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Having a conversation with someone requires focus, energy and attention. Add a hearing loss to the mix and this can bring extra communication challenges. There are a number of tactics that can be used to help facilitate communication when you have a hearing loss or are communicating with someone who has a hearing loss.

Hearing difficulties can occur slowly over a number of years sometimes making it hard for a person to notice they are beginning to struggle in everyday situations. Losing hearing sensitivity is normally a slow process. We come across typical phrases that people with use to explain why they maybe having communication issues.

Over the holiday season many friends and families will get together to enjoy each others company. For some people it maybe the only time the meet up in person during the course of the year. It’s often during these times that it becomes apparent that a loved one maybe struggling to hear the conversation.

This is Part 1 of a 5 part series looking at our hearing and the part it plays throughout our life. It’s a story about how we start to hear from inside the womb and the part our hearing plays in every aspect of our lives. It’s about development, learning, communication, education and emotion. It’s how our hearing plays it’s role in everything that we do. It accompanies us through life.

We do not have the same hearing ability at birth as we do when we are an adult. Our hearing develops over time and is closely linked to our ability to speak. The stages of auditory development from birth are rather extraordinary. In normally functioning ears humans begin to map and recognise sound almost immediately after birth.

Your hearing is an integral part of your day-to-day life. It is constantly there with you. When you wake, when you work, when you eat, when you relax, when you sleep. Your ears are switched on 24 hours a day, they don’t rest.