Difficulty communicating with others is one of the most frustrating parts of living with hearing loss. While you might not be able to cure hearing loss, combining hearing aids with active listening strategies can significantly improve your ability to communicate with the people in your life.
What is Active Listening?
Active listening is the practice of devoting all your attention to understanding someone who’s speaking. The practice sounds simple, but in a world filled with near-constant distractions, it can be hard to do without being intentional.
When hearing loss muffles speech and makes it difficult to separate one sound source in a noisy environment, active listening becomes that much more important. Let’s look at a few strategies to help you hone your active listening skills for easier conversations.
Active Listening Strategies
Next time you find yourself struggling to make heads or tails of a conversation, try the following strategies:
- Reduce your distractions. Putting your phone away, turning off the TV or radio and, if possible, moving your conversation to a quieter space will improve understanding; a noisy bar won’t be as conducive to speech comprehension as a quiet morning at Presta Coffee Roasters.
- Don’t just think about your response. We’re all guilty of thinking about how we’ll respond to what someone is saying, rather than focusing on what they’re currently saying. When your mind wanders, refocus your attention on the speaker. If you want time to consider your response, you can do so after they’ve finished talking or when they’ve asked you a question.
- Ask questions or react. It’s easier to stay focused on a conversation when you’re engaging with the speaker. Asking questions when they arise or nodding along can show your interest and help you tune in. Open-ended questions like “How do you feel about that?” or “What are you hoping to achieve?” are helpful options.
- Consider your own headspace. Many of us have moments when we simply don’t have the headspace for a lengthy, complex or emotional conversation. Hearing loss has even been known to cause excessive listening fatigue[1] because of the extra effort you have to put in to understand speech. If you’re too tired for a big conversation, ask to move it to another time when you can offer your full attention.
Using the above strategies and relying on your technologically advanced hearing aids will start you off on the right foot for every conversation. For more information on managing hearing loss, contact Arizona Hearing Specialists today.
[1] Hornsby, B. W. (2013). The Effects of Hearing Aid Use on Listening Effort and Mental Fatigue Associated With Sustained Speech Processing Demands. Ear & Hearing, 34(5), 523–534. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0b013e31828003d8