Categories
Advocacy Communication Access Communication Practices Communication with Family Connections Emotions, Psychological Stress Hard of Hearing Hearing Loss Self Advocacy Setting limits Uncategorized

Our Hearing Partners

Post by Julia Stepp

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

– Leo Tolstoy, Russian Writer

Not long ago, I realized I’ve been a hearing partner my whole life. An aha moment during our Lipreading Concepts class recently reminded me I have been practicing hearing loss communication rules since I was a kid. My grandmother would touch my arm so I would look at her, then she’d say, “Now repeat that.” This simple routine started when I was 7 or 8 years old. 

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

Touring the Restaurant with Hearing Loss

Good afternoon and welcome to a session of Hearing Loss LIVE!’s Tour of the Hearing World. Let’s tour the restaurant with a hearing loss, which can be quite the challenge!

Join us as we travel through the land of the hearing, where English sounds like a foreign language…especially as waiters rattle off restaurant specials too fast for our hard of hearing ears. In this world, people don’t look at us while talking, which is essential to people with hearing loss. Also in this world, there are people who mumble and talk with their mouth full of food as we try to lipread. Together, we will dodge communication disasters creating more awareness as we go.

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 Hard of Hearing and do not understand the limits of hearing aids.

Today you have two of us as tour guides, Chelle and Julia! Two guides 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!
Categories
Communication Practices Emotions, Psychological Stress Hard of Hearing Hearing Loss Mental Health & Hearing Loss Personal advocacy

Hearing Loss and Collateral Damage

With Gloria Pelletier, LCSW, LISAC

Collateral Damage Definition: Injury inflicted on something other than an intended target. One example of hearing loss and collateral damage: people think we are rude and stuck up when we don’t answer them.

Hearing Loss LIVE! teams up with Gloria Pelletier to take another look at the mental health side of hearing loss.

How does collateral damage apply to hearing loss? 

Hearing loss hurts us in unknown ways. It also unintentionally affects the hearing people in our lives. This is especially so when we are not upfront about our hearing loss. 

A smiling white lady with long silvery hair.
Gloria Pelletier
Categories
Communication Practices Hard of Hearing Hearing Loss Personal advocacy

Tour of the Coffee Shop

Ordering Coffee Via the Hard of Hearing Person’s Perspective

By Chelle Wyatt

Good afternoon and welcome to a session of Hearing Loss LIVE!’s Tour Guide to the Hearing World. Today’s journey takes us through the coffee shop with hearing loss.

Our tours take us through the land of the hearing, where English sounds like a foreign language and people don’t look at you while talking. Also, there are also those curious people who mumble and others who talk 100 mph. Together, we will journey through the land of masks, dodge communication disasters and create more awareness. Pull up a seat and enjoy our tour through the land of the Hearies, who don’t always speak our language. 

My name is Chelle and I’ll be your tour guide. This tour is not only intended for our Hard of Hearing community, but our hearing friends too. Everyone can join us!

Categories
Communication Practices Hearing Loss Personal advocacy

Hearing Loss Tour of the Grocery Store

Good afternoon and welcome to a session of Hearing Loss LIVE!’s Tour Guide to the Hearing World, at the grocery store. We share the Hard of Hearing person’s perspective.

By Chelle Wyatt

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. There are also those curious people who mumble and others who talk 100 mph. Together, we will journey through the land of masks, dodge communication disasters and create more awareness together. Pull up a seat and enjoy our tour through the land of the Hearies, who don’t always speak our language.

My name is Chelle and I’ll be your tour guide. This tour is intended for our Hard of Hearing community but our hearing friends will learn things too. Everyone can join us!

Image: Woman with short brown hair and cat eye glasses on. She's holding a blanck and white wand with pink and black ribbons, the end is a fuzzy pink feather. She's wearing a sweatshirt and holding the wand to her shoulder, eyes wide and smiling.