Selective hearing

Disorder status

Selective hearing is not known to be a disorder of the physiological or psychological aspect. Under the World Health Organization (WHO), a hearing disorder happens when there is a complete loss of hearing in the ears. It means the loss of the ability to hear. Technically speaking, selective hearing is not deafness to a certain sound message. Rather, it is the selectivity of an individual to attend audibly to a sound message. The whole sound message is physically heard by the ear, but the brain systematically filters out unwanted information to focus on relevant important portions of the message. Therefore, selective hearing should not be confused as a physiological hearing disorder. Selective auditory attention is a normal sensory process of the brain, and there can be abnormalities related to this process in people with sensory processing disorders such as autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, selective mutism, and in stand-alone auditory processing disorders.