20 Tips for Active Listening

If you have hearing loss, you may feel isolated because you don’t feel comfortable, or have too much difficulty, with communication. Try out some of these active listening techniques to help with how you communicate with others. 

It’s also important to emphasize this message if you are someone who regularly communicates with a person who has hearing loss: Please be patient. Remind yourself that the person you are talking to cannot hear the same way you do.

1. Let the people who you are communicating with know that you have difficulties with hearing. Being open about this will allow most reasonable people to accommodate you as necessary. 
2. Face the speaker, or make sure the speaker is facing you. Place yourself in a position so that you can see a person’s entire face. Use good lighting. Seeing people’s facial expressions, reading lips, and noticing gestures and body language can help put conversations into perspective.     
3. Make sure you know what topic is being discussed to help you make an educated guess about the conversation. You can ask friends or colleagues to give you a lead about the subject at hand. 
4. If you need eyeglasses or contact lenses to see clearly, make sure you’re wearing them.
5. If you have single-sided deafness (SSD), face your better ear towards the speaker.
6. Sit as close as possible to the person who is speaking. The best distance is three to five feet.
7. Make sure you are in a quiet space that doesn’t have any distractions.
8. Focus on the ideas that the speaker is trying to convey, instead of every individual word that’s being said. Don’t feel discouraged if you miss some information. You can always ask someone to repeat themselves.  
9. Study the way that each person expresses themselves. Maybe some people use a lot of facial expressions, a particular type of vocabulary, or sentence structure. Perhaps they have a particular accent or dialect. 
10. Keep up with current events. Knowing about local, national, and international news, along with news from personal relationships will give you an easier time while following conversations. 
11. Do not fake your hearing abilities. If you don’t understand something, just ask questions.
12. Ask for clarification as necessary. To reduce some of the confusion or frustration from both parties, be very specific about what you missed so the entire message doesn’t need to be repeated. If you still have trouble understanding, ask the person to rephrase it in simpler terms that are easier to hear. 
13. Practice listening. Don’t fall into the habit of letting others listen to you. Listening fatigue is a real problem, so if you feel overwhelmed and exhausted take a break. 
14. A conversation requires listening and talking. Don’t try to control a discussion. 
15. Let others know what helps you communicate better. Whether it’s speaking at a pace that is comfortable for you to follow, making sure you can see their face, and using gestures or facial expressions to get their point across. A lot of people are unaware of how to talk to someone with hearing loss, and the best communication methods aren’t the same for everyone. Let them know that natural, simple ways of speaking are the easiest to understand. If necessary, use a talk-to-text app.
16. Make sure they are specific when giving directions or providing medical information, in written form.
17. If you wear hearing aids, you have the option of using some with different microphone settings so that you can hear all around you, or if you want to block out some of the background noise so that you can focus on the conversations in front of you. 
18. If the acoustics are not ideal in a specific room that you are in, maybe carpet, drapes, padded furniture or acoustic ceilings need to be installed so that sounds aren’t bouncing off of surfaces, and making it harder to hear. Think about these settings when choosing a restaurant to eat at.
19. Take time for yourself to relax. Stress can make hearing problems like tinnitus, or concentrating on listening worse. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a break. 
20. Relive tension with some humor, exercise, or meditation. Tension can hinder your ability to interpret speech and depletes energy. Sometimes, you need to laugh at yourself once in a while to lighten the mood. 

If you or a loved one are experiencing hearing loss and/or tinnitus, contact us at Pure Sound Hearing for a complimentary hearing test and consultation.  

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