If you are living with someone with hearing loss you probably have been told, and try to, speak very clearly.  But have you ever had your loved one accuse you of shouting at them or sounding angry when you tried to speak clearly?

Recent research at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City has found that speaking clearly can have negative connotations no matter what tone of voice or words you use. This study took 18 young adults with normal hearing and had them listen to sentences spoken by volunteers. The volunteers were told to read each sentence in two ways; a normal conversational way, and then with careful enunciation (clear speech). None of the sentences contained any negative words or phrases.

Once read, the 18 listeners were asked to rate each sentence with an emotion; sad, angry, happy, fear, disgust or neutral. Most of the time, the listeners interpreted the sentences that were spoken with the clear speech to be more negative in nature than those spoken in normal conversational tones despite the fact that the sentences themselves were the exact same and neutral in nature.

The listeners also thought that the speakers who had the most difference between their normal conversational tone and their clear speech were angry, unhappy people.

This probably comes as no surprise to many of you as oftentimes when we are angry we tend to speak more slowly and precisely. With a bit of luck, bringing awareness to the challenges of communication when hearing loss is present might help to easy tension on both sides of the conversation.