IT IS HARD TO READ THE SUBJECT on the current setting

Auricle.

     HOPE YOU ALL ARE DOING WELL

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     Yes, Aruicle, I understand.

      I work with impaired people through my own Charity

Some people find out that a person is seeing impaired so then

THEY TALK MUCH LOUDER ?    

       to the group NOEL !

     QUESTION IS :   Should we talk even louder back to these kinds of people due to their obvious IGNORANCE ?

    PLease give me your input on this.

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Hi everyone! I just joined. :o)

I am hard of hearing.

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Spend a day wearing a great pair of earplugs, it will really make you appreciate your available hearing... It's amazing... And a good idea for people who love people who are Deaf, deaf, or hard of hearing.... It helps to foster positive communication patterns once people can understand *how* to communicate with those with difficulties with the sense of hearing...

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You know, this sort of happened to me in an odd way the other day...  I went to pick up my glasses, and at first I was communicating with the lady just fine, then she was fitting the glasses - and she noticed the hearing aid... She TOTALLY changed her approach and demeanor... over emphasizing her speech, and raising her voice... I even thought she used 'simpler' (for lack of a better way to put it) sentences - like I couldn't hear her or understand her or something... You know, how some people respond to people who don't speak their language - they think that raising their voice and saying simpler sentences, slower, and extremely deliberately, will somehow transfer the message across the language barrier... 

I must admit, I also have 'turned a deaf ear' upon someone calling for me who is on the other end of the house... heheheheeee  It doesn't matter if I can 'hear' them, I couldn't understand the words if my life depended on it, if it is hollered from another room... A phrase I love is "I'm sorry, dear, but I am deaf when I am blind - If I can't see you, I can't hear you..." (which also applies to speaking to me when I don't have my glasses on...)

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     Thanks for sharing that experience Sandra.

I have been in situations similar before I began loosing my hearing.  Now I am not totally impaired but just can not hear some of the sentence so I can not often understand the whole thing the people are saying.  I get very frustated and the people get very annoyed becasue I keep asking them "HUH?"

    "What did you say"   Much background noise at all and I can not hear anything spoken.

     My ability to use sign language is strictly limited to the signs I learned which others use in traffic jams.

     Shake your fist if your really mad at someone.

     When they get more furious they point their index fingure at you then shake their fist.

     Apparantly these are advanced sign language signs becasue I do not see them used nearly as often as the one where they raise the middle finger (the one next to the index finger) and point it up pretty much pointing up towards GOD.

     Do they mean that they are going to pray for me? 

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Have you ever pretended you were deaf, but really you were not?  I don't mean to offend anyone here.  It would just be to get a sense of what it might be like to be deaf.  I went into BK, the other day, and I had my order all writen out.  The woman wrote down the total for me, and she was very sure to look at me when she spoke.  It just really weird, because she asked if I wanted any sauce.  But, I could hear it...I was so tempted to just speak my reply, but then I thought, 'oh, I'm not supposed to do that.' I just shoke my head.  It was a good experience-just for a taste of the Deaf world. 

Just wanted to share that experience....

God Bless,

Sandra

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     Really giving us a great deal of information and helpful insight.

     Really have opened my eyes to things I could and should be doing to help both others as well as myself.  After listening to several of you tell what you go through and how you comprimised and endure your situational einvironments I am blessed to have the limited obsticles which I do and hope some day I can learn how to ue them to enhance my life the way you all have learned to enhance yours.

     That on its own is very impressive.

     But you go the extra step and tell us about little things you do which we can all use and try which are wonderful help to us.   THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH AND LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING MORE FROM ALL OF YOU!

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Well, I would do a couple things depending on how hard it was for me to hear. I might ask the waitress if any of the specials were vegan, since that's what my diet is, possibly asking her to look at me and/or repeat something I'm not hearing clearly. That cuts out a lot of what she may have to say, since most of the time the specials are meat based. Other times I'll just ask my mom or whoever I'm with if any of the specials are something I'm able to eat. And sometimes I don't even care what the specials are because I already know what I want!

There is one restauraunt though that I go to very rarely now, even though my family goes weekly. It moved to a new location and the acoustics in there are beyond terrible. Even the normies have a hard time hearing and it's so loud. So I just stay home, which is ok with me since they don't have anything I can eat anymore.

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Scene: Noisy restaurant, Friday or Saturday evening - there is a large group, perhaps a football team cheerleaders of a high school, wh excitedly discuss the night's activities, past, present, & future .

You are attempting to have a nice dinner with your family, not too fancy, but not too "fast-food."  You have been perusing the menu for a few minutes before the server approaches the table and says "Hello, my name is ????, and I'll be your server tonight.  Our specials tonight are ??????????????????????" at this point, the server's voice can no longer be heard above the din of the excited local teenager group.

