What can I do to stay connected despite hearing loss?
Answers provided by Alexandra R. Borders, Au.D., CCC-A at St. Cloud ENT
What can I do to stay connected despite hearing loss?
Communication is a two-way street. But when someone has hearing loss, that road can become much more difficult to navigate, even with hearing aids.
A hearing aid does not fix hearing loss or restore normal hearing. Instead, it helps a person hear more of the sounds around them and makes communication easier than it would be without amplification.
But there is another side of that two-way street—how other people communicate with the person who has hearing loss.
One of the most useful tools friends and family can learn is called effective communication. It means being aware of how you speak, as well as recognizing environmental factors that can make understanding speech a challenge.
Think about the news. Many patients tell me, “I can hear the news just fine, but I can’t understand movies or sitcoms.” There’s a reason for that.
When you watch a newscaster, the camera is usually focused closely on their face. There are very few visual distractions and little or no background noise. The newscaster speaks clearly and does not talk over others. All of these things make the speaker easier to understand.
These same principles can be applied to everyday conversations to significantly reduce the frustration that comes with hearing loss.
Seven simple ways to make communication easier
1. Be in the same room. The farther away you are, the softer and less clear your voice becomes by the time it reaches the listener. If you have something important to say, walk into the same room rather than calling from another part of the house.
2. Get their attention first. Before you begin talking, say their name, gently tap their shoulder or otherwise get their attention. This gives the person an opportunity to focus on you and prepare to listen.
3. Face the person when you talk. Think of your voice like a jet of water. You have to point it in the direction you want it to go. In addition, your facial expressions and lip movements can help fill in pieces of speech that aren’t heard clearly.
4. Slow down and speak clearly. If you talk quickly, sounds can blur together, and the person with hearing loss may not hear every sound or word. Since the individual’s brain has to make sense of speech using incomplete information, giving them more time and clarity helps.
5. Minimize background noise. Background noise can interfere with speech and overpower important sounds. If possible, mute the television, turn down the radio or step away from a running dishwasher when you need to have a conversation.
6. Rephrase instead of repeating. A person may hear most of a sentence but misunderstand a word. When that happens, the sentence may no longer make sense. Changing the wording can give the brain different sounds and context to work with.
7. Avoid saying, “Don’t you have your hearing aids in?” Even if they do, hearing aids cannot provide perfect hearing. Asking that question can make the person feel embarrassed and create frustration on both sides.
Communication is a shared responsibility
Effective communication is about both people making an effort.
The person with hearing loss can wear and care for their hearing aids, communicate when they are having difficulty and ask for clarification. Family and friends can make the seven changes listed above to make speech easier to understand.
Remember: The goal isn’t perfect communication; it’s to make communication easier for everyone. And sometimes, taking a few steps toward the other side of the street can make all the difference.
Find out more
St. Cloud ENT is located at 1528 Northway Drive in St. Cloud. If you are interested in learning more about hearing health, please call St. Cloud ENT at (320) 252-0233 and schedule a visit with one of our audiologists.
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