Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A new teacher with a profound hearing loss wrote:

I am a hearing impaired student teacher. I have a profound hearing loss with a speech recognition of 12 percent. I was wondering if you could assist me with some strategies for teaching normal hearing students in a Middle School environment. I would need procedural and instructional strategies that work. Can you assist me with this, as I do not know of any hearing impaired educators locally.

Since your discrimination is so poor, my first suggestion is to consider getting cochlear implants.

As for coping strategies there are many. In truth, many of the coping strategies you used as a student are the same ones you need to use as a teacher. After all, hearing loss is hearing loss.

For example, continue to use your speechreading skills that I’m sure you have used all your life. If you want to improve your speechreading skills, may I suggest the Seeing and Hearing Speech CD program. You can get it at http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/products/seeinghearingspeech.htm.

I assume that you know many of the tricks to help you hear better such as get close, have the light on the speaker’s face, cut out background noise, etc. My short book, “Talking with Hard of Hearing People, Here’s How to Do It Right!” gives a lot of help in this respect..

Do you use any assistive devices? I think you’ll find the super-directional microphone plugged into a PockeTalker, will help you hear your student’s better. In actual fact, this microphone was originally designed for a hard of hearing teacher. I find it most useful. To use the PockeTalker with your hearing aids, plug in a neckloop instead of ear buds.

To learn more, read the article I wrote called “Hearing in the Classroom: An Assistive Device for Hard of Hearing Teachers“, and another article along the same line called “Hearing in the Classroom or in Other Noisy Places“.

If you have trouble hearing your student’s replies, then I’d tend more to written answers, rather than verbal ones.

If you can’t hear a student there are a number of strategies you can employ, such as:

1. Arrange your classroom so the soft-spoken students all sit near the front of the room so they are closer to you. That way you can hear them better.

2. Walk down the aisle so you are closer to the student you are trying to hear. That way you can hear him/her better and speechread better too. Combined with the Super-directional mic/PockeTalker combination, this can really work well.

3. Have a student who you can hear well sit at the front of the room and “interpret” what someone said that you just can’tget. At times I do this when speaking to groups. I ask someone that I know I can hear/understand to repeat what someone just said. Don’t do this too much as you are imposing on the goodwill of the person doing the “interpreting”. It is better to learn to cope on your own, rather than “using” other people as much as possible.

4. Pass a wireless FM microphone around and anyone who wants to speak, talks into the microphone. You wear the FM receiver and pipe their voices directly into your ears via a neckloop and the t-coils in your hearing aids.

5. Have a student you can’t hear/understand come up and write key words on the blackboard.

6. Teach your students how to fingerspell so they can fingerspell any key words you miss.

7. Give out a sheet at the beginning of each year that explains your hearing loss and what you need the students to do. One hard of hearing teacher did just that. You can read this sheet in my article, “Coping Strategies for Hard of Hearing Teachers“.

So there are 7 things you can do to help yourself successfully live with your hearing loss in the classroom. They may “prime the pump” and now you’ll think of other things you can also do in addition to using all the assistive devices mentioned above.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady explained:

I find that my tinnitus is worse if I am stressed about something. Sometimes the pitch changes and sometimes I can hear more than one sound at a time. My tinnitus is always worse when I’m trying to get to sleep and that’s when I get anxious. I can hear it in the day too, so it’s there all the time. When I wake up in the morning it can be very loud and I have to get up straight away or I can become panicky. I have always been noise phobic from when I was a small child. I just can’t handle fireworks or loud noises. When I was very young I became very upset by the scratching of the needle on a record. Is this part of the profile of someone with tinnitus?

Very much so. Stress and anxiety are two triggers of tinnitus. If you are a high-strung, anxious type of person, often you will find that not only do you hear tinnitus, but you also may have hyperacusis—where you hear some/all sounds louder and more intrusive than normal.

I was helping a lady recently that had much the same experiences as you—she was high-strung, anxious and had just gone through a very stressful situation. Her tinnitus was now much louder than normal, and she was worried that it would stay that way. In the past when she would stress over something, her tinnitus would get louder, but subside in a day or two. This time it wasn’t—hence her call to me for help.

