Hearing loss – how you can help
According to Canadian Hearing Society Awareness Survey, almost one in four adult Canadians reports having a hearing loss. I'm one of them.
Due to illness in infancy, I lost all hearing for high frequency sounds. I have been unable to hear higher frequency or "sibilant" sounds such as "s" "th" and many others all my life and was often teased as "tongue tied." I didn't learn about my hearing disability until I was thirty years old when, by chance, I approached a speech pathologist who was outreaching at a shopping mall.
While some forms of disability such as blindness or mobility issues are quickly evident, hearing loss is not, either to the person with the disability or to those around them. In fact, people with hearing loss don't understand the problem until they actually cannot hear or carry on a normal conversation. No one wants to interrupt a conversation by constantly asking people to repeat what they say and most people are not eager to acknowledge a disability. So how do people with hearing loss react when they cannot hear?
Three different types of reaction
- Passive
- pretend to understand by smiling or nodding the head (often not looking very smart by doing so)
- withdraw from the conversation
- result in poor communication or isolation
- Aggressive
- express needs openly in a strong way that puts others on the defensive
- react in a hostile manner to the speaker
- look frustrated or angry
- dominates the conversation (try to talk to avoid listening)
- Assertive
- admit problems and ask for help
- respect others
- take initiative to improve the communication situation
How can you help?
Communication tips (Source: Canadian Hearing Society)
- Try not to cover your moth or lips
- Always face the person you are talking to
- Speak normally – don't shout or yell
- Speak at a moderate pace – not too quickly – what you're saying needs to be processed and figured out
- Avoid dim areas which make it difficult to speechread
- When speaking to someone who is hard of hearing, try to reduce surrounding noise or go to a quieter area if possible
- Explore alternative ways of communicating, such as writing on a whiteboard, using pen and paper or showing examples of what needs to be done
- Confirm that your message is received, possibly by asking the recipient to repeat the message back
6 thoughts on “Hearing loss – how you can help”
As someone without hearing loss, this is very interesting to read. It’s easy to overlook the challenges that someone with it face. I hope that your story spreads awareness about this issue so that these challenges are made easier for those with it 🙂
My father deafened as he aged. He also worked in an auto assembly line for 30 years – bang, bang, bang all the time. He could not hear everything, even with the hearing aids on. If we talked at a normal level, he could not hear half of what we said. (I wonder if he was more used to shouting because of the factory noise. With my job, I tend to speak softer. Normal voice, to me, is a low tone.) If we talked louder, he could hear more; but the hearing aids would buzz. He would not wear them half the time because it was so frustrating. New hearing aids. Constant adjustments. He repeating. We repeating. He would get quite angry over asking us to repeat, and us asking him “Did you hear that?” He was a good man but a proud man, and he found it too hard and slow to write down his thoughts and wants.
Thank you for your informative blog. I hope more people will understand the frustrations and will be more supportive of people and clients who have hearing problems.
I also wish people who voluntarily make and listen to loud, repeated sounds would read your blog and also learn from the people who work or have family who work in such environments. Guard your hearing!
Thanks very much for writing.
Trying to carry on a decent conversation for someone with hearing loss can be quite a challenge. We often pretend to hear and there can be a lot of emotion including frustration, resignation, anger and, not least of all, low self-esteem. I recently attended an eight-week course at Canadian Hearing Society on communication strategies for people with hearing loss and I found it helped me a great deal. I’ve learned to be more assertive to tell people that I have a hearing loss and ask that they speak clearly to me. When I can’t hear, instead of asking people to repeat the whole sentence, I learned to be more specific about what I have heard and what missed. For example, instead of telling the person “I couldn’t hear you”. I now will say “you said that we would meet after work, would you repeat where?” In addition to the communication strategies, I also learned about types of hearing loss and some basics of speech reading. A family member can also sit in on the classes. If you are interested, check out the CHS website http://www.chs.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205&Itemid=216&lang=en
in dealing with hearing impaired person we should be more understanding to them. We should not make acts or gestures that will make their feelings hurt. Be more careful in talking with them, and don’t treat them as special, they like to be treated normal.
Thank you for these tips. The passive reaction is the one I encounter the most. Everything you mention makes sense and I will definitely try to remember these going forward. In the past, I have found that it is my own behavior that becomes a bit agressive (or impatient) as I get frustrated having to repeat myself. This is unacceptable and I usually realize about one minute too late! I am working on it!
In my experience (being a family member of the person with hearing difficulty) a person can be passive in one environment (work). And aggressive in another(home) because it is hard to pretend for too long right. Getting to that 3rd category is hard.