A Hope: Here’s How You Can Have A Better Conversation with a Hearing-Impaired Individual

1. A Hope: Here’s How You Can Have A Better Conversation with a Hearing-Impaired Individual

2. Do you know hearing impairment is the second-highest ranked disability for men in Australia, and ranks eight for Australian women? With these stats in mind, understanding how to have a better conversation with the hearing-impaired is more important than ever.

3. First things first, let go of the misleading thought that you need to speak loudly in front an individual with impaired hearing to make them understand what you are saying. Speaking loudly doesn’t provide any clarity to the hearing-impaired; in fact, you seem more like shouting which can make the other person feel conscious and frightened.

4. Or possibly you spoke too quickly or fumbled over syllables which makes it harder for the other affected person to understand. Perhaps you were too far away for that person to have clarity or volume. More often than not, the reason why people with hearing issues are not able to hear properly is because of the speaker’s vague speaking style or the habit of covering their mouth while speaking.

5. Therefore, it’s important for everyone to understand that just how hard it is for you to communicate with a hearing-impaired person; they too struggle on their part to fit themselves in the society. People fail to understand these things and get tired, annoyed and start speaking loudly with the hearing-impaired, making them feel guilty for asking to repeat, and hence they lose confidence.

6. Ask for a Heads Up Therefore, before initiating a conversation with a hearing-impaired person, be sure to have their attention first. This way, they will be able to catch up and understand the context of the conversation. One common mistake done by most people is they start talking to the hearing-impaired individual before getting their attention, giving them no time to prepare themselves for the talk which you are planning to have with them.

7. Be Prepared to Repeat or Rephrase Make yourself prepared for hearing “what?”, “can you repeat?”. Because there is a high chance that if the person you are speaking with has hearing loss and is glazed over or looking disinterested, they may not be hearing you. What’s important in such a situation is to be patient and not to get frustrated, but simply repeat (with much clarity) what you have said.

8. Many speakers repeat out of frustration the same things, at the same speed with the same volume, and make the listener feel uncomfortable to ask to repeat again. Instead of repeating the exact same, try using different words or rephrase the speech in a simpler manner, make eye contact and speak more clearly.

9. Don’t Cover your Face, Especially Lips In fact, those who lip read understand most of the things from facial expressions and natural hand gestures. Though these are helpful, unnecessary hand movements or exaggerated physical movements can create a chaos and distract the listener. For people who aren’t aware, lip-reading is one way the hearing-impaired people fill in the blanks of what is not heard.

10. Mindful of the Surroundings Background noise creates chaos in the mind of hearing-impaired people and makes it even harder for them to understand the speech. To have a better conversation, – Turn off the AC or at least turn the fan down to low. – Avoid playing music in the background while talking with the hearing-impaired.

11. Besides, when you are calling someone with hearing loss, make sure you speak directly into the phone’s microphone without keeping it too close and eliminate the background noise as much you can.

12. Speak Clearly and At a Steady Rate Rapid speech is difficult for the hearing-impaired to follow as the brain gets stuck on the first few words only while going slower than usual will make typical speech look weird on the lips and make the lipreading less useful. Rather than speaking loudly, gibberish and fast, open your mouth properly and maintain a regular pace of speech.

13. If you notice your loved ones struggling with hearing things, follow these tips to better converse with them. Moreover, a professional can carefully assess the hearing of a person and suggest the most appropriate devices, keeping the patient’s condition in mind. So, connect with the best hearing aid providersfor a hearing assessment and cheap hearing aids in Adelaide.

14. Hearing Aid Specialists SA Castle Plaza Shopping Centre 992 South Road Edwardstown SA 5039 Phone:08 83741272 Email ID: reception@hassa.com.au Website URL: http://www.hassa.com.au/