So, so many family celebrations.
During the holidays, it most likely seems like you’re meeting (or re-meeting) a new long-lost uncle almost every weekend. The holiday season can be enjoyable (and also challenging) because of this. Normally, it’s easy to look forward to this annual catching up. You get to learn what everyone’s been doing all year.
But when you have hearing loss, those family get-togethers might seem a little less inviting. What’s the reason for this? How will your hearing loss affect you when you’re at family get-togethers?
Your ability to communicate with others can be seriously impacted by hearing loss, and also the ability of other people to communicate with you. The resulting feelings of alienation can be especially disheartening and stressful around the holidays. Your holiday season can be more fulfilling and enjoyable by using a few go-to tips formulated by hearing specialists.
Tips to help you enjoy the holiday season
There’s so much to see around the holidays, lights, food, gifts, and more. But there’s also so much to hear: how Uncle Bob lost his third finger (what?!), how Julie is doing in school, how Nancy got promoted, it keeps going.
During holiday get-togethers, use these tips to get through and make more unforgettable moments.
Avoid phone calls – instead, use video calls.
Zoom calls can be a fantastic way to stay in touch with friends and family. That’s particularly true if you have hearing loss. Try using video calls instead of phone calls if you have hearing loss and want to reach out to loved ones throughout the holidays.
Phones represent an interesting conundrum when it comes to hearing loss and communication challenges. The voice on the other end can feel garbled and difficult to understand, and that can certainly be frustrating. With a video call, the audio quality won’t necessarily improve, but you’ll have much more information to help you communicate. From body language to facial expressions, video calls supply added context, and that will help the conversation have a better flow.
Tell people the truth
It isn’t uncommon for people to have hearing loss. If you need help, it’s essential to communicate that! It doesn’t hurt to ask for:
- A quieter place to have conversations.
- People to paraphrase and repeat what they said.
- Your friends and family to talk a bit slower.
People will be less likely to become annoyed when you ask them to repeat themselves if they are aware that you have hearing loss. As a result, communication has a tendency to flow a little bit smoother.
Select your areas of conversation wisely
You will always want to avoid certain subjects of conversation during the holidays. So, you’re strategic, you don’t just bring up sensitive subjects about people, you wait for those people to bring it up. When you’re dealing with hearing loss, this goes double, only instead of scooting around certain topics of conversation, you should carefully steer clear of specific spaces in a home which make hearing conversations more difficult.
deal with it like this:
- You’re seeking spaces with less commotion. This’ll make it easier to concentrate on the lips of the individuals speaking with you (and help you lip read as a result).
- Try to find well lit places for this same reason. Contextual clues, including body language and facial expressions, can get lost in darker spaces.
- When you choose a spot to sit, try to put a wall against your back. That way, there’ll be less background noise for you to have to filter through.
- There will be quieter areas in the home where you have conversations. That might mean removing yourself from overlapping conversations or getting a bit further away from that raucous football game on the TV.
Alright, alright, but what if your niece begins talking to you in the noisy kitchen, where you’re filling your mug with hot chocolate? There are a few things you can do in situations like these:
- Politely start walking to an area of the gathering place where you can hear and concentrate better. And remember to let her know this is what you’re doing.
- 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.
- Suggest that you and your niece go somewhere quieter to chat.
Communicate with the flight crew
So, you’re thinking: what are the impacts of hearing loss at family get-togethers that are less obvious? Like the ones that sneak up on you.
Lots of people fly around during the holidays, it’s especially essential for families that are pretty spread out. When you fly, it’s crucial to understand all the instructions and communication provided by the flight crew. So you need to be sure to tell them about your hearing loss. This way, if necessary, the flight crew can take extra care to give you additional visual guidelines. It’s important that you don’t miss anything when flying!
Take breaks
It can be a lot of work trying to communicate with hearing loss. You might find yourself getting more tired or exhausted than you once did. So taking frequent breaks is important. This will give your ears, and, maybe more significantly, your brain, some time to catch a breath.
Invest in some hearing aids
How does hearing loss impact relationships? Well, as should be clear at this point, in many ways!
One of the major benefits of hearing aids is that they will make almost every interaction with your family over the holidays easier and more satisfying. And, the greatest part, you won’t have to continue to ask people to repeat what they said.
Hearing aids will allow you to reconnect with your family, in other words.
Bear in mind that it may take you some time to get used to your hearing aids. So don’t wait until just before the holidays to pick them up. Everyone will have a different experience. So speak with us about the timing.
You don’t need to navigate the holidays alone
It can feel like you’re alone sometimes, and that nobody can relate to what you’re going through when you have hearing loss. It’s like hearing loss is affecting your personality in this way. But you’re not alone. We can help you get through many of these dilemmas.
The holidays don’t have to be a time of worry or nervousness (that is, any more than they usually are). With the right strategy, you can look forward to seeing, and hearing, your family around this time of year.