I explained to her that when we are anxious, this puts our bodies in the “fight or flight” mode. Extra adrenaline surges through our arteries giving us more strength to fight or flee. At the same time, our senses become more acute. Thus we actually hear better than normal during such events—especially fainter sounds.

When you are anxious all the time, your body becomes stuck in this fight or flight mode, which includes the increased acute hearing. The result is that you perceive certain sounds to be annoyingly loud such as your phonograph needle. At the same time, loud sounds are then much too loud (such as fireworks).

The usual reaction to this increased sensitivity to sound is to avoid all noisy places and wear ear protectors most of the time. This actually proves counterproductive because when you wear ear protectors all the time, you brain becomes “starved” for normal sounds. As a result, it cranks up its internal volume control. This just makes the situation even worse—because when you take the noise protectors off, sounds are louder and even more annoying than before.

On top of this, your tinnitus is also louder because, with the increased internal volume, your brain is now hearing more of the random firings of the neurons in your auditory system—which some researchers think we hear as tinnitus.

The way to resolve this problem is not to overprotect your ears. Yes, clap your hands to your ears if there is a sudden loud sound around you (a siren going past you, or a truck blasting his air horn), but otherwise do not overprotect your ears so your auditory system will always have adequate stimulation. This will cause your brain to turn down the internal volume.

At the same time, you need to learn how not to be so anxious. You need to learn to be calm and “hang loose”. That will get you out of the “fight or flight” mode. This alone will let your brain turn down its internal volume.

When you do this, you will find that your tinnitus often becomes less intrusive and fades into the background. You will also find hat those sounds you found annoying before now don’t bother you much, or at all.

I’m not saying this is easy to accomplish, but it is necessary. There are a number of books available that teach you how to relax and calm down. If you need further help, see a therapist that specializes in helping people work through their anxiety problems without using drugs.

The end result will be reduced tinnitus, reduced hyperacusis and more enjoyment in your life. That makes it all worthwhile, doesn’t it?

If you have tinnitus, my book, “When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How” teaches you a number of things you can do to help yourself successfully live with your tinnitus.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady explained:

Because of high blood pressure, some previous mini-strokes and a family history of high cholesterol, I have been taking Lipitor [Atorvastatin]. My doctor feels my cholesterol needs to be under better control and has switched me to Crestor. I cannot find Crestor in your Ototoxic Drug book. Could you give me some information on it’s side effects? I would certainly appreciate any help.

Crestor (Rosuvastatin) is fairly new and not a lot of information about its ototoxic properties is readily available. The PDR lists dizziness as the only ototoxic side effect.

I suspect it has other ototoxic side effects that will become apparent in the future. This is because all the “statin” drugs belong to the same general drug family—i.e. they have similar chemical compositions. Thus you would expect them to have similar (not identical, but similar) ototoxic side effects.

On page 502 of my drug book, in the comparison table (section 11.3.2) you can see that all 6 “statins” listed there have dizziness as a side effect, just like Crestor has. However, 5 of the 6 also have vertigo listed, 2 have tinnitus, 2 have hearing loss and 1 has ataxia listed. So those are the most likely ototoxic side effects that Crestor may have.

Therefore, you might experience dizziness and/or possibly vertigo if you take Crestor, but only time will reveal whether Crestor will also cause side effects such as hearing loss and tinnitus in some people.

To learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic, see “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 763 drugs, 30 herbs and 148 chemicals.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Last month a man wrote:

I am somewhat hard of hearing. I can never hear my cell phone when it rings, even when it is in my pocket. Do you have a remote little light that would blink when my phone rings?

I had written in part:

Sorry, I’m not aware of a portable blinking light device for cell phones.

Fortunately, one of our subscribers knew the answer. There are indeed such devices—not remote lights, but lights that fit on the phone itself.

Lynn explained:

I thought it would be nice to share information about a portable light that flashes for cell phones. These are available at many mall kiosks that sell cell phone gadgets. It is a light of any design that fits in place of the antenna on the cell phone. Mine was red/white and blue. In the mountains one night, my husband thought a police car was stopping us and pulled over. Twice it happened with no policeman in sight! (I forgot to tell him I bought this “alerting device” for my cell phone and in the dark car it really lit up!)

