I live in an independent living facility, and have difficulty communicating with some of the hearing impaired disabled residents who are accepted here. I know I'm supposed to face them when talking, and speak loudly and clearly, but that doesn't seem to be enough. This morning I tried asking a severely hearing impaired man whether he would like help with his laundry because he left the top of the top loading washer open, and kept staring into it. He didn't respond, so I called a staff member. Any advice?
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I didn't mean to overlook the condition you have when I commented that "earwax build up is responsible for a large percentage of elderly who have hearing problems" (aka, "not everyone has hearing loss due to this reason") and "ear drops or irrigation over a few weeks to see if it helps" (aka, "one can try this to see if your version of hearing loss is related to wax build up, but it might not work because any given individual's hearing loss may not be due to wax build up.")
I hope your hearing loss is getting proper treatment and improving.
Hopefully your comment here will keep future commenters on track and you'll get some ideas.
I noticed the more complicated or longer the sentences, the less she was able to follow what we said to her. She needed time to process shorter sentences and more simple concepts.
You might try looking directly at him and speaking slowly, enunciating each word and keep it simple.
Toward the end we found it was more effective to use a hand held erasable white board and communicate in short words and one sentence at a time, wait for her to respond, then add another sentence.
I understand there are countless ways that elderly experience impairments as their senses wane.
I'm not sure why I would want to know about a cholesteatoma or a tympanomastoidectomy.
I was relating how removing earwax buildup in my 103 yr old grandmother's and 78 yr old father's ears led to significant hearing improvement for both of them. It was their doctors/nurses who told me that my experience wasn't unusual, that the removal of wax drastically improves the majority of hearing-loss cases they see.
Have a good night. :-)
Most elders have hearing loss, vision loss and olfactory loss. And hearing deficits are not just about wax.
Ask me about a cholesteatoma and a tympanomastoidectomy.
Writing something down seems a logical first step to communicating with someone who is hard of hearing. If they then can't read what is written due to poor eyesight then move on to other types of communication, but why not try it first?
The consensus among my grandmother's and father's docs - both who were hard of hearing but my father isn't any longer - is that earwax build up is responsible for a large percentage of elderly who have hearing problems.
Both of them had improved hearing after I did a home regimen to remove the earwax. With my dad, an ENT nurse did the removal and sent him home with some drops.
This may not be possible to do to the residents in the facility. Maybe you can suggest this to a family member of those residents who are most affected. All it takes is ear drops or irrigation over a few weeks to see if it helps.
What if the elder has macular degeneration?
And also - if the hearing impaired person repeats back what they think you said, it can be helpful, but USUALLY you should repeat the words they did NOT get, not start over louder from the beginning repeating the whole sentence and maybe not saying the words in question any differently at all, or maybe write down just those words. Plus never ever try to tell them it does not matter and refuse to repeat or clarify. They know darn well that it mattered enough for you to try to say it and do not want to be isolated, discounted, or devalued. When I fail to get what someone is trying to say, I always indicate that I will have to get someone to interpret and apologetically frame it as my problem. My hearing aids are not very conspicuous, so I sometimes pull one out and SHOW them as well as tell them my hearing is an actual problem. People still blame and judge sometimes on both sides of the fence, I wish everyone understood!
L, you and I need some buttons that say "I'm not ignoring you, I'm just deaf!"
#1 Some have aides that they can't adapt to because of their ages
#2 Most (but some do) will not know ASL (American Sign Language)
#3 Boost up the volume when speaking to these people
Your question focused on hearing loss for the general population. By asking "how do I communicate with a hearing impaired individual?"-your questions are going to be #1 make sure their aide (s) are worn/batteries functional, #2 is the person facing you and #3 does the person know ASL?
The elderly person is an entirely different story when it comes to hearing loss.