Communicating well when you wear a hearing aid

Generally, having a conversation requires attention and reflection; it’s important to qualify your words, or even to think again and modify your viewpoint. 

When you're wearing a hearing aid, depending on the sound environment you're in, you require even more attention and concentration, especially in the early stages when you rediscover the sounds you'd forgotten, starting with your own voice. The time it takes to get used to the rich sounds of the world around us can vary, depending on the degree and age of the hearing loss. 

To rediscover fruitful and positive social interactions, we should adopt a certain number of attitudes that will help us understand better and participate fully and appropriately in a conversation.

As the quality of communication depends on both parties, here is some advice for people with hearing aids and those around them.

• The first thing to do is to inform those around you of your hearing loss and your new-found ability to communicate thanks to your hearing aids. This also shows the efforts you are making to maintain good quality in your exchanges.
• Don't hesitate to ask the person you are speaking to articulate clearly, to repeat what has just been said and, if necessary, to rephrase it.
• Moving closer to the person speaking and suggesting that they sit facing you helps them to understand and take part in the conversation.
• Reducing background noise as much as possible helps you to focus more effectively on the conversation in progress.
• Finally, looking at the person you are talking to also helps you to associate sound with lip movements and gradually develop an intuitive understanding of lip-reading, a very useful adjunct to hearing in its own right.
• If you use the application dedicated to your hearing aids, don't hesitate to adjust the settings according to the sound environment.
• To complement your hearing equipment, there is a whole range of accessories that can be very useful for communicating in a noisy environment and/or at a distance.

• Before addressing the person, make eye contact with them and speak their name or surname. Avoid communicating from another room!
• Don't go far away, and make sure you stay in front of the person so that they can also read your lips and rely on your non-verbal language if necessary.
• Above all, don't shout! It doesn't make you any easier to understand, and it makes the person you're talking to feel uncomfortable. The best thing you can do for the other person is to make an effort with your pronunciation and articulate yourself well.
• Communicate in a quiet environment, free from extraneous noise.
• Don't hesitate to rephrase using simpler words if you feel that the other person is having difficulty understanding you.

By following these few tips, after a short period of time, the person fitted with the hearing aid will be able to regain contact with the people around them, whether they are close friends, family or professionals.