3. What to do and what not to do...

When speaking to a person with hearing loss, you should keep the following rules and tips:

  • Get his/her attention.
  • Face him/her and stand close to him/her (between 2-4m) - and keep the eye contact.
  • Have the light on your face and do not cover your mouth.
  • Speak more slowly than usual (but not too slow!).
  • Speak more loudly if it helps, but do not shout.
  • Speak expressively and use your face, hand and body movements to follow your speech adequately.
  • Use rather the well-known and frequented words and simple phrases.
  • Make sure that a person understands the meaning of your speech.  
  • Be ready to use a pen and paper (write words or short sencences, or you may draw some pictures).

On the other hand, we should not:

  • touch this person on his/her back if he/she couldn't see us at first 
  • talk to this person in a noisy and dark room (or environment)
  • talk to this person from the oppocite corner of the room or turned back form him/her
  • talk to this person while eating or with our lips covered by our hand or by the veil (mask) etc.
  • talk to this person for a long time (more than about 30 minutes - after this time, the attention decreases significantly...).