It did help when I just wanted to see the light without the loud ring/vibration on a table, or did not have pants pockets. It was easy to see inside my purse too….a really bright strobe light the size of your cell phone antenna.

I did a bit of research and found that there are in fact two kinds of lighted accessories you can get for your cell phone.

As Lynn explained above, there are light-up antennas for some cell phones. Also, there are lighted batteries for other cell phones. These lighted batteries come with a transparent battery cover so you can see the light flashing through it.

Unfortunately, these accessories seem to be fast going out of style and are harder to come by. I checked with two mall cell-phone accessory kiosks and both said they used to carry them but not any more.

You can still find them on-line, but they only work for a limited number of phones (probably older ones). If you are interested, do a Google search for “light up antenna for cell phone” for the antenna kind, and “light up battery for cell phone” for the battery kind. Then check the search results for your phone model and service. It seems the antenna light-up accessories don’t work with CDMA networks for example.

If you strike out there, all is not lost. As Wendy informed me, some phones have flashing strobe lights built in. She explained, When “the LG8100 rings a little strobe light flashes, so even if I don’t hear it, I can see it flashing! It’s great for me!”

So if you want a phone that flashes to alert you, there are at least three possibilities that may work for you if they don’t all go the way of the Dodo bird.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

My friend Michele has a hearing loss. She explained:

I was in Home Depot yesterday morning. While waiting for the nice man who offered to cut a threaded rod for me, I was standing near the entrance of the tool rental area. Evidently there is a motion sensor that triggers a bell to let the tool rental employees know they have a customer.

I kept seeing the gentleman that worked there coming and going from the back room, but figured he was just busy with his work.

Finally, he came over and asked me to move from where I was standing, that it was me setting off the bell. Clearly he was a little perturbed that I was so dense as to not realize I was the cause of the bell going off repeatedly.

Long ago I might have apologized and felt bad that I had irritated the employee, and given him the benefit of the doubt for not knowing I can’t hear, but I’m over it.

As the employee turned, without waiting for a reply from me, I said (in a very nice tone), “I’m deaf, I can’t hear the bell.”

The man turned, and from the look on his face I expected him to dissolve into a puddle at my feet. He offered a sincere apology.

I gave him his moment of humiliation, then very nicely assured him that it was okay—just as I did not know I was triggering the bell, he did not know I was deaf.

I didn’t take any pleasure in this mans’ humiliation, but by allowing him to experience it, he, hopefully, learned to think a little further than “Boy, is she stupid not to know she is the reason that d*** bell keeps going off!

This is a right way of teaching people about your hearing loss—and an excellent way of successfully resolving sticky hard of hearing situations.

Thanks for the lesson Michele. Also, thanks for letting me know there are bells hooked up to motion sensors. It never crossed my mind that they did such things in stores. In my experience, you have to physically “ring the bell” when you want service—not just stand there.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady explained:

My mother-in-law is hard of hearing and only has a cell phone now. She doesn’t hear it ring all of the time and I am trying to find something that will amplify the ring on the phone, or something that will notify her that it is ringing. Do you know where I may find something like this?

If she is carrying the cell phone around with her—then set it on vibrate mode and have her wear it close to her body somewhere so she can feel the vibration.

Also, if she has the right cell phone and service provider, she may be able to add flashing lights to her cell phone to get her attention. (See the article “Flashing Lights for Cell Phones Revisited“.)

If she basically leaves her cell phone on the counter or coffee table, or bed table, or wherever at home then having the cell phone on vibrate won’t help. However, I have just the device she needs in that case—the Super Loud Cell Phone Ring Alerter. It does three things—flashes a strobe, makes the ring much louder and at night with the optional vibrator to put under her mattress, it will shake her awake.

In her case, probably a good solution would be for her to have two Ring Alerters. Put one on her bed table in the bedroom hooked up with the bed vibrator. Place the other one where she spends most of her time. Have it sitting in plain sight so she can see the strobe light when it flashes as well as hear the loud ringer.

It is easy to use this Ring Alerter—just pull out the elastic at the back—put the cell phone between the elastic and the back of the Ring Alerter and let the elastic hold it in place there. That’s all there is to it. To answer the phone, you just pull the cell phone out of the elastic and answer it normally.

