Better Hearing Consumer

In April 2006, I was invited to St. John’s, Newfoundland to present at a special weekend symposium for hard of hearing and oral deaf youth, hosted by the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, Newfoundland & Labrador chapter.  The youth were transitioning from high school to the big world beyond and  I was supposed to share my expertise as a ‘mature’ person

There are some things that people with hearing loss are not particularly good at, generally speaking: taking the minutes at meetings, hearing a pin drop, working as a UN translator, and playing the Whisper Game. In this game, also known as ‘Telephone’ or ‘Chinese Whispers’, a group of people sits in a circle or around the room. A written message

If you have hearing loss, do you know any other people with the same issues?  Beyond your grandma, have you ever met another hard of hearing or late-deafened or deaf person – swapped notes, shot the breeze, commiserated, shared battle stories and laughed at all the crap that goes along with hearing loss? If not, perhaps you’re happy being the

Editor’s Note:  Entering the world of hearing loss, I felt like Alice going through the looking glass;  I was immediately immersed in a new universe populated with a large and expanding cast of people – interesting people who shared my issues and understood my challenges. Some have become close friends. Many have inspired me with their curiosity and passionate commitment

Editor’s Note: This week, I’m pleased to offer this powerful story from Jonathan Nicoll, a teacher,  a natural bodybuilder, and a positive thinker extraordinaire! Jonathan, a Canadian, was diagnosed at age 5 with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss and wears bilateral digital behind-the ear hearing aids.  He is a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing children, a caregiver

Are you tired of reading other people’s resolutions for the coming year? Personally, I’m saturated with the chest-thumping declarations, no matter how brilliantly written, that have been popping up everywhere – in the newspaper, on Facebook and LinkedIn and other social media. I just can’t do any more new year’s resolutions, including mine. So I’ve decided to scrap my original

When considering a blog about hearing aid batteries, I thought “What’s to write? When I put them in, I hear. When they sputter out, I don’t. I put in new batteries. End of boring story.” On second thought, I’ve been “doing” hearing aid batteries for 37 years (I started young), and  I don’t usually think about them until there’s a

As a person with hearing loss, there are many sounds I’d love to hear well again, like the sibilant ‘s’ and Christmas bells.  There are other sounds that I’m happy not to hear well any more – a person blowing their nose, comes to mind, or a cat expelling a fur ball. But the sound I hope never to hear again

Dear Santa, First of all, may I say that you are looking spectacular these days – a little trimmer around the belly and – even better –  a trimmed moustache around the mouth. We’ve never met, you and I, but if that great event were to happen, it’s nice to know that I would be able ‘speechread you’ without interference from

The other day, I did a presentation of Sound Sense, the Hearing Foundation of Canada’s elementary noise-induced hearing loss educational program, to a class of Grade 4 students. During the fun session, we ask the 9 and 10 year-old kids about the noisy activities or really loud experiences in their lives. Some of the usual responses include irritating baby brothers