Many people with hearing loss have better hearing in the lower frequency ranges (low tones), and cannot hear as well or at all in the higher frequencies. The condition may be worsened by a number of factors that affect how they can use a hearing aid or lip reading skills, or perception of sound.
Unilateral hearing loss:
People with unilateral hearing loss (single sided deafness/SSD) can hear
normally in one ear, but have trouble hearing out of the other ear. Problems
with this type of deficit is inability to localize sounds (ie. unable
to tell where traffic is coming from) and inability to process out background
noise in a noisy environment, such as in a restaurant.
Social impact:
Those who lose their hearing later in life, such as in late adolescence
or adulthood, face their own challenges. For example, they must adjust
to living with the adaptations that make it possible for them to live
independently. They may have to adapt to using hearing aids or a cochlear
implant, develop speech-reading skills, and/or learn sign language. The
affected person may need to use a TTY (teletype), interpreter, or relay
service to communicate over the telephone. Loneliness and depression can
arise as a result of isolation (from the inability to communicate with
friends and loved ones) and difficulty in accepting their disability.
The challenge is made greater by the need for those around them to adapt
to the person's hearing loss.
Medical treatments - Approaches:
In addition to hearing aids there exist cochlear implants of increasing
complexity and effectiveness. These are useful in treating the mild to
profound hearing impairment when the onset follows the acquisitions of
language and in some cases in children whose hearing loss came before
language was acquired. Recent research shows variations in effacacy but
some promising studies[7] show that if implanted at a very young age,
some profoundly impaired children can acquire effective hearing and speech.
Views of treatments:
There is controversy in the culturally deaf community as to whether cochlear
implants address wellness concerns, the overall health and psycho-emotional
well-being of prelingually deaf children at all.
Adaptations to hearing impairment:
Many hearing impaired individuals use certain assistive devices in their
daily lives. Individuals can communicate by telephone using telecommunications
devices for the deaf (TDD) This device looks like a typewriter or word
processor and transmits typed text over the telephone. Other names in
common use are textphone and minicom. In 2004, mobile textphone devices
came onto the market for the first time allowing simultaneous two way
text communication. In the U.S., the UK, the Netherlands and many other
western countries there are telephone relay services so that a hearing
impaired person can communicate with a hearing person via a human translator.
Wireless, internet and mobile phone/SMS text messaging are beginning to
take over the role of the TDD. Other assistive devices include those that
use flashing lights to signal events such as a ringing telephone, a doorbell,
or a fire alarm. Video conferencing is also a new technology that permits
signed conversations as well as permitting an ASL-English interpreter
to voice and sign conversations between a hearing impaired and hearing
person, negating the need to use a TTY or computer keyboard.
Resources:
There are many different assistive technologies such as hearing aids available
to people who are hearing impaired. There are also Hearing dogs which
are a category of Assistance dogs. The advent of the internet's World-Wide-Web
and closed captioning has given the hearing impaired unprecedented access
to information. Electronic mail and online chat have virtually eliminated
the need for hearing impaired people to use a third-party Telecommunications
Relay Service in order to communicate with the hearing and other hearing
impaired people.
How to communicate:
Some guidelines on communicating with a hearing-impaired person:
Ask the person what will be most useful for them; this varies from one individual to another. Not all items on this list will apply for all individuals. Most likely, the person will be grateful that you are communicating with their needs in mind and not stereotyping them according to common views of hearing impairment. If the person uses sign language to communicate, take a class in sign language (possibly with the individual or along with family and friends). Show your support by striving to master the language. Don't be afraid to use an interpreter or write things down when you cannot communicate. Speak clearly and loudly, but do not shout or over-enunciate. Both of these make it more difficult to understand speech, not less. Do not mumble, cover your mouth, or whisper when speaking. All of these can conceal vital speech-reading cues that hearing impaired people use to decipher what is being said. A "favorite" pet peeve of the hearing impaired is people who speak from another room - How are they to speech-read with a wall between them and the speaker? Additionally, speak while facing the hearing impaired person.
If asked to repeat yourself, remember that it is often more beneficial to rephrase instead. By using different words, your friend will be able to use two data sets to understand what you meant. (This is good advice for those with normal hearing, too!) Obviously, if only one word was missed, you can try just repeating that word, or a synonym. However, some hearing-impaired people would prefer that you repeat exactly instead of rephrasing; when a sentence is repeated, they can put together the syllables or words they heard the first time with those in the repetition. It is best to use the technique that the hearing-impaired person most prefers. Emphasize keywords in your phrases. Most hearing-impaired people can piece together keywords (along with the context of the conversation) into a statement that they can understand. Reduce background noise by turning off the TV and radio, and closing windows. All of these can provide distractions that cause communication to break down completely. They also impede the perception of whatever auditory cues your friend is able to pick up and use. For small children learning to talk, use context to help them decipher what you are saying. Use full sentences and refer to objects by their names. (Additionally, some studies indicate that hearing impaired children who are allowed to lead conversation acquire speech much more successfully than those whose parents attempt to guide conversation for them.).
