Connecting with Family Members with Hearing Loss This Holiday Season

The holidays are often thought of as bright and cheerful times, but there can also be a sense of profound loneliness during this time, too. Seasonal depression sets in for many as our sunlight hours decrease dramatically. Many people also seem to feel the loss of loved ones more deeply. And some people simply don’t like the pressure that comes along with the holiday season.

There’s a deeper reason that people with hearing loss often feel disconnected during this time of family gatherings and holiday parties. Depending upon their degree of hearing loss, one-on-one conversations with close friends or family might be challenging, but a holiday party brings a whole slew of additional difficulties. Here are a few tips when connecting with family members who have hearing loss this month.

Age-related hearing loss continues to be a mostly untreated condition in this country. Although it affects one in three people over the age of 65, more than 80% of people let age-related hearing loss go without intervention. An important fact to consider is whether your loved one with hearing loss is aware of the problem. It’s a difficult condition to self-diagnose and sometimes family members are aware of the problem before the person themselves.

If they are aware of their hearing loss, you can speak frankly about it in order to find the best ways to communicate. If not, try to avoid the subject and follow their lead in terms of volume and pacing. If they ask you to repeat yourself, you’ll know to enact a different communication method. Speaking clearly is always more successful than upping the volume. Instead of trying to speak louder, speak more slowly and be mindful of really enunciating each syllable carefully.

Don’t expect a family member with hearing loss to hear you if you’re not standing near them and making eye contact. Ideally, you should be directly facing them so that sound has the best chance of reaching them undistorted. They can also use visual cues such as facial expressions, lip reading or mannerisms to catch more undertones of the conversation making understanding much easier.

For your conversation and catch up, avoid the really noisy places that holiday parties are so famous for. Don’t stand right next to the speaker that’s belting out carols. And keep clear of the kitchen. The clanging of plates and dishware can be really distracting background noise to filter through for someone with hearing loss. Television areas screening sports games are also a good noise environment to leave behind.

Instead, find a quieter corner to settle into. If lower ceilings and carpet are available, head towards that area. A corner or against a wall is a wonderful place to chat because the architecture supports clearer conversation. Seating a person with hearing loss with their back to the wall cuts down on the chances that background noise will occur behind them. Similarly, a corner works to their advantage because background noise is also reduced.

One-word answers are challenging because they lack the support of any other context. Yes and No can sound surprisingly similar. Give your family member with hearing loss a little more to work with and draw out answers into sentences like, “Yes, I am” or “No, I am not.” That pertains to all answers to questions. “I went to the game with Brad, my friend from work” has a much better chance of being heard accurately than simply answering “Brad” when asked who you went out with the day before.

If your family member asks you to repeat yourself or indicates they didn’t understand something you said, you might want to rephrase the sentence entirely. Some words are less distinguishable than others, so trying a whole other set of words might improve odds of understanding. And, as before, try to slow down and carefully enunciate over merely cranking up the volume.

It might be frustrating to adjust your communication habits to account for a family member’s hearing loss. However, this is a good time to keep in mind that while this is a situation you have to deal with for only a short period of time every now and then, it’s how they feel communicating with the healthy hearing world all the time. Think of it as a good exercise in practicing patience and enjoy the conversations you’re able to navigate successfully!

This holiday season, give yourself the gift of hearing. If you have been experiencing changes to your hearing abilities, contact us at HearCare Rhode Island for a consultation.