as "traits."

When one can hear speech but not understand it, it is referred to as auditory discrimination: an established difficulty in hearing a specific, narrow band of frequencies. The cause of the disorder is frequently unknown; however, certain contributing factors may include prematurity, head trauma, chronic otitis, and lead intoxication.

When you observe a shift in your hearing ability, it is advisable to seek professional testing. Various tests are available, and the specific type may vary based on the symptoms. For instance, the dichotic listening test is a valuable method for examining cognitive and brain function, involving the presentation of two distinct auditory stimuli through headphones simultaneously. Another beneficial test is the word discrimination test in noise, which evaluates a patient's capacity to comprehend language in noisy settings by presenting two similar words and asking which one they heard.

The ability for a normotypical adult to recognise sounds has numerous positive implications often overlooked:

• fluent and uninterrupted reading,
• full comprehension of language,
• the ability to intercept nuances dictated by the tone of voice.

On the contrary, impairment in auditory discrimination can lead to deficiencies in these contexts, highlighting the importance of ongoing monitoring through specialised assessments.

Unfortunately, loss of discrimination is an irreversible process because the parts of the ear that deteriorate over time cannot regenerate; however, one can try to prevent the disorder and do rehabilitation through hearing aids, which play a primary role in the treatment of hearing loss. The devices can help make certain frequencies audible again, while also filtering out background noise, making it easier to understand sounds and words.