Taking care of elders involved daily conversation. Communicating with hearing impaired seniors is hard as if your mouth would drop out to articulate clearly the words and your voice might become husky in the end. Some people like our neighbor before yells to another room when communicating to his elderly parents. At first, I thought its ok to shout or yell towards the person but I realized that it could worsen the situation. Pay attention with these guides to help you more in communicating hearing impaired elderly.

Tips in Communicating with Hearing Impaired Elders

1.      Communicate face to face with the distance of three feet either sitting or standing. Do not shout or yell.

2.      Your face should be in the light as to assist better lip reading.

3.      Be vigilant with the words that are difficult to hear than other words.

4.      Pronounce the words clearly. Do not connect one word to another like instead of “didja”, you should speak it word for word like “did you” or instead of “sko” better to say “let’s go”.

5.      Invent some strategies to make numbers and letters be perceived correctly. Like when your saying “C as in Cat”, “T as in toys” or “13 as in one three” would be clearer to understand.

6.      Use “body language” while dealing with elderly. Apply facial and body expressions to give hints.

7.      Do not repeat sentences. Try to rephrase it in other way around.

8.      When talking to elderly people, avoid eating, chewing, and smoking to prevent gagging words.

9.      Keep your hands off your face. Putting your fingers on your cheek may distort your articulation.

10.  Try to lower the pitch of your voice.

11.  It is advisable to eliminate TV noise or nearby conversation especially when the person is wearing a hearing aid because hearing aids amplifies extra sound.

12.  Regularly check the hearing device. Make sure that it is clean and the batteries are placed correctly.

13.  Place the person where he can possibly see everyone in the area. Like letting him sits at the head of the dining table so that it would be easier for him to see all the people sitting around the table.

14.  Don’t forget to announce first the things you are going to do or want to talk about. Like for example you would say “Let’s talk about your crocheting”.

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