Communication Tips for New Years Eve

Communication Tips for New Year’s Eve:

Large social groups are one of the most difficult environments for a person with a hearing loss (and even for those who don’t have hearing loss). If you find yourself in a large group at a loud venue celebrating the New Year, here are some strategies to better communicate:

1. Position yourself closer to the person with whom you are conversing. The further away you are, the greater the interference of ambient noise.
2. If you are at a loud venue or restaurant – position yourself close to a wall to buffer the background noise
3. Be aware of the impact of alcohol. Amongst other effects on the body, alcohol decreases speech discrimination capacities.
4. Consider wearing musician’s earplugs. In addition to actually protecting your hearing from the loud noise, it will also help you better communicate with those who are standing closest to you as you will hear the conversation better.
5. If you wear hearing aids and you are spending the evening in a fairly loud environment, make certain that you are using the appropriate program on your hearing device to effectively use your noise suppression circuit.