Listening Fatigue
I have often joked with my clients about the well-known disorders of husbanditis and wifeitis. We have a natural inclination to ignore those around us once they have become a fixed part of our daily routine. This is not intentional. Our brains cannot take in every bit of auditory information that they pick up and then bring it to our conscious brain for us to hear; it would be way too much for us to take in.
That is why we don’t hear the dishwasher or fridge unless the sound changes and our brain notices that it doesn’t sound right. We don’t mean to ignore our family members it is just that we are concentrating on other auditory signals our brain focuses away from them and gives attention to what it feels may be a more important signal!
What happens if we add a hearing loss to this?
Listening fatigue is a real issue when someone has a hearing loss, for both adults and children. A person with a hearing loss has to concentrate harder to hear particularly in more complex listening environments whether aided or not. We all know that when we have to concentrate hard or put a lot of effort into something we do, we are often more tired than normal at the end of the day.
Research studies have confirmed that listening fatigue is a real issue in people with hearing loss and that it can affect their mental and physical well-being.
Mentally, they feel more isolated because of the effort involved in going out and trying to listen to people at a gathering (as audiologists, we hear this a lot) and there is a thought that it may also impact physical activity due to tiredness coming from trying to listen and possibly also a reduction in physical movement due to their reduction in social activity ‘I’m not going out as I can’t hear!’ for example.
The authors from the study relating to the above diagram have suggested that the enjoyment and control that a person has over a given situation is likely to be a key determining factor in any resulting fatigue.
So, what can we do about hearing fatigue in someone we love, Particularly at Christmas time?
For someone with a hearing loss, Christmas and its associated gatherings and parties is a nightmare. Too many people around or a gathering outside of home means a struggle to hear what is said. They will often sit at the dinner table or party nodding their head, go into a corner, or find some excuse not to attend at all. Because what’s the point I can’t hear what is going on and I can’t join in the merriment!
“Eating out is one of life’s pleasures. It’s meant to be sociable and fun, but often I end up feeling excluded because of the noise…Sometimes I just have to say no to an invitation if it’s to a venue I know is noisy.” https://rnid.org.uk/Cafe-pubs-and-restaurants-policy-statement.pdf
So, what can we do to help….
When considering Christmas party venues…(think TIPS!)
TIME: If you are going out, book the restaurant for earlier when it is quieter.
INFORMATION: Do your research, consider if you know the place well, if not then visit before hand or ask the staff for guidance on their quieter areas.
PLACE: Ask if you can specify where you wish to be seated. For example, away from music speakers and the kitchen door, front door, or bar and near a wall may be best. Where are you sitting the person with a hearing loss on that table. Down the end of the table for instance will not be suitable.
SPACE: Is it a large venue, with lots of steel, wood and not a lot of soft furnishing? Environments like this are highly reverberant and make it difficult to hear.
Using hearing aids - with the aim of helping to hear in noisy environments (think AIMS!)
ADJUST: Consider using your 2nd programme for background noise. Don’t feel afraid to adjust the hearing aid. All aids come with apps now, which allow you to do more than turn the hearing aid up and down. You can focus the direction the aid is picking up sound in. You can also ask it to focus more on speech and less on noise.
IPHONE: If you have an Apple phone and hearing aids that are true Bluetooth and stream calls into your hearing aids, then you will have access to Live Listen. This can be found in Accessibility in your settings, or on the Ear icon that comes up on your phone. Press Live Listen and your phone becomes a microphone and can be given to people to talk into.
MICROPHONE: You may wish to consider remote microphones. Most hearing aid manufacturers will sell remote microphones that can be given to others to speak into (this includes NHS aids) and that directly streams that person’s voice into your hearing aid. They usually range between £150-£300 (excl. Roger Pen).
SPEECH TO TEXT: Some manufacturers apps now have the ability to do speech to text, so you can put your phone near the speaker and the text of what they said will come up. If you don’t have this then there are apps that you can download such as Professional & AI-Based Captions for Deaf & HoH | Ava. Google live transcribe (cost involved) or Apple Live Transcribe on the App Store
How to talk to someone with a hearing loss, in noisy environments. (think CARES!)
CLOSED: Ask closed questions this means that they are more likely to respond appropriately as the answers are limited. This also works for the person with the hearing loss asking closed yes or no questions limits the responses
ATTENTION: Grab their attention first: Call their name or use a waster sentence that you have discussed using such us: Jo- what about this? Grabbing their attention means that their brain is ready for you and they haven’t missed the first part of the sentence.
REST: Have a brain break for a few minutes, get out of the noise and have a rest. Or move the conversation to somewhere quiet.
EVERYONE: Remember everyone struggles in noise whether they have a hearing loss or not. So remind everyone of that and have fun. If you or they miss hear it just shows that it can happen both ways and the result is funny laugh together!
SHORT: Keep your sentences short, don’t say too much. Put a comma and a full stop in the sentence, these breaks give the brain time to catch up and try and figure out what they missed
By Louise Hart BA (Psych) Grad Dip Audiology, RCCP RHAD
Audiologist and Trainer
