Selecting, prescribing, fitting, and evaluating results are the key elements of hearing rehabilitation.

The ability to hear is critical to the attachment of meaning to the world around us. People requiring rehabilitation for hearing loss should always consult their audiologist first.

Hearing Rehabilitation - Adults

Hearing loss rehabilitation in adults will include the following:

• Helping you deal with, and adjust your life to hearing loss, understand more fully the how and why?
• Make the best use of your hearing aid, managing your expectations to what the hearing aid can deliver
• Understand how to care, adjust and troubleshoot problems with your hearing aid
• Understand other available devices that may assist you such as TV listening devices or personal FM systems for use in classrooms etc.
• Helping you listen and communicate more effectively by understanding your specific hearing loss
• Helping your family understand your hearing loss and the implications (Play your family a tape simulating your hearing loss can help them understand)
• Very often a support group can help. Understanding and absorbing everything upfront can be hard on the individual. Having a support group to assist with this understanding and adaptation over time as well as share experiences can help.

Speechreading

Speechreading is training people to read the lips of those speaking, understanding how the lips move to make certain sounds, which words have the same or similar mouth movement. In addition to speechreading, understanding facial expressions and gestures can also assist.

Audiologic rehabilitation

Audiologic rehabilitation involves developing strategies to improve person to person communication. Helping the person sufferring from hearing loss take control of their communication to become more effective. These typically include:

• Asking people to face you when speaking to you
• Knowing when to ask them to repeat something
• Asking people to get your attention before speaking to you
• Trying to minimise background noise which may interfere with communication
• Selecting places to sit or seating arrangements which will faciliate better communication, i.e face to face

Hearing rehabilitation key points

• Make sure you have visited an audiologist and got the right diagnosis, advice and hearing device
• Develop hearing strategies for various situations
• Get your family or loved ones to understand
• Find a support group to help you manage, share and learn