Hearing loss can make everyday conversations more challenging; fortunately, there are strategies you can use to make speech easier to follow.
Here are five listening techniques to try if you’re among the 15% of U.S. adults with hearing loss.[1]
Give the Conversation Your Full Attention
Dividing your attention between the conversation at hand and your phone, television or the other patrons at a busy restaurant can make speech comprehension more difficult.
Try to focus on the person speaking and give yourself a moment to process what they’re saying before thinking about your response.
Look at the Person Speaking
Facial expressions and body language add context. Whenever possible, position yourself where you can clearly see the speaker’s face. Choose well-lit areas, get rid of tall centerpieces and avoid speaking to each other from separate rooms.
Use Questions to Stay Engaged
Asking questions will help you fill in missing information and keep you actively involved in the conversation. For example, if someone mentions plans for the weekend but you miss the location, you could ask, “Did you say we’re meeting at Royal Lake Park?” This gives you an opportunity to confirm what you heard instead of making a potentially incorrect assumption.
Choose a Better Listening Environment
Sometimes, improving the environment can make as much of a difference as changing your listening habits. Background noise and competing conversations make it harder to distinguish speech.
Sitting away from speakers, televisions, kitchens and other sources of noise may make conversations easier to follow.
Use Hearing Aids
Effective listening strategies can help you navigate conversations with greater confidence, but you don’t have to rely on listening strategies alone.
Hearing aids are one helpful tool you can use to ease the strain of processing speech. These helpful devices collect and amplify the sound in your environment to make conversation easier to grasp.
Contact ENT Specialists Of Northern Virginia today to schedule a hearing consultation with one of our trusted experts.
[1][1] National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2024). Quick statistics about hearing. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing