So you finally managed to convince your family member or friend to do something about their hearing. Or maybe it has taken you many years to find the courage or motivation to do something about your hearing. After seeing an audiologist for a hearing test, hearing aids were recommended to be fitted. They sounded great at the clinic, but after taking the hearing aids home there has not been as much of an improvement in the ability to hear conversation as you expected. You begin to question whether hearing aids actually work.
Our ability to hear is very complicated and something that is very easy to take for granted. Although we usually associate hearing with ears, our brain actually plays an integral part in how well we hear. Our brain’s ability to form meaningful information from sounds depends on the quality of the signal it is receiving from both the ears as well as the auditory pathway between the ears and the brain. A disruption to any part of the pathway can reduce the quality of the signal and cause difficulties with both hearing and understanding speech.
Hearing aids aim to improve the quality of the signal reaching the brain by increasing the volume of sounds that are not heard so well due to hearing loss. But sometimes no matter how clear the signal is, parts of the auditory pathway that have been affected by things such as the ageing process may still result in listening difficulties. This is when extra effort is needed to use some strategies to improve the quality of your conversations.
What can you do to help?
- Get people’s attention before speaking to them. Having their full concentration will improve the likelihood of hearing what you are saying.
- Speak slowly and clearly. Sometimes this is more effective than shouting.
- Speak face to face. Sound decreases in volume over distance, so reducing the distance that your voice has to travel gives others a better chance of hearing you.
- Watch people’s faces when they talk, or more specifically their lips. We all lip-read without realising and being able to see someone’s face while they are talking greatly improves the likelihood of understanding what they are saying.
- Try to reduce any background noise if possible. This can be done by reducing or eliminating the source of the noise or by improving the acoustics of the room using soft furnishings (eg. curtains, rugs, table cloths).
- Consult with an audiologist about any accessories that can be used in conjunction with hearing aids to improve listening ability in noise. An example of this is a wireless microphone system.
- Be patient. Conversation goes both ways and it is the responsibility of both parties to make it work.