Communication Strategies -

Over 5% of the world population has a disabling hearing loss. ‘Deafness’ if by birth is also mostly associated with ‘muteness’ as most people who are born hearing impaired do not develop speech and language which is the most important form of communication. So how do you approach or communicate or make the communication easier for the person who is hard of hearing.

Listed below are certain strategies that one can use to help the hearing challenged to communicate effectively

Notice if the person is wearing a hearing aid or not. Strategies can be similar irrespective of whether the person is wearing an aid or not. Strategies can also be used with normal hearing person in difficult to hear situations such as in crowded or noisy situations.

If the person cups his ear or stands in a particular position showing his better ear to you, understand that he has a difficulty in hearing. The usual practice in such a case is to shout in the ears of the person. When it is not practical, following steps will aid in better communication.

a)      Position yourself in such a way that the person has good and clear view of your face. This means do not stand/speak with your back turned or from behind the door or from other room or from a distance or with an obstacle in between including your hands. Also make sure that there is appropriate lighting in the room. This is important because people who are hard of hearing or are in difficult to hear situations , rely more on our visual  information for example the facial expression to understand along with hearing. Speechreading or lipreading the syllables is also a normal part of communication as we try to get maximum information from the visual aspects of speaking e.g. for \u\ sound as in moon we round our lips.

b)      The second strategy is to reduce the background noise and loud sounds as much as possible. What is noise? Any unwanted sound in a situation is called noise. For example if the person is watching TV and there are few people talking behind interfering with the listening of TV, the noise in this situation is the speech. However if the person is listening to the people talking with the TV on, TV is the noise. Noise interferes with communication and even the modern digital hearing aids are not good with controlling the noise. Most persons with hearing impairment are not tolerant to loud sounds as well. Hence communication should be done if possible in a quiet environment to help the hearing handicapped. In simple words cut down all distractions.

c)       Get the attention of the person before you start your message. You can do this by taking his    name or patting him or by making sure he is facing you before you start your message. This will ensure that you will not have to repeat yourself and that the person has received the full message.

d)      Do not shout. Yes and that’s the way everyone communicates with the deaf. Instead of shouting or exaggerating speech you must speak slowly, clearly and naturally in a moderate pace so that the person can catch the sounds. Shouting leads to distortion of sounds and also sends a negative signal to the person. You may notice that a hearing impaired person may speak loudly. This is due to his hearing loss and inability to monitor his own voice. Also, if the person cannot understand certain words, it is better to rephrase/modify it. For example ‘Where did you buy this shirt from?’ and the person has difficulty catching ‘shirt’ you may just point with the finger to the shirt ‘where did you buy this from’ etc. Also use simple sentences while speaking instead of long and complex sentences.

e)      Make sure the person understood you. This can be done by asking the person to repeat indirectly. For example in a telephone conversation if you give an appointment you can ask the person to tell his appointment date or ask him if he got it right. You may also repeat it few times to make sure he heard it properly. Important messages can be given in written form as well to make sure the person understood and remembers. It is also a good practice to summarize the main points. Do not assume that the person understood you.

f)       Have a positive, patient, relaxed attitude towards them. Build a rapport to gain their confidence that you really understand their problem and are willing to help them. However do not over empathize with them talking about deafness etc. Treat them with respect and build their confidence so that it becomes a pleasant experience for them and they do not hesitate to seek help the next time.

g)      If the person does not use spoken communication, always ask them if they can communicate through sign language or by writing. You will be surprised to know that most of them can communicate by writing and you can try communicating by writing/ lipreading. In case you cannot find an interpreter try to understand simple signs and help them out if you can. However if there are important messages to be conveyed it is important you do it in a proper manner by taking appropriate help than just by trial and error with signs.

h)      In case of an emergency for example fire alarm / traffic horn etc. make sure you alert the hearing impaired person using visual information as well.

Useful resources:

1)      How to communicate with deaf people wiki how

http://www.wikihow.com/Communicate-With-Deaf-People

2)      Improving understanding with communication strategies  (on cochlear website)