General Hearing Tactics

  • Avoid talking to people in a noisy environment as the noise may mask out the speech you want to hear
  • Try to hold important conversations in a relatively quiet environment
  • Try not to stand too far away from the speaker as you may miss out on the reception of the higher frequency speech signals
  • Position yourself so as to get a clear, well-lit and unobstructed view of the speaker's face
  • Seat yourself across the speaker rather than next to him so you can see him better or with your aided ear close to the speaker
  • Look directly at the person while speaking as this provides the best reception of voice and that you can use any visual cues you may need for discrimination
  • Ask the person to speak clearly with no exaggeration
  • Ask the speaker to repeat or rephrase if you cannot make out what he says. In general, discrimination difficulties increase as your hearing loss becomes more severe