Maximizing Spatial Awareness in Hearing Aid Fittings

Spatial awareness isn’t something that most people pay attention to, despite how important it is. It’s only when they experience issues with it that they start to worry about it. That’s especially true when hearing-related problems are at play. When you start to develop hearing loss, you’ll often find there are issues with your spatial awareness, too. It’s something your audiologist will want to help with, and that starts with your hearing aid fitting.
You’ll need to worry about this from the start and actually work with your audiologist so you don’t go through any issues after your hearing aid is fitted. While it’s only one factor to consider during this process, it’s an important one. It’s worth diving into what spatial awareness is and why it’s important during a hearing aid fitting.

What is Spatial Awareness?

So, what exactly is spatial awareness? In short, it’s your ability to interpret the world around you and how it relates to where you are. It directly impacts how you interact with people, objects and more. Without spatial awareness, getting up and down stairs can be more difficult, for example.

In a sense, it’s how you interpret whether something’s close to you or far away. It’s a cognitive skill that tells you your position relative to everything around you. Even the simplest tasks, like picking up a glass, are affected by it. While you don’t notice this when everything’s working properly, it can be a problem when you experience hearing loss.

Why is it Important for a Hearing Aid Fitting?

Now we know what spatial awareness is, it’s worth looking at why it’s important for a hearing aid fitting. What most people aren’t aware of is just how much of an impact hearing has with their spatial awareness. You’ll need to hear as much as possible for your brain to properly understand your surroundings.

As an ability, your spatial awareness is important for:

• Location: It gives you context for where things are, such as whether something’s behind or beside you.
• Movement: Spatial awareness helps you understand how things are moving in the environment around you.
• Social: It can affect social interactions and whether you’re considering personal space and similar factors.

Since an audiologist wants to make sure your lifestyle is affected as minimally as possible because of your hearing loss, it’s a factor they’ll focus on. They’ll work with you to make sure you have the right hearing aid for you, with spatial awareness being one of the main factors they’ll focus on with this.

If you want your quality of life to be as high as possible, then making sure you have the right hearing aids for you is vital. Don’t just focus on the sound quality with this, but also how it plays into your spatial awareness and other factors.