Watching sports with Ted is extremely frustrating. He has the volume cranked up so loud the walls rattle, and you certainly can’t pay attention to the game. All you notice is the thunder of the crowd hammering against your body, punctuated by the ear-shattering staccato of the announcer’s play-by-play calls.
It isn’t fun. But for Ted, it’s a normal volume. He needs the TV to be tremendously loud so he can hear it, which makes it pretty obvious he needs a hearing aid. How to talk to him about it is the difficulty. His sensitivity about the topic makes what should be a simple conversation a lot more difficult.
The following are a few recommendations that may help.
Recommend a Basic Exam
Ted needs an expert to inform him about his hearing. Other people may not sound as credible when they talk to him about it. If that’s the case, the strategy will be getting Ted (or anybody like him) to come see us.
One of the following tactics may help you do that:
- Try making him feel more at ease by letting him know that it’s just a simple assessment. In most cases, hearing screenings are quick and easy. His hearing will be broken down by frequency on an audiogram. We can clarify what the results indicate.
- Suggest the two of you go together for back-to-back assessments. This can make starting the dialogue easier. You might discover that you also have some level of hearing loss (it may depend on how long you’ve been exposed to a high-volume noise).
Chat About Hearing Loss Behaviors
Hearing loss is often undetectable because it advances so gradually. Specific subconscious behaviors frequently develop when this occurs. You can hint in a discreet way that Ted needs a hearing aid by putting attention on these behaviors.
Try something like the following:
- Remind Him that he’s not using the phone as much as he once did because he has a difficult time hearing what his friends are saying on the other end.
- Point out instances where you have to translate what someone said. Here’s a hypothetical example: your friend says something at breakfast, Ted doesn’t hear or comprehend it, and you have to repeat the sentence to Ted because you’re closer to him.
- You could tell him the family has observed he’s been having a difficult time hearing. Perhaps that’s why fewer people are going to his home to watch the Big Game each year, they have a difficult time coping with the loud television.
The goal during these conversations is to keep your discussion centered on these behaviors rather than the disorder. Instead of talking about how Ted is experiencing hearing impairment, mention how his hearing loss impacts people in his life.
Emphasize The Technology in Contemporary Hearing Aids
Outdated ideas of how a hearing aid impacts your appearance and what hearing aids do, in some cases, leads to reluctance to wear one. It may not be a bad idea to emphasize the innovative technology used by contemporary hearing aids.
The following are some examples:
- Modern hearing aids contain a huge amount of technology. Thanks to connectivity, for example, your hearing aids will pair seamlessly with your phone or even your television speakers. With this tech, the volume of your devices will be amplified without feedback and noise.
- Some hearing aids can even track your health and fitness biometrics and translate them in real time as well as other additional features.
- Modern hearing aids are typically very small and almost completely unseen to the naked eye. That’s not all, modern hearing aids are exceptionally comfortable for the wearer. They aren’t the big and cumbersome units they used to be. They won’t even be seen by most people.
For many people, hearing aids feel like an extension of their smartphones or tablets. Modern hearing aids are exceptionally useful pieces of technology that help you enjoy live streaming.
Highlight The Long-Term Benefits
Lastly, it’s worth taking time to mention the long-term advantages of hearing aids, which have been shown to help people keep (or recover) their cognitive faculties. To put it bluntly, hearing is crucial to a person’s cognitive health.
You will keep more of your hearing intact in the long run if you address your hearing loss as soon as you can. When you have hearing impairment, your ears have a difficult time processing particular wavelengths and hearing aids are calibrated to fill in those missing frequencies. Simply turning up your TV isn’t a substitute for this valuable technology.
Getting treatment as soon as you start experiencing hearing loss can help save your hearing, and understanding that will help persuade people like Ted to seek help.