Communication Strategies

       In my last post we discussed different types of hearing loss and how it affects communication.  In this post we will talk more about communication strategies.  As the holidays are rapidly approaching and we spend time around more groups of people in a variety of settings, we all encounter more background noise.

     With people who have hearing loss having communication difficulties in large groups is very common.  It is important to remember that communication is a "two way street".   There are two primary "rules of thumb" to keep in mind.  Number one, try to keep the background noise to a minimum.  People with hearing loss have trouble sorting out what they want to hear from background noise.  At home this is easy, simply mute the TV or turn off the music or dishwasher to communicate.  Out in public or in larger groups it is more difficult, however, to control background noise.  You want to manipulate the environment to give you the best chance of hearing.  You do not want to be in the middle of the group.  Get off to one side of the group and get the majority of noise behind you or get around a corner if possible.  This allows your pinnas or ears to reduce the sound coming from behind you and enhance the sound in front of you.  Number two, always make sure you can see the speakers face.  Again a person with a hearing loss has difficulty hearing certain speech sounds that are important for understanding speech like, F, S SH etc.  These speech sounds, however, are the easiest sounds in our language to lip read.

     Hopefully these strategies will improve communication for everyone. As always,  questions or comments are always welcome.

William J. Boggess, M.S.

Types of Hearing Loss

I thought it might be time to take advantage of my husband Bill's knowledge and understanding.  Bill has been an audiologist for the last 27 years and has worked in clinic and hospital settings.  He counsels  families on dealing with hearing loss and how to improve communication within the family.

On a personal note, my father lived with a moderate hearing loss in his later years.  He struggled with dinner conversation and often would just withdraw because it was so much work to hear the conversation.  He avoided restaurants that were loud for years.  As I get older and have started having problems with the same type of hearing loss, I can appreciate how Dad felt.

So many of you will be gathered around parents, relatives, and friends that suffer from mild to severe hearing loss during the holidays.  I thought it might be helpful for Bill to share some information and strategies for individuals and families that are affected by hearing loss.

Types of Hearing Loss

By Bill Boggess

I thought for this first post we could review hearing loss since there are many types and degrees of hearing loss that will affect different people in different ways.  There are three types of hearing loss, conductive, sensorineural and mixed (both conductive, sensorineural).  A conductive hearing loss is a hearing loss due to a mechanical problem with the ear, such as ear wax or fluid behind the ear drum - something that interferes with the sound being sent to the inner ear.  This particular type of hearing loss affects communication strictly by reducing the volume of speech.  Speech is not distorted, just heard softer than normal.

The second type of hearing loss is a sensorineural hearing loss.  This is the most common kind of hearing loss.  This type of hearing loss is typically permanent and is sometimes referred to as a "nerve type hearing loss".  There are many causes of this type of hearing loss including hereditary factors, noise exposure and general health conditions such as diabetes.  This type of hearing loss can affect different pitches to varying degrees.  For example, if the hearing loss is in the higher pitches (treble region) someone will hear the volume of speech fine but may not be able to understand what is being said.

Now, because this type of hearing loss is in the inner ear, the inner ear may loose some of its' "fine tuning" capability.  Under these circumstances,  if someone is talking too fast, the person with the hearing loss will not be able to understand what is being said, or foreign accents can be difficult to understand and more commonly the individual will have trouble understanding speech in large groups or a lot of background noise.  So, certain environments can be more difficult than others so hearing may appear inconsistent.  Finally, the inner ear can sometimes distort speech significantly.  Under these circumstances the person will need to see the speakers face to have the best opportunity to understand.

The last type of hearing loss is a mixed hearing loss and is a combination of the first two.  Because it is  mixed you have all factors of hearing loss come into play in terms of communication.

In our next post we will discuss rehabilitation options and communication strategies for people with various types of hearing loss.