Categories
Communication Access Hard of Hearing Hearing Aids Hearing Loss Hearing Technology Lipreading Personal advocacy Sensory Loss

Hearing Tests: Mixed Emotions

By Chelle Wyatt

In 30 plus years of wearing aids, I’ve never had hearing aids longer than 6 years until now. My current pair of aids are over 8 years old so this is a milestone. They might go 10 years with effort. There are minor glitches such as static on the right side until I wiggle the wire to my ear mold. They also don’t sync together, that means I have to change programs on both sides instead of one. Nothing huge but I’ve decided It’s time for new technology with more connectivity.

This involved getting a new hearing test. My last hearing test was over four years ago. I suspect there’s been some change but nothing huge. Hearing loss can be sneaky, dropping slowly therefore easily dismissed. It’s been about 15 years since I’ve had a significant drop in hearing and this too is another personal record. 

New Hearing Aids

Overall, I’m excited for the opportunity to get new hearing aids.  It’s a new adventure with new technology. I’m going to love being able to tweak programs in the app more to my liking. (I’m a bit of a control freak.) My new audiologist is hard of hearing himself. I’ve heard good things about him through my local HoH friends so he comes with recommendations.

He waved me into his office for a chat before the test. Because he’s hard of hearing, he’s good about facing me while talking. I didn’t wear my hearing aids going in, what for? They are going to come out for the hearing test anyway. I let him know. He goes on with questions about my history with hearing loss. There’s a small moment of panic as I get used to his voice and how he talks. I remind myself to wait for it, a technique we teach in our Lipreading Concept class. I catch on and it gets easier.

He asks about my last hearing test 4 ½ years ago. I forward my last audiogram to his email. He looks at it and looks back at me, “I’m really surprised you are doing so well without hearing aids” I tell him, “It’s because I’ve learned to advocate for myself and I teach lipreading classes.” 

Lipreading & Self Advocacy

Hearing loss doesn’t get better, but I “hear” better than I have in years. What gives? It was me and my ability to create healthy communication boundaries using the 3 Golden Rules. Hearing aids, cochlear implants, no hearing devices…these 3 rules have to be applied for successful communication:

Hearing aids are a great tool. I’ll never be without hearing aids as long as they help me. However, hearing aids alone haven’t gotten me where I am. It’s also taken the tribe, accommodations and being proactive. 

the Hearing Test

He uses a soundproof booth, something my last audiologist didn’t do. It feels odd getting back into one. Funny thing is, I’ve been in this very booth before. My first audiologist in Utah had this office. He retired and this new AuD bought the business. Once hooked up, he starts with the beeps. I wait…and wait. I’m picking through what is tinnitus and what are real tones. Sometimes my tinnitus mimics the beeps.

Next came the word discrimination test. It’s a computer voice, no lipreading is possible. Cowboy. Hotdog. I repeat what I hear. Those words are expected from years of previous hearing tests. Then it goes into one syllable words which are harder. Because he’s hard of hearing, he has to stop the computer voice and ask me to spell what I heard. I can tell I heard wrong because I see the corner of his eyes crinkle up into a smile above his monitor. 

Hearing in Noise Test

All these years, I’ve never had a “hearing in noise” test, abreviated as HINT. It starts with multiple people talking and at some point I’m supposed to pull in a voice that sounds closest to me and repeat what I hear. Out of 3 examples, I’m only able to figure out some words on the first test. The next two tests I couldn’t pull a word from. It blew my mind. I suck at hearing without my eyes. 

Classis ski clope loss, going rom upper left corner to the lower right corner.  The red line is just below the blue line.
You can see all the sounds of speech I miss in the upper mid to right “speech bananag” in dark blue.

After the tests are all done we go over my results. In the past, my ears have stayed about equal, the red and blue lines (for right ear and left ear) mingled and crossed as they plunge down to the profound in a classic ski slope hearing loss. This time, my left ear has only dropped a tiny bit in a few frequencies. My right ear, however, has taken its leave of the blue line. Its line now stands alone below the blue line. My word discrimination is 64% in the left ear and 40% in the right ear, with the appropriate level of amplification. “It’s a small drop in hearing.”

The 20% drop of word discrimination in one ear doesn’t hit me all at once. It’s only a little loss. True enough, I’ve had bigger drops in the past. Count myself lucky??? Plus, I have already  been dealing with the hearing loss without knowing it for probably the last six months. As I sit in the office, a few pieces of the puzzle slide together with recent incidents. 

It is a loss.

He lets me try a pair of hearing aids in the office to see what I think. I wasn’t sure so we made another appointment to try other brands. As I leave, I feel the excitement of new hearing aids. It takes a day or two for me to mull over the 20% loss of word discimination in the right. A little grief starts to settle in.

