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Hearing Specialty Center
Call Us Today! 1-425-821-6600
Listening Tips
Tips for Communication with People that have Hearing Loss
Even with hearing aids, a person with hearing loss can misunderstand conversation. Words that are spoken may not be distinctive enough for a hearing impaired person to understand, causing misinterpretation, making what they hear seem senseless. If you have hearing loss or communicate with someone who has a hearing loss, here are some suggestions that may help improve speech understanding.
- Use the person's name to get their attention.
- Speak at a close distance and look at the person.
- Speak clearly in a normal tone of voice as some hearing aids will reduce sound automatically if the input is too loud. Clarity in your speech is more important than how loud you speak.
- Look at the person you are speaking to. Many hard-of-hearing people can read lips to help them understand the words you are speaking.
- Speak slowly so that the person can understand you better.
- In some cases short sentences are easier for a person with hearing loss to process.
- It is sometimes necessary to rephrase what you say to someone who can't hear well. They may have misunderstood the original phrase, but can put things together if rephrased.
- Reduce background noise if possible, turn off the radio or TV if it doesn’t have to be on.
- Confirm that the person with hearing loss has understood you by asking if they heard what you said.
- Be ready to use a pen and paper if necessary for important information.
You and your family can work together to make hearing easier.
How Does Your Ear Work?
How does your ear work ?
1. Ear canal
2. Eardrum
3-5. Ossicles
6. Oval window
7. Canal leading to the nose
8. Cochlea
9. Auditory nerve
How does the ear work?
The ear is made up of three main sections:
- The Outer Ear
- The Middle Ear
- The Inner Ear
Sounds from the outside world are picked up by the outer ear, which is made up of the pinna and the ear canal. As the sound waves enter the ear, the ear canal (1) serves to increase the loudness of those pitches that make it easier to understand speech. At the same time the ear canal protects another important part of the ear: the eardrum (2) - a flexible, circular membrane which vibrates when touched by sound waves.
The sound vibrations continue their journey into the middle ear, which contains three tiny bones called the ossicles(3-5), which are also known as the hammer, anvil and stirrup. These bones form the bridge from the eardrum into the inner ear. They increase and amplify the sound vibrations even more, before safely transmitting them on to the inner ear via the oval window.
The Inner Ear, or cochlea (8), resembles the circular shell of a snail, and houses a system of tubes which are filled with a watery fluid. As the sound waves pass through the oval window (6) the fluid begins to move, setting tiny hair cells in motion. In turn, these hairs transform the vibrations into electrical impulses that travel along the auditory nerve (9) to the brain itself. Exactly how the brain actually translates these nerve impulses remains a mystery.
Our Location
Hearing Specialty Center
12911 120th Ave NE
#E40
Kirkland, Washington 98034
Phone: 425-821-6600