We encounter a lot of noise in our daily lives, from our morning alarm clock to the cars on the road. For the most part, the occasional noise isn’t too intrusive. However, if the volume in your environment gets too loud, like a busy happy hour at Graham’s Grill & Pub, you might find it tricky to communicate with others.
Let’s look at a few things you can do to improve communication in those noisy environments.
Talk Face-To-Face
Talking face-to-face allows you to take advantage of visual cues like lip movements, facial expressions and other body language. While you may not be able to hear someone’s exact words by studying their face, it can help you glean the tone and context of the conversation.
If you’re in a big group, position yourself where you can see the most faces, usually in the middle.
Find the Right Time and Place To Talk
Busy restaurants or bars where people have to shout to be heard aren’t the best places for an important or in-depth conversation. If you want to have a serious conversation, postpone it until the noise dies down or move to a quieter conversation if possible.
Ask Questions
Asking questions is one excellent way to practice active listening. If you feel like you didn’t hear something correctly or want a little more context, ask the speaker to clarify. They’ll be happy knowing you cared enough to double-check.
Ask for Rephrasing
Because hearing loss tends to affect specific frequencies, you might not have any better luck understanding the same sentence repeated. Instead, ask people to rephrase themselves.
Take Listening Breaks
Understanding speech in noise is difficult for people with hearing loss. All that extra effort to decipher what the other person is saying can leave you exhausted—a phenomenon called auditory or listening fatigue[1]. Unfortunately, when you start to feel fatigued, speech becomes even more difficult to understand. To help stave off listening fatigue, take short breaks of five to 10 minutes away from the noise.
Schedule a Hearing Aid Consultation
Hearing aids can pick up and amplify speech sounds, making it easier for you to understand speech, even in noisy environments. Call us at Ear, Nose & Throat Consultants today to schedule a hearing aid consultation with one of our trusted specialists.
[1] American Academy of Audiology. (n.d.). Listening fatigue. https://www.audiology.org/consumers-and-patients/hearing-and-balance/fatigue/