ABSTRACT
Sound is essential for spoken language. It also serves a wide range of other important communicative functions (Noble, 1983; Ramsdell, 1960; Schafer, 1993, 1994; Truax, 1984). Sound connects listeners to themselves, to each other, and to many different kinds of events and objects in their acoustical world or soundscape. A soundscape is “an environment of sound with emphasis on the way it is perceived and understood by the individual, or by society. It thus depends on the relationship between the individual and any such environment” (Truax, 1978, p. 126). Listeners use acoustic cues to monitor and control their voices and bodies. Listeners hear the voices and sounds produced by other people, during conversation or when sharing activities, during eavesdropping, or simply because they are sharing the same physical space for otherwise independent activities. A voice, footsteps, a car horn, or even the sound pattern produced by a friend’s wheelchair can inform a listener that someone is moving closer or farther away and can possibly enable the listener to identify the person. Sounds such as dog barks or alarms or sirens alert people to danger. Sounds of familiar music comfort people. A sequence of beeps signals to a cook that the coffee in the cup in the microwave has finished being reheated, or it signals to a diabetic that it is time for another dose of insulin. Time of day is cued by sounds linked to societal or institutional routines such as morning rush hour traffic. Soundscapes also vary with seasonal fluctuations in nature, for example, the summer sounds of mosquitoes buzzing or thunder and lightning during an electrical storm (Truax, 1984). Places can be identified from many features of the soundscape: dishes clattering in the dining room, pins falling in the bowling alley, birds singing in the garden, Big Ben chiming in London. Silences or interruptions in sound also convey linguistic (Jaworski, 1993, 1998)
and environmental meanings (Schafer, 1994). Sounds combine with inputs from other senses in a predictable and often complementary or potentially compensatory fashion. A crunch combines with taste, texture, and smell when enjoying a fresh apple. A blind person hears sobs when tears cannot be seen. Listening-the ability to hear and interpret sound-is important for good health insofar as it supports personhood and meaningful person-person and person-environment interaction. It may be necessary for survival; it enables people to communicate using spoken language; it adds to the richness and quality of life. This chapter considers the role that listening plays in the lives of older adults.
