Tips For Communicating With Loved Ones With Hearing Loss

Whether it’s a close friend, partner, colleague or stranger with hearing loss, it helps to know some strategies for managing conversations and communicating clearly with them. If you’re new to communicating with a hearing-impaired person, read on and get ready for some practice.

Face to Face

When speaking to someone with hearing loss, it helps if you can stand in front of them and get their attention so you can talk to them. It also helps if you have plenty of light in the room so that a hearing-impaired person can see your lips moving and your facial expressions.

If possible, you can talk to a hearing-impaired person in ideal conditions, but that is not always the case. Sometimes you need to improvise with the situations to ensure that the listener has the best chance of hearing you. Stay conscious of your standing position when talking to them.

Same Room

When you live with someone, it can be easy to forget they have a hearing impairment and call to them from another room. When they don’t answer, it can cause frustration and sometimes even an argument. However, it’s very important to move to the same room when talking to someone.

If someone only has a mild hearing impairment, you might need to consciously adapt your lifestyle to make them feel more comfortable in the home. Make an effort to change rooms even when it’s inconvenient to you; this will help to harmonize your home and supports a loved one.

Slow Speaking

When your loved one has hearing loss, it can be tempting to raise your voice when talking and even to shout. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work the way you might intend it to. Shouting actually distorts the sounds in your voice and makes them harder for people to understand.

Try to speak slowly, distinctly and clearly. You are trying to make yourself heard by a hearing-impaired person without emphasizing any sounds or mouth movements. Don’t worry if you don’t have the right balance at the start; try to use your conversations to improve.

Speak Their Name

Saying your loved one’s name grabs their attention and puts the conversation into a context for them; this context is important for communicating with a hearing-impaired person. When your loved one with hearing loss understands that you are talking to them, they have a lot of information already. They understand the situation and the context. They can therefore infer a lot of information, helping to fill in any blanks that might result from the hearing impairment.

Simple Sentences

Take care not to speak too quickly when communicating with a loved one. Although you don’t want to speak too slowly, you also need to avoid speaking at your normal pace, especially if you speak fast. Also, use simple sentences that are easy to understand.

Speaking in simple sentences and pausing at the end of the sentences allows your loved one to understand the sentences better. When you speak too quickly for them, it can result in frustration and stress, but when you make an effort to pause, you are creating a helpful space.

Clear Face

Your loved one might be looking at your mouth and facial expressions when you talk to get some clues on the context of the conversation and tune into it by filling in the blanks. Of course, this can be more difficult when your mouth is covered up somehow.

People with beards and mustaches might have concealed mouths. If you are eating, drinking or smoking, when talking to your loved one with hearing loss, they might also have issues hearing your conversation. Stay aware of this and make efforts to keep your face clear when you’re talking.

Noise Awareness

Pay attention to the noise and sounds in the environment you are communicating in. Even light background noise, like a fan or a heater, can interfere with the hearing of a person with an impairment. If you notice they are struggling to hear, you could suggest going somewhere else.

Using these tips and strategies, you should be able to communicate with your loved one more easily. No matter whether the hearing loss is mild or severe you can use your awareness of the situations to create more context for them and assist understanding.

Effective communication with a loved one who has hearing loss is key to maintaining strong relationships and preventing feelings of isolation or frustration. If you’re struggling to communicate with a loved one who has hearing loss, Sound Choice Hearing can help. Talk with a hearing instrument specialist if you want to learn more. Contact us at (505) 565-7960 to schedule a consultation and explore your options for improving communication and quality of life.