How audiologic rehab can help people with hearing loss
By Metro Creative ConneCtion
Hearing is easily taken for granted. Unless a person has experienced temporary or permanent hearing loss, it can be hard to imagine a life in which hearing is compromised or completely lost. But that is precisely the life hundreds of millions of people across the globe live every day.
According to the Hearing Health Foundation, 360 million people across the globe suffer from hearing loss. Within the United States, the number of people with hearing loss doubled from 2000 to 2015.
Coping with hearing loss can be difficult. Hearing loss sufferers may feel disconnected from family and friends because they can’t engage as fully in conversation as they once did. In addition, adjusting to simple pleasures
like listening to music after hearing loss can be difficult.
Audiologic
rehabilitation
services
can help people adjust to hearing loss. The American Speech-Language Hearing Association notes that the following are just some ways that audiologic rehab can help people adjust to hearing loss.
• Rehab helps families understand their loved ones’ hearing loss. Audiologic rehab will help people and their families adjust to hearing loss by discussing that loss with family. Family members are often frustrated by conversations with relatives who have hearing loss because many simply don’t understand what their loved one is experiencing. Audiologists may play a recording for families that simulates their loved one’s hearing loss so they can understand exactly what their relative is going through. That can help family members become more patient as people adjust to hearing loss.
• Rehab can help people understand their hearing aids. Audiologists explain how hearing aids work and how to maintain them. Various hearing aids are available to people with hearing loss, and audiologists will be able to explain how each type works and answer any questions patients have now and in the future.
• Rehab can help people with hearing loss and their families communicate more effectively.
Audiologists can provide tips on how to improve families’ listening and how to communicate more effectively. Such tips can make it easier to transition to life with hearing loss.
• Rehab can teach those with hearing loss to use visual cues. People without hearing loss may not recognize it, but the ASHA notes that everyone uses his or her eyes to get visual cues about what people are saying. Rehab can help people with hearing loss fine tune these skills to make up for their loss of hearing.
Audiologic rehab can help people adjust to life after hearing loss. Learn more at www.asha.org.