It’s Christmas Time!
Christmas is the season for giving, but it’s also the time for families to come together and enjoy that all-important Christmas roast! Turkey, mince pies and mistletoe. What could possibly interfere in such a jolly period?
Unfortunately, not everybody enjoys the wonderment and merriness of Christmas to its fullest. People with hearing impairments often struggle the most in loud or busy environments, such as Christmas dinners, or even the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
What’s It Like?
A hearing-impaired person’s experience depends largely on the type of impairment they have. Most people associate hearing loss with a general ‘muffling’ of all sound, but this isn’t always the case. They may be missing volume at certain frequencies, and whether or not these missing frequencies coincide with speech, affects how well they hear the spoken word, and consequently, how well they participate in conversations.
A large problem in this type of social gatherings is the infamous ‘background noise’. Background noise significantly affects a person’s ability to identify intelligible speech from the rabble of their environment. Generally speaking, the worse the impairment, the more ‘consonants’ they miss in speech. We’ve actually made another video which demonstrates this phenomenon very well – check out our Christmas Carol Hearing Loss Simulator!
How Can You Help?
There are a number of ways that you can make communication easier for somebody with hearing loss. In fact, last Christmas, we created a video showcasing tips and tricks for hearing well at Christmas! It’s a short video, designed to teach you the best ways of dealing with hearing impairment.
The hearing impaired can often feel ‘left out’ of family conversations! If you’re curious about your hearing or the hearing of a loved one, call us today to speak to one of our friendly staff members!