To be continued.

Even though it’s “only a little loss”, it has ramifications. I feel the loss and it shows in my day to day life. I’ll explore that in another blog soon.

Past posts that might interest you…

Did you like this blog? Read more about our Lipreading classes. These classes have made a difference in my day to day communication. We shared Vulnerability with hearing loss in this blog/podcast.

Buy Us a Coffee

An easy way to support us and help us raise funds until we get our feet beneath us. (We’re getting there, thank you to our supporters!) We keep as much of content free as we can. We want everyone to access to communication. If you liked what we wrote, Buy Us a Coffee. We have new information here and new features.

Categories
Communication Practices Hard of Hearing Hearing Loss Lip Shapes LIVE! Lipreading Concepts Personal advocacy Speechreading/Lipreading

HoH Tour – The Restaurant

Good afternoon and welcome to a session of Hearing Loss LIVE!’s Tour Guide to the Hearing World. Join us as we travel through the land of the hearing, where English sounds like a foreign  language and people don’t look at you while talking. It’s a lang of mumbling people who don’t move their mouth and others who move it much too fast. We will journey through masks (yes they are still around), dodge communication disasters and create more awareness together. Pick your best seat (never feel guilty about picking your best seat) and enjoy our tour through the land of the Hearies, who don’t speak our language.

Today you have two of us as tour guides, Chelle and Julia! Two for the price of one! Today’s exploration is the restaurant…with hearing aids. Does it sound scary to you?  Restaurants are so awful that some hearing aid manufacturers have a dedicated setting called “restaurant”. We’re going to tuck you under our wing so you can observe the process with us. Julia will give us some hearing insight along the way. 

  • Ready?
  • Set?
  • Go!
We’ll meet you at the local eatery, Stella Grill.

Chelle: Julia and I pulled into the parking lot at just about the same time. I’m a little ahead of her so I wait in the parking lot for her. If the weather isn’t severe, why not wait outside for those last moments of peace? 

Hello, join us!

This is my second trip here, Julia’s first. I’m a reader and that means I’m always looking around for signs and written information. The first time I came in, I did not see a “wait to be seated” sign so my husband and I sat ourselves. Oops! The waiter let us know we were naughty. This time, I know to wait. 

Confession

Before we sit down, let me confess that I do not use my hearing aids in restaurants. I put my lipreading skills to use instead. I can’t tolerate the extra noise in restaurants. Now and then I try using my hearing aids, turning down the volume in an already personally tweaked hearing program for noisy settings. Again and again, I find myself clenching my teeth and so distracted by noise that I can’t focus on conversation. Glasses clinking. Silverware clattering. Plates crashing. Music. Lots of people talking over the music. Argh! I take my hearing aids out and I’m fine. This is a personal choice.

There are many people within my personal HoH circle of friends that would never go without their hearing aids in social settings. They also have newer hearing aids than I do so they can tweak the programs in their smartphone apps more than my 8 year old hearing aids. To each his/her own! Use what works best for you.  

Julia is giving me a little wave. Let’s see what she has to say.

Julia: Hearing partners can help by letting their HoH make the decision about wearing hearing devices or not during outings. Why? Better communication outcomes. If going out to eat is one of your favorite things to do, what communication adaptations can you implement to continue enjoying such events? Work together for solutions. If noise is an issue, why not try going during off hours?

Chelle: Thank you Julia for your support, understanding and the tip. Bravo! 

Choose Your Best Table

A little foresight while we’re waiting to be seated. The last time I was here I sat on this side of the restaurant: 

Great lighting!

It was well lit but so noisy with reverberation my husband had issues hearing. I did fine with lipreading. As we walked out of the restaurant, both my husband and I noticed a huge difference between the rooms. The sound was dampened on this side. I’ll request sitting on this side this time.

Better for the ear.

*Note: Did you know we lose our sense of direction with hearing loss? These kinds of environments are particularly hard. Let’s plan on talking one at a time. If we raise a hand, we’re able to locate the speaker. 

Did you know you can request where to sit? No? This is a part of being proactive with your hearing loss. Take charge! Pick a corner away from the big table of loud people. Corners are always wonderful. Stay away from the kitchen area if possible. Be sure to look for good lighting and that  your hearing partner’s face is not backlit. If you’re in a large group, see if you can’t sit in a circle instead of a long rectangle table. 

The hostess is ready to lead us to the table. I ask her if we can sit on this side of the restaurant. She stops and points to the table right about where we want to be. Perfect. I’ve never had anyone tell me no. 

Look for the specials!

Oh look, there’s the board with the day’s specials written right behind us. I always look for that too because serving staff tends to recite those specials at 100 mph.  

