What are some strategies I can use to help me understand speech better?
To maximally communicate, you need to use hearing from both ears (binaural hearing) and you need to use your eyes and ears together. You will not communicate well using your hearing aids alone. To facilitate optimal communication, you will need to pay attention to the speaker’s gestures and facial expressions! To maximise communication remember to watch the person speaking, reduce the distance between the speaker and yourself, reduce or eliminate background noises from the listening environment and use good lighting. If someone is speaking to you from across the room, while the TV is on, while doing the dishes, it will be very difficult to adequately communicate, despite fantastic hearing aids!