Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Health Service Fact sheet: Hearing loss: the invisible handicap

Your health:
Hearing loss: the invisible handicap

	The perception:"Why don't you speak up?" "You young people all mumble these days" The facts: Hearing loss in older people may begin gradually and progress slowly. In the early stages it is often unrecognised.
	The perception: "She hears when she wants to" The facts: There is often inconsistent listening behaviour. This is because the parts of hearing which are important to understanding speech (the high frequencies) usually deteriorate sooner than those which relate more to environmental sounds (low frequencies).
	The perception: "I heard, but I didn't understand" "All right! There's no need to shout" The Facts: There may also be problems of distortion. This can be like trying to listen on a bad phone line.
	The perception: "Why on earth don't they get a hearing aid? ...(and stop being a bother to me)" The Facts: A well-fitted hearing aid can be a great help, however hearing aids make sound louder. They do not "correct" hearing. Even the best aid remains on the outside. The person's own defective hearing system must still take the message between his/her EARS and his/her BRAIN. The brain must then decode the imperfect message which has arrived there.

Patience and understanding are needed.

COMMUNICATION IS TWO-WAY: your understanding and appropriate management

CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

This fact sheet was adapted from "Rosen, J: Hearing Loss: The Invisible Handicap. ©1989. Illustrations- Mark Buckle". The second part of this fact sheet deals with "Tips for talking with hard of hearing people". You could also download the entire fact sheet. It deals with the topic of 'How to communicate with a person who has difficulty in hearing'.

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