Hearing loss affects more than one in 10 people in the United States.1 If you’re among that number, you know that communication can be tricky sometimes. Learning effective listening techniques and maintaining a calm environment can significantly improve your ability to understand and respond to speech.
Let’s look at a few of those listening techniques below.
1. Talk Face-To-Face
Visual cues like lip movements and body language are missing when you aren’t looking at the person speaking; that’s part of the reason talking on the phone is so difficult for people with hearing loss. Make an effort to look at the speaker and limit distractions like the TV or your phone.
2. Sit Close Together
Don’t try to have a conversation with someone standing ten feet away or in a different room. If you have to shout to hear each other, you’re standing too far away from one another. Aim for about three to five feet apart at most.
3. Turn Your Good Ear Towards the Speaker
Hearing loss usually affects one ear more than the other, especially when it results from things like noise exposure or physical trauma. Turn your better-hearing ear towards the speaker while they talk. Think of it like shifting a satellite to get a clearer picture on your TV.
4. Concentrate
Whether you’re picking up on the conversation of the people sitting behind you at Symmetry Coffee Company or getting distracted by the thoughts in your own head, try your best to tune out all that added stimuli. Instead, concentrate solely on the speaker; don’t look around, listen to other people or think about how you’ll respond.
5. Don’t Nod Along
Nodding along when we don’t understand something is a common phenomenon that most people have done off and on since they were kids. Just as nodding along to your teacher’s lessons in school didn’t help you understand the topic, nodding along to the speaker when you don’t actually hear them won’t help you stay involved in the conversation. If you miss something, just ask the speaker to repeat or rephrase what they said.
6. Wear Your Hearing Aids
Your hearing aids are valuable tools that collect and amplify speech to improve communication. Don’t forget to wear your devices during every conversation.
If you don’t already have hearing aids, contact Beneficial Hearing Aid Center today to schedule an appointment with one of our specialists.
Sources:
1 Cleveland Clinic. (2023). Hearing loss. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17673-hearing-loss