Julia and I sit down. I take what I think is my best seat. Can you feel it in your face when hearing is hard? I can. My eyebrows are pulled down and my eyes are feeling squinty. Oh my, her face in the shadows. I ask her to trade me places and she does. Much better!

Julia is a wonderful hearie.
Pay attention to the menu…

Do you all have your menu? Ah good. I want you to read the fine print for your lunch choice. Does it come with sides? How many? Where are the sides listed?  Look at the choices and make your decision before they get there. Why? Because the less questions our serving person asks, the easier it will be on all of us. 

*Tip: Be extra proactive and view the menu online before going to the restaurant.

**And a side note: They rarely list the dressings for salads. If you’re feeling adventurous, go ahead and ask. If not, there’s always ranch dressing.

The last time I was here with my husband, the waiter began reciting the sides even though I knew what I wanted, crispy fries. When he got to the house pasta salad, his eyebrows shot up and wiggled around. Ohh, that must be a personal favorite of his. I like trying new things so I decided to go with that in lieu of the crispy fries. That’s a bonus when you’re a “lipreader”. We notice the small nuances. I did not regret my decision to go with his choice side. It came with homemade noodles, yum!

That nice waiter wanders the path but he is not our server this time. We have a young guy and I inform him I use lipreading. He faces me and I place my order. Be proactive! Let people know what you need to communicate.They appreciate knowing what works best.

How many of you think you read lips? I knew it, not many. Guess what, you are lipreading whether you know it or not. If you feel unsure about using the word lipreading, let them know they have to face you so you can hear them. Do they talk too fast? Ask them to slow down a bit, they will if they want that tip.

*Special announcement

This month’s special from Hearing Loss LIVE! If you want to learn more about lipreading, join one of our lipreading classes that will be starting in January. We have a two for one special because our hearing partners benefit a great deal from understanding the lipreading process. 

While we wait, Julia gets up to take pictures. She too notices a huge difference in the acoustics between the different rooms. We can’t really pick out why except maybe less windows. It’s odd! Have you paid attention to acoustics? Restaurants are often built for the eye and to be easy to clean. Rarely are they made to please the ear. It’s unfortunate. Some restaurants are smart enough to put up acoustic panels and that can help a great deal.

It looks like Julia has another valuable tip for us….

Julia: Have you heard of SoundPrint? It’s a smartphone app that rates noise in different settings. Share your latest restaurant experience on Soundprint and let’s get others in the KNOW. It’s better working together!

Chelle: Let’s help each other be in the know! We can work together noting the noisy restaurants, but remember to bring awareness too. Give them a solution or two.

The food is here! They have such great food here. Before he leaves, the waiter asks if there’s anything else he can get for us. (This is a common question at this point so it’s easy to anticipate, easy to “hear”.) Nope, all is good and we are practically drooling looking at our Reubens. Let’s chow down!

Notes from a HoH:

Don’t be a total hearie who chews their food and talks at the same time. We can’t just listen, we are read lips too. It makes it very hard to focus on what you’re saying when we are watching food jump around in your mouth. Instead of “listening”, we are now wondering if food is going to fall out of your mouth or come flying out at us. If you have just taken a big bite of your Reuben, take a moment to chew it up, swallow then take a sip of water to wash it all down. We can wait.  

Tip Him/Her!

Lunch was a success! We had some thoughtful conversation our waiter was patient and accommodating.  Let’s give him a nice tip. I like it here so I will be back. Hopefully both waiters will remember me and be just as accommodating.

Thank you for joining us. We hope we gave you a few good tips to you and you will venture out.

Happy Holidays to all!

If you like this blog, take a look at our blog on being Proactive.

Did you like the tour? Check our Grocery Store Tour.

We keep as much of content free as we can. We want everyone to access to communication. If you liked what we wrote, Buy Us a Coffee.

Categories
Lip Shapes LIVE! Lipreading Lipreading Concepts

Lipreading Classes

Register here.

Hearing Loss LIVE! offers 2 lipreading classes throughout the year. See our Events page for dates and times.

  • Lipreading Concepts – We started teaching this class again last week of March 28 & 29, 2023, two different days and three different times to choose from.
  • Lip Shapes LIVE! – A brand new class focusing on lip shapes, starting April 6, 2023.

We teach the Jeffers Method of lipreading. We think of it as a holistic approach to communication. This method focuses on 3 things:

  • Visible lip shapes (most sounds are not readily visible on the lips)
  • Situational cues, nonverbal cues and logic
  • Flexibility 

Both of our classes are taught  in real-time with live teachers and participation from other students. Learning from each other in a live format gives you the chance to ask questions. Discussion is encouraged. We limit our classes to 10 people so everyone can participate. Both classes are $50 for the duration of the class.

