A recent article on choosing hearing aids and the cost of them, prompted Carol Robinson Tweed to contact Healthplus about other ways of coping with deafness
IS YOUR hearing not as good as it used to be? Do you hear some people better than others? Do you struggle to hear in restaurants, pubs, airports, wherever there is a lot of background noise?
Have you given up attending meetings, lectures, evening classes, the theatre because you just can’t catch a lot of what is being said? Do people wonder why you seem able to hear at some times but not at others? You are not alone!
Some of us are born profoundly deaf or with some hearing loss but some develop reduced hearing following injury or illness and, of course, for many it is as we get older that we find our hearing fading. So what can we do? How can we minimise the effects to ensure that our family, social and working lives and our enjoyment of many activities are not disrupted more than necessary?
Your first step may be to consider a hearing aid, but remember, don’t buy an aid without first consulting your GP to have your ears checked to see if you need further medical examination or treatment.
However, hearing aids won’t solve all your problems.
While the modern digital hearing aids can make a huge difference to what you hear, filtering out at least some of the background noise and enhancing speech sounds, they will never fully replicate perfect natural hearing.
Verbal communication is not simply a matter of volume, of louder speech; clarity is a major issue. Typically, those with mild or moderate hearing loss can hear vowels – the a, e, i, o and u sounds – but miss some or a lot of the higher frequency consonants.
Consider reading a sentence where only the consonants are given – even without the vowels you will probably be able to decipher the meaning. Now try reading a sentence where only the vowels and perhaps an occasional consonant are present; you will see it is much harder and you have to guess to a large extent what is being said. That is how most hard-of-hearing people hear.
Now think of the speed at which we speak and you will see that however bright and alert people with reduced hearing are, we will often miss the gist of the discussion or the punch-line of the joke.
When we can’t hear well, we have to learn to listen in a new way, to use our eyes as well as our ears and to concentrate that much harder.
As Anne, a writer who has moderate hearing loss, describes the process: “It’s one- third listening, one-third watching the speaker’s face and one- third educated guesswork, based on context.” This can be very tiring but it’s worth the effort to maintain communication with others.
There is more help available than you might think, not least from DeafHear, the Irish organisation for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People, which offers aural rehabilitation classes, assistive technology, social activities, lobbying, and social work services for clients and their families.
Brigid MacSweeney, aural rehabilitation co-ordinator who developed the classes at DeafHear, concurs with Anne: “Lip reading is not as straightforward as most people think. Only about 30 per cent of English sounds have visible lip-shapes and we have to train our minds to fill the gaps.”
Losing our hearing affects our personal, social, educational and business situations and can have considerable social and psychological consequences. To cope with reduced hearing, both the person with the hearing loss and those communicating with them have to change their attitudes and behaviour.
For those communicating with the hard-of-hearing person, empathy and a little extra effort to make your speech clear are important, while a regard for the suitability of the environment you are creating can make all the difference.
Make sure that your deafened friend or colleague can see your face, keep hands and pens away from your mouth, avoid jargon and slang, don’t shout as it can distort the sounds and lip movements, and check that background noise is kept to a minimum.
MacSweeney emphasises that hearing loss is not the preserve of any particular age group and that her classes cater for adults of all ages, educational backgrounds and life experiences.
The aural rehabilitation classes teach strategies including lip-reading, assertiveness, confidence-building, adjustment and coping skills and, while she finds that very senior people may take longer to process language and information, anyone can gain from the classes, learning to take control and assert their right to be part of the conversation.
Classes also have an important social and fun element: adult discussion on all manner of topics develops, and participants find that they are not alone and gain moral support, bonding and friendship.
Classes are run throughout the State and you can obtain the full listing from DeafHear.
For people with reduced hearing, technological aids are now available to make life easier and DeafHear carries a range of these, including portable loop systems, vibrating alarm clocks, baby alarms, doorbells, phones with very high amplification, and, most recently, mobile phones.
Extensive lobbying has resulted in the installation of loop systems in the Abbey Theatre, the National Concert Hall, some cinemas and many churches. A loop system allows hearing aid users to hear speech clearly and without interference from background noise.
Unfortunately, even where such systems are installed, they are often not switched on. If that is the case, complain! Hard-of-hearing people have as much right to access as anyone else.
Subtitling is another area where deaf lobbyists have been active: thanks to their hard work there is now an increasing amount of subtitling on television in Ireland. Simply go into Teletext/Aertel and press 888 for subtitles for your favourite programmes.
Watch the papers for details of subtitled shows in cinemas, such as that in Parnell Street in Dublin, which offers two a week. The National Gallery gives tours with neckloops for those with hearing loss.
The Abbey Theatre now offers certain plays with Stagetext. The plans for the new Terminal 2 at Dublin airport include enhanced facilities for deaf people and let’s hope they implement them!
You don’t have to apologise to anyone for your deafness; just focus on what you can do and have a go at all the activities designed to help you get on with a good life despite your reduced hearing. There is life after hearing loss . . .
For details of aural rehabilitation classes and social activities countrywide, to obtain advice, to talk to a social worker and for assistive technology, contact or call into DeafHear, 35 North Frederick Street, Dublin 1; Tel: 01-8175700; Fax 01-8783629, Text 01-8783629; website: www.deafhear.ie; email: info@deafhear.ie
Carol Robinson Tweed is a former social worker and probation and welfare officer.
Now a freelance writer, she has moderate hearing loss and is a member of the British Psychological Society