Ear Health: Work with Your Family and Friends

How You Can Help a Person with Hearing Loss

• Face the person and talk clearly.
• Speak at a reasonable speed; do not hide your mouth, eat or chew gum.
• Stand in good lighting and reduce background noises.
• Use facial expressions or gestures to give useful clues.
• Repeat yourself if necessary, using different words.
• Include the hearing-impaired person when talking. Talk with the person, not about the person, when you are with others. This helps keep the hearing-impaired person from feeling alone and excluded.
• Be patient; stay positive and relaxed.
• Ask how you can help.

What You Can Do if You Have Trouble Hearing

• Let people know that you have trouble hearing.
• Ask people to face you, and to speak more slowly and clearly; also, ask them to speak without shouting.
• Pay attention to what is being said and to facial expressions or gestures.
• Let the person talking know if you do not understand.
• Ask people to reword a sentence and try again.
• Turn off the TV or the radio if it does not have to be on.
• Be aware of noise around you that can make hearing more difficult. When you go to a restaurant, do not sit near the kitchen or near a band playing music. Background noise makes it hard to hear people talk.