Strategies, anyone?

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A nice cuppa of hot tea with cream and sweetener. Sometimes a pinch of vanilla, or earl grey. Or spice tea... I am a tea-aholic, so better make that whole pot, LOL!

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Both Carol and Maria Angela – what a proactive first approach!! Woohoo!  You are Hearing Empowered… (and getting exercise).  Seeing the person is always easier to hear them – as Maria Angela said – we humans are natural lipreaders, I believe. Some are better than others, but it is certainly easier to hear someone if you can see them speak.  I have trouble sometimes when someone has a really bushy moustache  it makes them hard to hear… isn’t that funny?  Forget those curly moustaches (what are they called?), all I can do is stare at the curls, and I can’t see the lips or hear the words for anything!!! LOL.

Carol – I suppose you are right – the way I would react would certainly depend upon how I felt at the time…  I have pulled the “I don’t hear you” trick a few times too, sometimes successfully and sometimes with a much grouchier response from the person who wanted to speak with me…  Interesting approach for the kids…

I love the idea about turning the TV off, and having good, old-fashioned conversation in the kitchen while preparing the meal…

As far as reminding the family about a hearing problem – I had to do a project once for school that might be of interest…  It was a class about disabilities, and relevant laws, and we were required to pick a disability – and BE a person with that disability for a day, and then write up our experiences.   We could blindfold ourselves, stutter, or use a wheelchair for the day – but in this case – perhaps it would be a very useful (and fun??) activity to share with the family your hearing problem…  Hand out earplugs!  Ask them to wear them for an entire day, without taking them out – and they will appreciate your situation in a completely different light…  I mean… sound…

Maria Angela – I like your rephrasing approach – and taking a stab at what your chef might be up to…  You are most likely to get a rephrase back (hopefully with some stress on the non-heard words, or in a different word order…).

Now that you are in the kitchen:  “Dinner is ready, what would you like to drink?”

Thanks for your ideas!!!

Auricle

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First I would mute the TV, then go into the kitchen. I would try to get the speaker facing me. I can not read lips, but seeing can help you get some clues. Then I would simply say something like, "I am so sorry; I had the TV too loud. Could you please say that again?'

If that didn't work, I might say, "Are we having ____ for dinner?' inserting a common and liked possibility. Or "Do we have any _____ in the fridge?" or something to that effect. Or one could say, "What do you prefer?" or something like that.

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Person with cooking abilities is in the kitchen, clanking around - getting ready to cook the evening meal...

Second person is in the other room, watching television, with the volume perhaps a wee bit too loud...

The food artist asks?

"Mumble bumble WHAT dobu yabba wee DINNER?" (this is what is heard)

How would you handle the situation if you were the person in the other room, watching television???

*auricle

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How many times have you been in a conversation with someone, & you hear something like gobbledeegook?  It doesn't even sound like the same language you were speaking a moment ago!

"Blah bleeblah da DOG Buddha POND"

The natual reaction for many folks is to say...   "HUH"?

POW WARNING!!

The communication interaction has STOPPED, must rewind, and replay.

The speaker often uses the very same words, very same voicing, and it sounds, often, the very same:        "Blah bleeblah da DOG Buddha POND"

Again, the reaction is to say "WHAT???" And you have a communication breakdown.  Both parties are irritated - person speaking begins to sound irritated and perhaps louder - distorting speech.

 "Blah bleeblah da DOG Buddha POND!"

Person with hearing difficulty is clearly having trouble understanding that particular message, but is not able to glean the missing parts... Anger and speech distortion do not help to deliver the message!

So, what strategies are useful to circumnavigate these types of issues?

Keep the conversation bouncing back and forth, like a tennis ball, this keeps the illusion of fluid discussion - even if the person having problems understanding the message is asking, SLYLY, for more information.  In my experience, the speaker is often unaware of the 'camouflaged HUHs,' and may either re-word, and/or *emphasize* the missed parts, or the part that we are requesting more information about.  If we are totally off base, then we should figure it out from the beginning... Or else it is a COMPLETE communication BREAKDOWN!

"Blah bleeblah da DOG Buddha POND"

*What about the POND, are we walking the DOG?

Yes, let's take the dog to the pond

* Did you say something about the POND?

Yes, shall we take the DOG for a WALK?

* Are you saying that God is Buddha is wrong?

No! I was suggesting we take the DOG for a WALK to the pond.

*Oops, I missed the first part, what did you say about God and Buddha?

No! I think we should take the DOG for a WALK to the pond.

How many other ways can we request information (e.g. say “HUH” without using the word “HUH,” or stopping the conversation to rewind - cramping the ‘flow’ of natural communication... (and the ever present “oh, never mind, it isn’t important anyway” line).

Please post and share your strategies for these situations! How do you handle a partially heard message?

Thanks!!

*Auricle

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