Hear Better This Holiday Season

The holiday season can be frustrating if you have challenges hearing in crowds, at restaurants, or cafes, when several people are speaking at once or when listening to quiet voices (like grandchildren).   

Here are some tips and tricks to help you handle conversations with your partner, parents, children, grandchildren, extended family and friends like a pro this season.

1) Learn to Lipread – Lipreading is a skill that helps you pick up on words you might have missed. We learn to use clues from the movement of the mouth to help us “fill in the blanks”. This skill is really useful to help us “hear”, especially when there is background noise.   

2) Educate – Know about the importance of good communication to help you hear better!  Asking others to speak clearly and face you when speaking can be really helpful.  

3) Social Gatherings – Hearing well in groups can be hard.  What helps? Reducing background noise at a restaurant can make things easier so ask your server for a booth seat or ask them to lower the overall volume of background music. Choose to sit in a place where you can see everyone’s face well or where there is good light so that you can watch their lip movements.   

4) Video Calls – When on group video calls, use these tips for better hearing. Ask others to mute their audio when they are not speaking, have them directly face the camera, ensure their faces are well-lit, ask them to speak clearly, have each person raise their hand before they start to speak.  

5) Patience – Be patient with yourself and others. Learning new communication skills can be hard and patience on both ends will help all involved.   

Learning a skill like lipreading can help improve your confidence hearing well in social groups and lead to better communication with your friends and loved ones! 

Which of these tips will help you this holiday season? You can practice your lipreading skills with the Read Our Lips online learning program.   

Find out more at readourlips.ca