Strategies & Realities - Hearing Loss in Social Settings

Ah yes....my 12 year old grandson caught me! After I nodded my head to him several months ago, he immediately said "Grandpa do you know what you just agreed to!" Gotcha! LOL

@imallears
I have an ENT appointment coming up but not sure when And I was going to ask the doctor if I could get my hearing tested again. years ago I had a hearing test and I had problems with I think high pitch sounds. I do have trouble with certain words on the television and when I ask Alexa a question I have to re-ask the question several times and replay the TV, sometimes I can figure the word out sometimes not. This may be a stupid question however I’m going to ask it anyway. Do people with Hearing loss have a more difficult time understanding people with accents. I have no problem understanding my friends in England but my friend in Africa and the Philippines is more of a challenge, but that's probably a common problem, I hope.
Thanks kids,
Jake

Accents are very difficult for most people with hearing loss to understand. Also, for those with typical hearing loss, which shows up on a downward sloping audiogram, the higher consonant sounds are the most difficult to hear. Those are the sounds that leave us first. Vowels give power to speech, so we tend to hear vowels fairly well. Sounds like sh, th, pf, s, etc. slowly disappear from our hearing range, and make it difficult for us to understand conversation. (Especially in noisy places.)

You're fortunate if your hearing loss hasn't deteriorated any further. It does tend to come with aging, but other factors enter the picture too. I encourage you not to wait too many years to be retested. In most instances, other people notice our hearing loss before we do. If a friend or family member tells you that you aren't hearing well, get tested again. Obviously, an audiologist cannot recommend anything w/o testing you. Has anyone close to you suggested that you get a hearing test?

So did you follow through with what you agreed to? 🙂

Of course! Taking him to the Packer game on Christmas Day!

Hi All. Here’s a funny one. I work in the events industry, where anything can happen. A while back I was talking with a colleague about what she was seeing as the latest and greatest. I was surprised to “hear” her say that the former model Kate Moss was doing amazing things with bondage. After a little back and forth, I discovered that what she actually said was the Cake Boss was doing amazing things with fondant. Always pays to double check AND keep your sense of humor 🙂 Merry, merry!

@joann8

That is funny. And you will notice that so many of the words or phrases we mishear are those that are not used in everyday conversation so our ears are not attuned to understanding them. How many times have you used “fondant “ in the past year lol.

I try to refrain from responding sometimes if I think I didn’t hear right.
I had someone in my gym class dead and buried a few months ago when she was alive and well. Glad I asked a close friend who said they were talking about her close friend who did come to the gym occasionally, and that was why we had not seen who I thought had passed in recent weeks.

I’ll try to remember some of the funny ones that had my family on the floor crying laughing.

FL Mary

@jakedduck1

As @julieo4 stated, accents are definitely more difficult to understand. Just be sure to tell the person it’s your problem, not their accent, as some people seem to be embarrassed by their accents.
What she said about vowels and consonants are so important.
Losing high frequencies is where your understanding speech starts to deteriorate.

I try not to use the word “hear” when asking people to repeat and use “sorry, I didn’t understand what you said”. I heard the words but couldn’t understand what the words were. It’s like listening to a foreign language. Might be a picky strategy but too many people shout which doesn’t help. Also, repeat what you think you heard so the speaker doesn’t have to repeat the entire conversation. For instance, someone says they are going to the Riviera for vacation and you didn’t hear the word Riviera. You say…you’re going where on vacation? Avoids frustration on both ends.

And I suggest you use captions on tv…you will get use to them…why stress out about that. Alexa is impossible for me as I need to see peoples faces and lips. Get that exam asap cuz it’s not going to get any better and probably will get worse.

When you do get hearing aids, there are so many people here who can help you every step of the way with absolutely anything and so many of us didn’t have that support ….or technology….years and
years ago. But you know that and we are so fortunate to have someone like Julie as our moderator.

FL Mary

Not lately.