Most of us are ‘visual’ people – our sight is our dominant sense and we all envisage how losing our sight would be a terrible thing so hearing tends to take second place. People who are deaf or hard of hearing are often seen as stupid, because they may not respond correctly to a question, for example.
My aunt was born hard of hearing and really suffered at school because she was put at the back of the class, and couldn’t hear the teacher properly. She was then reprimanded for inattention! Hopefully these days this kind of thing is less likely to happen. My sister-in-law is completely deaf and it was difficult to communicate with her because of this. But avoiding communication with the deaf or hard-of-hearing just makes them feel more isolated.
Additionally, it has been shown that deafness/hearing loss can make people more likely to develop dementia. So we really should think more carefully about our interactions with such people and try to include them more in our conversations and activities.
How can we help? Here is a great website that has tips to help us communicate better: Click here
World Hearing Day is every March 3rd – here is a link to the WHO site: Click here
4 Seasons Health - Blog 