Rehab at Home for Adults: Understanding Conversations in Social Situations

Welcome back to our Rehab at Home for Adults series where you can learn how to reach everyday listening goals and improve your hearing. Today’s goal is about understanding conversations while in social situations.

Everyday Listening Goal 6: To Understand Conversations While Out in Social Situations

It can be challenging for people with hearing implants to follow conversations in social settings because of background noise. Conversations can move quickly between many speakers, and sometimes several people talk at once. The background noise is often as loud as or louder than the speech you’re trying to hear. These situations can also be difficult for people with normal hearing.

In this video, Mary-Jane and her husband Nick share tips and tricks they use to improve Mary-Jane’s ability to understand conversations when out and about.

Here are some additional tips to help you achieve the goal of understanding conversations while out in social situations.

To Get Started

• Meet a friend or family member at a café or restaurant (or somewhere public) that you have been to before. Choose a place and a time that will not be too noisy. Explain what your cochlear implant is and what helps you to follow conversations better.
• Ask your hearing professional if it’s possible to set a program for you to use in noisy environments. Try this out to see if it helps you hear your friends and family better.

As You Progress

• Meet a friend or family member at a café or restaurant (or somewhere public) that you haven’t been to before. Choose a table that is away from the source of noise. Explain what your cochlear implant is and what helps you to follow conversations better. Use our communication strategies if you get stuck.

Once You’re Almost There

• Attend a social function with a small group of family members or friends. Try having conversations with different people in different areas of the function space. Move around the room: go closer to or further away from the noisier areas.

The most powerful thing you can do while you are out in social situations is explain your hearing loss, that you use hearing technology, and how your companions can help you better understand a conversation. Practice explaining what your cochlear implant is and how it works. Use pages 13 and 14 in our Adult Rehabilitation Kit 1 to help with this.