Louder Is Not Always Better  

It can be frustrating trying to communicate with someone that has a hearing loss.  I often watch as patients come in to my clinic with family members or friends that try desperately to get a point across.  Sometimes I see the same message repeated over and over, to no avail, other times I observe an increase in volume and other times I see repetition with increased volume occurring.  Often this approach fails to create any better understanding on behalf of the hearing impaired individual.

Sometimes talking louder can actually make it even harder to understand.  This statement sounds a bit counterintuitive but it is accurate.  When damage is done to the cochlea (the hearing sensor) through excessive noise exposure or the ageing process, sometimes there can be a distortion of sound as it is received in the auditory system.  When the volume of sound, such as louder speech, takes place there can be an even greater distortion to the sound making speech even harder to understand.

So what should you do?  Here are a few tips that can help with communication with the hearing impaired…

1)     Talk slower – break up your phrases.  This gives the hearing impaired person time to process the information - to put two and two together, so to speak.

2)    Position yourself well.  This would mean facing each other so that you are at a distance that allows you to see and hear each other.  In this way you can pick up better visual cues as well as have sound arriving at an optimal level.

3)    Reduce any unnecessary background noise in the room as it makes it harder to understand speech.

These are just a few helpful tips.  In the case of hearing impairment – louder is not always better.

Sanjeev Sukumaran Au.D.