What is the best way to communicate with someone who has hearing loss?
Although each person may have their own communication needs and preferences, there are some things you can do to improve communication no matter what the situation. The most important rules for good communication include:
- Make sure you have the other person's attention and are face-to-face
- Speak clearly and more slowly, but do not shout or exaggerate your mouth movements
- Rephrase rather than repeat if something is not understood
- Verify understanding when in doubt by having the other person repeat back to you what they heard
Isn't it true that people with hearing loss automatically become good lipreaders?
No. While people with hearing loss do rely more heavily on gestures and facial expressions to understand meaning, people vary widely in their ability to speechread. Even with practice, research shows that only 3 out of 10 words in English can be speechread clearly. Hard of hearing people often take speechreading classes to increase their understanding of a conversation but need to use it with a number of other techniques. And, a person’s ability to speechread effectively can depend greatly on lighting, how stressed or tired they are, the position of the speaker and several other factors over which they may have no control.
Is American Sign Language really that different from English?
American Sign Language, or ASL, has been recognized internationally as a distinct and fully developed language, having unique linguistic characteristics and grammatical structure. It is not merely “simplified English”. For many deaf individuals who use ASL as their native language, English is truly a foreign language to them, and if they have not been raised or taught to be bi-lingual, they may struggle to read or write in English. This difficulty has nothing to do with their intelligence or abilities, but is simply the result of a language barrier.
Isn't it always better to speak louder to someone with hearing loss?
No. Many hard of hearing people report that they can "hear" but cannot understand the words people are saying because they may have a high frequency hearing loss and can no longer hear consonants, which are the keys to clearly understanding speech. (Words such as blue, shoe, true and too all sound like "oo" to a person with a pronounced high frequency hearing loss). Often, shouting only serves to distort the sound of your voice and makes it even more difficult for a hard of hearing person to understand what is being said. Enunciating without over-exaggerating mouth movement is often more effective than shouting at a person with hearing loss.
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