Do people with hearing loss speak softly?

[Ray R]

I am hard of hearing (normal to 1 kHz 40dB loss at 2kHz
80dB or more loss 3kHz and above). I have had this loss
for at least 50 years. I do not wear hearing aids.

I have been told that I have a very soft voice. To me my voice sounds
as loud as anyone. I speculate that I hear my voice through internal
conduction that it will sound louder than it is and I try to match it
up with voices that seem softer than they really are due to my faulty
hearing process. In other words my voice seems loud and I tone it
down to match the soft voices of others. I know other hard of
hearing people with soft voices.

It is rude for anyone to be aggressive about any trait that does not match
up to what they think is normal. No one is normal. Everyone is unique
which is what makes life interesting.

This may sound like an odd question, but my boyfriend has a tendency
to speak very softly at times and it makes him difficult to hear. A
friend of ours and I have been a bit aggressive in telling him to
speak up and we got into an argument about it today. He says that he
speaks softly because of a hearing loss. If he really does have a
hearing loss, I feel bad for bugging him about his volume. However,
my experience with people who have lost part of their hearing has
shown me that those people often speak more loudly to compensate for
not being able to hear themselves speak. My boyfriends explaination
for his quiet voice seems counter-intuative. I want to be sensitive
to his situation if it really is a hearing loss, but it doesn't make
sense to me. We talk on the same phones, watch (and hear) the same
TV, and listen to the same radio without any problems. He's also seen
a doctor about his hearing.
Can someone help me understand my boyfriends situation?

[t***@knowspam.mam]

This may sound like an odd question, but my boyfriend has a tendency
to speak very softly at times and it makes him difficult to hear. A
friend of ours and I have been a bit aggressive in telling him to
speak up and we got into an argument about it today. He says that he
speaks softly because of a hearing loss. If he really does have a
hearing loss, I feel bad for bugging him about his volume. However,
my experience with people who have lost part of their hearing has
shown me that those people often speak more loudly to compensate for
not being able to hear themselves speak. My boyfriends explaination
for his quiet voice seems counter-intuative. I want to be sensitive
to his situation if it really is a hearing loss, but it doesn't make
sense to me. We talk on the same phones, watch (and hear) the same
TV, and listen to the same radio without any problems. He's also seen
a doctor about his hearing.
Can someone help me understand my boyfriends situation?

I am considered deaf although I hear some sounds and can hear my own
voice. I speak softly because I don't know how loud my voice is
compared to other sounds. It sounds the same whether I speak loud or
soft, so I have to judge the volume by how much force (pushing air) I
am exerting rather than how it sounds.

It is good of your to care about what your boyfriend is experiencing.
Many hearing people don't realize that increasing volume isn't the
only fix for people that can't hear. It could be that your
boyfriend's life is very quiet because he doesn't hear a lot of
competing sounds that you or people that talk to him hear. He doesn't
speak loud enough to compete with them because he doesn't know they
are there.

Terri

[Thos. Jefferson]

This may sound like an odd question, but my boyfriend has a tendency
to speak very softly at times and it makes him difficult to hear. A
friend of ours and I have been a bit aggressive in telling him to
speak up and we got into an argument about it today. He says that he
speaks softly because of a hearing loss. If he really does have a
hearing loss, I feel bad for bugging him about his volume. However,
my experience with people who have lost part of their hearing has
shown me that those people often speak more loudly to compensate for
not being able to hear themselves speak. My boyfriends explaination
for his quiet voice seems counter-intuative. I want to be sensitive
to his situation if it really is a hearing loss, but it doesn't make
sense to me. We talk on the same phones, watch (and hear) the same
TV, and listen to the same radio without any problems. He's also seen
a doctor about his hearing.
Can someone help me understand my boyfriends situation?

A conductive hearing loss makes the person think he is talking too loudly.
They are very common and involve a problem with the sound conducting
mechanism, the eardrum, the small ossicles or the ear canal itself. Many of
these cases can be cured surgically, some can't.
His problem is real.

michael

[t***@concentric.net]

Can someone help me understand my boyfriends situation?

Yes, many hard of hearing people do have soft voices. I know I do, the
only time I'm loud is when I'm angry and not paying attention to my
voice. If I'm in a loud situation, I can't hear myself and so I don't
know how loud I need to be. If I get loud enough to hear myself,
people accuse me of shouting...there's just no way to win that one.

I think the main reason so many HH people have soft voices is that we
can hear ourselves internally, so we think we're doing fine. It takes
lots of practice and feedback to maintain a volume that is adequate
for most people.

I think one other reason is that at least some of use never learned to
use our diaphragm properly to project our voices. (At least that's
what I suspect is *my* problem...)

[Ben Sauvin]

I am hard of hearing, being nearly completely deaf in one ear
and half deaf in the other. The "loss" is congenital and I've never
known what it is to hear "normally". It's nerve loss and, as far as I
know, irreversible.

I _tend_ to speak loudly because I can't hear myself, but much
less so now than in the past. I've been fortunate enough to have good
enough friends with normal hearing tell me often enough that there's
no need to be a megaphone in a quiet environment (at the same time as
appreciating my ability to make myself heard in the noisiest of
crowds).

Because I am hard of hearing, and because of much such
feedback, I tend to speak rather softly, JUST! above my own ability to
hear. It serves well at work (I'm an engineer) but is sometimes
irritating to people outside the office. When they complain that they
can't hear me, I speak up a little (or maybe a lot, I obviously can't
tell).

Besides, the guy in the next cubicle over doesn't need to know
what I'm talking about when I'm on the phone with my girlfriend O:)

This may sound like an odd question, but my boyfriend has a tendency
to speak very softly at times and it makes him difficult to hear. A
friend of ours and I have been a bit aggressive in telling him to
speak up and we got into an argument about it today. He says that he
speaks softly because of a hearing loss. If he really does have a
hearing loss, I feel bad for bugging him about his volume. However,
my experience with people who have lost part of their hearing has
shown me that those people often speak more loudly to compensate for
not being able to hear themselves speak. My boyfriends explaination
for his quiet voice seems counter-intuative. I want to be sensitive
to his situation if it really is a hearing loss, but it doesn't make
sense to me. We talk on the same phones, watch (and hear) the same
TV, and listen to the same radio without any problems. He's also seen
a doctor about his hearing.
Can someone help me understand my boyfriends situation?