It’s time.
You’re pretty sure you need a hearing aid, maybe two. You’re having trouble following conversations, from any direction, and you know it’s not just because other people mumble.
Although they do.
With a deep breath and a pathetic cry of why me, you see a hearing care professional for a hearing assessment (so much fun). You pretend to understand your audiogram, a complicated game of X’s and O’s which you clearly did not win, and soon you’re sporting a pair of gleaming hearing aids that nobody notices, except you and probably everyone you talk to.
They’re comfortable, you’ll have them paid off at some point, and hey, you are hearing things better. Also, loudly. Your smartphone morphs from a source of entertainment into your personal Command Central, controlling your hearing volume, clarity, sound direction, and wind noise. It helps. you stream voices and music from your TV, computer, and phone, caressingly and directly into your ears. How in the world did you ever hear before, without these powerful, super-communication devices, the ones in your ear and the one in your hand? And what would you do without them?
Except – your hearing aid doesn’t control or fix everything. Especially when you’re in a crowd. Or a small group. Or even just you and one other person.
Is your hearing aid failing at its job? Did you get the wrong kind? The answer is most likely a firm no to both questions.
And then you wonder if the device is not living up to the hype? The response is a hard maybe, but you’ve haven’t got the question quite right.
Try: are your hearing aids not living up to YOUR expectations? That’s a powerful probably and absolutely.
Your hearing aid and your smartphone, as brilliant as they are, can’t control your actions or those of other people. Your devices don’t grant you comfort in talking about your hearing loss, or equip you with the assertiveness you need to self-identify and ask for changes to a listening situation.
Your devices don’t warn someone to get your attention before starting to talk to you or not speak to you from behind or from over there or – and I know this is crazy – from another room! The simple sight of your devices doesn’t tell people what they need to do, which would be to face you and speak clearly and repeat and rephrase as requested. (Yes, every time.)
You’re the person with hearing loss. You’re driving the communication train. Hearing aids, cochlear implants and all other technical devices are assistive technology. They help, but they’re not a standalone cure. YOU have to put these strategies in place. You think you want better hearing, but what you really want is better communication. Because that’s what humans do – we communicate, however badly, with each other.
Hearing aids can’t do all the heavy lifting. You can support them by creating and modeling the best possible communication – clear communication, good sight lines, with good lighting and minimal background noise. Support is a two-way street – the more you support your technology with other strategies, the better they will work for you.
You and your hearing devices – you’ve got this! Together, you’re a great team.
