So, so many family get-togethers.
It likely feels like you’re meeting or reuniting with every relative you have, every weekend, during the holidays. The holiday season can be enjoyable (and also challenging) for this reason. Typically, this type of annual catching up is something that’s easy to look forward to. You get to check in on everyone and see what they’re up to!
But when you’re dealing with hearing loss, those family get-togethers might seem a little less inviting. Why is that? How will your hearing loss affect you when you’re at family gatherings?
Hearing loss can interfere with your ability to communicate, and with others’ ability to communicate with you. The result can be a discouraging feeling of alienation, and it’s a particularly disturbing feeling when it happens during the holidays. Hearing specialists and professionals have formulated some go-to tips that can help make your holidays more enjoyable, and more fulfilling, when you have hearing loss.
Tips to help you enjoy the holiday season
There’s so much to see during the holidays, lights, food, gifts, and more. But there’s also so much to hear: how your nephew is doing in school, how your cousin’s pond hockey team is doing, and on, and on.
These tips are designed to help be certain that you keep experiencing all of those moments of reconnection during the course of holiday gatherings.
Use video chat instead of phone calls
Zoom calls can be an excellent way to keep in touch with friends and family. If you have hearing loss, this is particularly true. Try utilizing video calls instead of phone calls if you have hearing loss and want to touch base with loved ones throughout the holidays.
Phones represent a difficult conundrum with regards to hearing loss and communication challenges. The voice that comes through the phone speaker can feel garbled and hard to understand, and that makes what should be an enjoyable phone call annoying indeed. You won’t have better audio quality from a video call, but you will at least have visual clues to help determine what’s being said. From body language to facial expressions, video calls offer added context, and that will help the conversation have a better flow.
Tell people the truth
Hearing loss is very common. It’s important to let people know if you need help. It doesn’t hurt to ask for:
- Your friends and family to speak a little slower.
- A quieter place to talk.
- People to paraphrase and repeat what they said.
People won’t be as likely to become irritated when you ask them to repeat themselves if they know that you have hearing loss. Communication will have a better flow as a result.
Pick your areas of conversation carefully
You will always want to avoid certain subjects of conversation during the holidays. So you’re cautious not to say anything that would offend people, but instead, wait for them to mention any delicate subject matter. When you have hearing loss, this goes double, only instead of scooting around certain topics of conversation, you should cautiously steer clear of specific spaces in a home which make hearing conversations more difficult.
deal with it like this:
- Attempt to find brightly lit spots for this same reason. If there isn’t adequate light, you won’t be capable of picking up on contextual clues or read lips.
- You’re seeking areas with less commotion. This will put you in a better position to read lips more effectively.
- Try to choose an area of the gathering that’s a little quieter. That might mean removing yourself from overlapping conversations or getting a little further away from that raucous sporting event on the TV.
- When you choose a spot to sit, try to put a back to a wall. That way, there’ll be less background noise for you to have to filter through.
Okay, okay, but what if your niece begins talking to you in the loud kitchen, where you’re topping off your mug with hot chocolate? There are a few things you can do in cases like these:
- If there’s music playing in the area, politely ask the host to turn the music down so you can hear your niece a little better.
- Quietly lead your niece to a spot that has less going on. Be certain to mention that’s what you’re doing.
- Ask your niece to continue the conversation someplace where it’s a bit quieter.
Communicate with the flight crew
So, you’re thinking: what are the impacts of hearing loss at family get-togethers that are less apparent? Like the ones that sneak up on you.
When families are spread out, lots of people have to fly somewhere. When you fly, it’s important to comprehend all the instructions and communication provided by the flight crew. So you need to be certain to tell them about your hearing loss. That way, the flight crew can offer you visual instructions if needed. It’s essential that you don’t miss anything when flying!
Take breaks
When you are dealing with hearing loss, communicating can be a lot of work. You may find yourself growing more tired or exhausted than you once did. So taking regular breaks is important. This will give your ears, and, perhaps more significantly, your brain, a little bit of time to catch a breath.
Get some hearing aids
How does hearing loss affect relationships? Well, as should be clear by now, in many ways!
One of the major advantages of hearing aids is that they will make almost every interaction with your family over the holidays smoother and more fulfilling. And no more asking people what they said.
Put simply, hearing aids will help you reconnect with your family.
It may take some time to adjust to your new hearing aids. So it’s recommended that you pick them up well in advance of your holiday plans. Naturally, everybody’s experience will differ. So talk to us about the timing.
You can get help navigating the holidays
When you have hearing loss, often, it can feel as if nobody can relate to what you’re dealing with, and that you have to do it all by yourself. It’s like hearing loss is affecting your personality in this way. But there’s help. You can get through many of the difficulties with our help.
Holidays can be hard enough even under typical circumstances and you don’t need hearing loss to make it even harder. At this time of year, you can look forward to seeing, and hearing your family and friends. All you need is the right strategy.