On April 20, we will hear in the Auditorium from Janice Trent of Hearing Healthcare Services, a local audiologist.
The presentation is being billed as a help to those who want to communicate with those with hearing loss.
As a general matter, I think this is a very important first step for Collington.
I have come to realize that hearing loss and inability to have reciprocal communications not only hurts the people directly involved in the attempted conversation, but also the community as a whole. One way of looking at it is that the community is deprived of your full contributions, engagement, ideas and energy. (I know that whenever I see a video of my speaking I am embarrassed by how much I swallow words.)
My suggestion is that we should think about communication, including both articulation and hearing, as a strong community value, and should be thinking of myriad ways in which we can articulate that value.
One such would be to offer free hearing exams to all who are coming to Collington. No obligation to get a hearing aid, but one to know how you are doing in the hearing department. Similarly those who have clarity expression difficulties would greatly benefit from information, demonstrations and training.
This the kind of thing that follows logically from the values of community and communication espoused in our strategic plan.
Don’t forget to come and hear Dr. Trent TODAY at 2 PM in the auditorium!
Richard,
Thank you for writing about the Clear Speech presentation on this Thursday at 2 PM. I have the best hearing aids that I can get but background noise cancels them out most of the time. I tend not to eat in the main dining room. I can converse at small tables in a quiet setting. I try to check to see if lips are moving and face the person who is trying to speak to me. Some residents speak try to me from behind and get annoyed, assuming that I am ignoring them. I have given up my service on two committees and will neither run for any office, nor lead any who want to march with me in DC. I rarely attend presentations in the auditorium due to very poor equipment or poor use of it. I understand that work is being done on the system. The new individual headphones work well but not all speakers wear them. Most speakers seem to be unaware that their audience includes many with hearing loss. They mumble or even cover their face with the papers from which they are reading. Some residents are either unaware of their hearing loss or in denial. There are people who have hearing aids but do not use them. You are right, it is a serious loss of the talent that some residents could provide to our community. I am doing the best I can under the circumstances. I am neither mad nor sad, just realistic.
Diane
Something that not all audiologist mention is sometimes it’s not that you can’t hear, but it’s taking you longer to process the spoken word. Speaking more slowly can help.