This ring alerter also works for landline phones too. You plug it into the wall phone jack and plug the phone into the Ring Alerter. Whenever the phone rings, it will alert you just the same as if it were a cell phone. In fact, I think it will work with both phones at the same time.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked:

If one likes one’s hearing aids perfectly fine, does one really need to try different kinds? I’ve been reading the hearing aid forums, and I feel almost embarrassed that I went to the audiologist, bought very expensive hearing aids, and headed out into the world. I’ve worn contact lenses for thirty years and have never once cost compared different brands, or tried multiple brands to see if there’s a difference, unless I was having a specific problem. Did I make a mistake?

Think of it this way. Say you were buying your first car. You go to the Ford dealership (since it is nearby) and let a salesman talk you into a particular model. You take it for a test drive, decide you are perfectly happy with it, and buy it.

What you’re asking is, “Did I make a mistake?” The only way you’ll ever know is to shop around. You may find that another make or model of car has a feature you particularly like, and now you wish you hadn’t been so hasty.

That is why it is better to shop around first—test drive various makes and models so you get a feel for what suits you the best.

Hearing aids are much like that. You may have lucked out and got an excellent fit for your hearing loss—and thus shopping around won’t find you a better fit. That’s ok. The thing is, you are happy and can hear under most conditions.

However, you’ll never know if another make or model of hearing aid would have sounded more natural, or would have compressed loud sounds better, or was not as susceptible to wind noise, or had controls that were easier to use, etc. unless you have tried them. Thus it is wise to shop around before deciding on a specific hearing aid, even if you just try 2 or 3 other hearing aids.

Did you make a mistake? If you are happy with your hearing aids and they work well for you, I’d say not. However, you possibly could have made an even better choice if you had shopped around. Next time I recommend you shop and compare before you buy. Many audiologists carry several lines of hearing aids so you can try them right there in her office.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A nurse explained:

Recently an elderly friend of my neighbor suddenly began hearing “singing” auditory hallucinations at night. She has had hearing aids for some time and has had a lot of difficulty with them. She has even changed doctors because she was not happy. Could the sudden onset of the hallucinations be related to further hearing problems? I am hoping it is a hearing and not a psychiatric problem. I read too much about polypharmacy and drug interactions to be okay with the medications the elderly are prescribed. She went to her MD today and right away he presumed it was a psychiatric problem and prescribed Risperdal, which, in my opinion, is a nasty drug with a black box warning when prescribed to the elderly. I got a drug monograph for my neighbor (her request) and decided to see what I could find on auditory hallucinations; that’s when I came across your web site. Any alternative to those medications would be so much better.

I agree with you. In cases like this, drugs are seldom the answer because there are some better alternatives. The phantom sounds your neighbor’s friend is hearing could be related to further hearing loss, or to a combination of things including aging, hearing loss, tinnitus, quiet environment, mental attitude, stress, medications, etc.

Unfortunately, far too many elderly people are taking numerous drugs. Did you know that there are more than 250 drugs that can cause hallucinations such as she is experiencing? Since the phantom music came on suddenly, one way to try to track down the cause is to find out whether she recently changed her medications (either began a new drug or changed the dose on an existing one). If there is a close correlation, then that drug is likely the culprit. Stopping that drug could stop any future phantom sound episodes.

It bothers me that her doctor “right away presumed it was a psychiatric problem and prescribed Risperdal” without even determining whether she had a psychiatric condition or something benign such as Musical Ear Syndrome.

Things are not always what they seem at first glance. No doubt what this lady is experiencing is almost certainly related to a “ear” problem and not to a psychiatric problem. Of the hundreds and hundreds of people that have contacted me regarding hearing phantom music (and other phantom sounds), perhaps 3 had what I would consider a psychiatric problem. The rest were as sane as you and me. They just had some problems with their auditory systems that produced phantom sounds.

The best information available on the causes of Musical Ear Syndrome and ways to bring it under control (at least in my opinion, and I’m a wee bit biased because I wrote it) is the article “Musical Ear Syndrome—The Phantom Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds Many Hard of Hearing People Secretly Experience“, and my easy-to-read book on the subject “Phantom Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds“.