Our classes are held online via Google Meet. Google Meet gives you the opportunity to use captions through ASR (automatic speech recognition software). No need to download anything extra to join the meeting through a computer. We provide a link and you click on it. The only step needed is to allow Meet to use your webcam and microphone. You can also join through a tablet or smartphone by downloading the Google Meet app to your device. *A strong wifi is recommended. 

Lipreading Concepts

8 weeks, 1 hour per week

In designing a Hearing Loss LIVE! lipreading class, we decided to teach the concepts first so that people can evaluate why, and why not, lipreading is working. In Lipreading Concepts, we teach:

  • Situational awareness 
  • Discuss nonverbal cues
  • Using logic and flexibility to fill in the holes

We present a variety of tools that you can use in everyday communication with hearing loss. Set yourself up for successful communication and go into Lip Shapes LIVE! with more confidence.

Chelle & Julia presenting the basics on lipreading at the ALDA convention.

Lip Shapes LIVE!

6 weeks, 1 hour per week

We will focus on 6 visible lip shapes. The class is structured as follows.

  • Practice word lists, with no voice
  • Expand with simple sentences around a theme, no voice
  • 5 minute review of a concept or strategy

You don’t have to take the Lipreading Concepts class before taking Lip Shapes LIVE!, although it is highly recommended. We will not cover concepts in depth during this class. Learning lip shapes takes practice and repetition. It’s not learned overnight. We share ideas for practice and will be adding advanced lipreading classes in the future.

Is it speechreading or lipreading?

For a long time it was considered ‘lipreading’. Lipreading does not rely solely on lip shapes so ‘speechreading’ was introduced thinking it covered more than lips. We still aren’t sure this is correct terminology because it goes beyond speech too. We decided to use ‘lipreading’ because the term goes back many years and people generally understand this before ‘speechreading’. Who knows, maybe someday we will give it a whole new name.  

Misconception

There is a huge misconception that lipreading is all lip shapes. This is false. Many lip shapes are not readily visible. With hearing loss, we can’t rely solely on our hearing and the same is true of lipreading. We have to learn to fill in the gaps with other tools.

History/Experience

Before we started Hearing Loss LIVE!, Chelle and Julia were involved with speechreading classes with the State of Utah. Chelle & Julia both taught the class which had 18 lessons. Each lesson was an hour and a half containing lip shapes and concepts. There was a point early on when people felt overwhelmed. It was too much at once. This is the main reason we started with Lipreading Concepts first.

  • Chelle taught the class for 8 years, first as a Hard of Hearing Assistant and later as the Hard of Hearing Specialist. She revised the class twice to fit the needs of beginning students.
  • Julia taught the class for one year but supported lipreading classes through CART. She learned how to lipread over the years. She believes hearing people have a lot to learn from these classes. They become better communication partners when they understand it’s not just lip shapes. 
Hearing Partners are Welcome!

Hearing partners are a wonderful addition to the class and encouraged to attend. We’ve seen firsthand how much communication improves once the hearing partners understand all the concepts for lipreading and better hearing. We are currently offering a two for one price to people who bring their hearing partner. 

When the pandemic came along, all in-person classes for the state were halted. As the Hard of Hearing Specialist, Chelle took all classes online within 6 weeks. This was a boon! We could now reach people from all over the state instead of certain locations. Rural people could join for the first time. We found out lipreading was easier online because people are generally closer to the camera instead of 6 feet away.

We love our online classes & the people we meet! Register here.

See what Wikipedia says about Lipreading.

The United Kingdom is aware of the benefits of lipreading. ATLA (Association of Teachers of Lipreading to Adults) has several classes available. Hearing Loss LIVE! is one of the very few, online live classes offered in the USA.

Testimonials
  • Gloria: I am a Clinical Social Worker and I took the Lip Reading Class offered. They created a great class for communication for those who are HOH or deaf. I was amazed at what I learned every day. It is well worth the money to take the class and the instructors are exceptional. I will use this everyday in my practice and life.  TAKE THE COURSE, it will change your life. 
  • Maria: The class has definitely improved my communication.  My friends know to be in front of me when they speak.  They also know if they walk away, I won’t hear them. I communicated more clearly with health personnel during a recent medical visit. They understood my communication needs and helped advocate for me after when someone didn’t. 
  • Attendee: The lip-reading concepts class gave me a set of tools for receiving spoken information. No single approach to communication works all the time so having the lip-reading concepts tools and the instructors’ encouragement to keep trying was most helpful. They provided great memorable examples and resources that will remind us that there are often other approaches to understand more of the words others say.

Read our personal experiences with lipreading on our original Lipreading Concepts class post here. This includes experiences with our co-founder, Michele Linder.