Below are some communication strategies for a person with a hearing loss:
- Be sure your hearing aid is working properly (and has fresh batteries)
- Tell people you have a hearing loss
- Sit or stand where you can easily see the faces of all the speakers
- Choose a well-lit area where the light is behind you, not behind the speaker
- Request that one person speak at a time, or try to arrange the situation so that you are speaking to one person at a time
- In a group, sit or stand near the person with whom you most want to speak
- Move away from noise, background music and other conversations
- Ask people to face you when they speak, to move their hands away from their mouths, not to exaggerate speech, not to speak while chewing, and to speak slowly. Ask people to repeat when necessary
- Repeat back the part of a message you understood with a request for the speaker to repeat the part you did not understand (“You went where?” or “You went with your daughter’s class from school to which museum?”)
- Ask to be clued into the topic when joining a group of people having a conversation (i.e., “What are you talking about?”)
- Use what you know about a speaker or the situation to clue yourself into the conversation, including the interests and habits of a speaker or the event you are attending
- Stay well-informed about current events and news
- Try to be well rested
- Be aware that how you are feeling (fatigued, distracted, worried, anxious, on top of the world) can interfere with your ability to understand the speaker
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