Hearing Loss and Communication
Communication is an essential part of our daily living. We need to communicate to establish good relationship, express needs and to understand message delivered by others. Hearing loss is a known communication barrier and often leads to communication breakdown. It causes frustration to people with hearing loss and their communication partners. Some easy tips might be handy when it comes to minimizing the effect of communication barrier.
General Tips: Take Hearing Loss into Consideration
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ACTION |
EXAMPLE |
| Get attention of your communication partner before speaking to them. |
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| Ensure low level of background noise. |
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| Maintain comfortable distance from people with hard of hearing. |
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| Look at your communication partner |
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| Speak clearly |
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Telephone Conversation: Keep it Short and Simple
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ACTION |
EXAMPLE |
| Speak with normal tone of voice. |
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| Minimize background noise. |
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| Supplement phone call with written material. |
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Speaking to Special Population with Hearing Loss
Communication with special population with hearing impairment such as children, elderly and individuals with multiple disabilities can be challenging. It requires a lot of patience as expected response can be slow. General tips may apply to people from this category. Good understanding and respect from communicating partners will be really helpful for these people to communicate confidently.
Establishing Realistic Expectation on the Effect of Amplification
Usage of hearing aid may help to improve hearing ability for people with hearing loss. Anyway, the device can’t restore one’s hearing back to normal. Despite of presence of modern features such as noise reduction, people with hearing aid are still vulnerable to the effect of competitive noise. Minimizing the effect of distance, noise and echo can always improve the listening condition and make it easier for hearing aid user to capture speech.
Take Home Message
Whenever possible, try to keep your conversation short and simple. Avoid complex sentences or unfamiliar words. Use clear and steady voice. Remember to minimize background noise and maintain good distance between your communication partner .People with hard of hearing may depend on lip-reading. Thus, face your communicating partner. Lastly, establish empathy and patience with your communication partner who has hearing loss.
References
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Hearing Loss Association of America. (2005). Living with hearing loss. Retrieved from http://www.hearingloss.org/content/living-hearing-loss
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Adult Aural/Audiologic Rehabilitation American Speech-Language Hearing Association. (1997). Adult aural/audiological rehabilitation. Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Adult-Aural-Rehabilitation/
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Dillon,H. (2001).Counselling the new hearing aid wearer. In Dillon,H (Ed.), Hearing aids (pp332-337). New York: Boomerang Press.
| Last Review | : | 10 March 2014 |
| Writer/Translator | : | Revathy a/p Sevasankaran |
| Accreditor | : | Nur Azyani bt. Amri |
