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Communication Access Connections Hard of Hearing Hearing Aids Hearing Loss

A Hearing Loss Thanksgiving

Hearing Loss LIVE! wishes everyone a good Thanksgiving with whatever works for you.

Orange background.
White font that says Happy Thanksgiving Day. 
The hearing loss live logo of 3 leaves.
White font: Let's take the time to appreciate the big and little blessings we have. 23 November.

These large gatherings aren’t easy. If you’re doing it, give yourself a pat on the back. You’re brave enough to swim in noise and cheer and the chance you’ll miss the punchline. It’s full of challenges. 

A light blue/gray background. Gray font that says: This is what deaf or hard of hearing people when hearing people speak to them. It is hard work.
Half of the letters are scrubbed out to make it difficult to read.

However, here’s to what you do catch and who you can connect with. The ones who make the effort are gold.

Categories
Communication Access Communication Practices Emotions, Psychological Stress Hard of Hearing Hearing Loss Self Advocacy

Hearing Loss & the Holidays: Listening Fatigue

Holiday fatigue is a real thing and there is listening fatigue with hearing loss. Put the two together and we have a double whammy. While at noisy holiday gatherings, people who have normal hearing have the ability to filter out background noise and zero in on speech. You may have heard of this as the “cocktail party effect”.  Those of us with hearing loss have a harder time filtering noise so we have the “cocktail party problem”, also called “cocktail party deafness”. Conversation in a noisy environment is exhausting!

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Assistive Listening Device Cochlear Implants Communication Access Communication with Family Hard of Hearing Hearing Aids Hearing Loss Hearing Technology

Hearing Aids & Cochlear Implants: Remote Microphone Technology

Let’s talk about remote microphones that work with hearing aids and cochlear implants.  Hearing aids are better than ever but they still have limitations. Cochlear implants are great yet they too have their limitations. What are the limitations? 

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Assistive Listening Device Captioning Communication Access Communication with Family Hard of Hearing Hearing Aids Hearing Loss Hearing Technology Misconceptions Self Advocacy

Hearing Loss & the Holidays: Using Assistive Technology

Technology can help those with hearing loss during the holidays. Hearing aids are a great start. Are you getting the most out of your hearing aids and cochlear implants? Smartphone apps are up and coming and can be helpful as well. Using assistive technology can help lighten the load and increase participation for everyone. 

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Communication Access Communication Practices Hard of Hearing Lipreading

Gestures & Sign Language

Through teaching our lipreading classes, we found that gestures snap in missing words fast and sign language can cue our needs. We have one lesson in Lipreading Concepts that devotes a lot of time to gestures because not all words are visible on the lips. Some words look exactly the same on the lips like “maybe” and “baby”. Luckily gestures can be used for both. The gesture you’re most likely to pick for “baby” is the American Sign Language (ASL) sign for baby. While there are some signs that look like gestures, visual languages have their own structure and grammar. There are a few basic ASL signs anyone can learn to aid communication with each other and the Deaf community. This month, we talk about using gestures and sign language to aid communication.