I Can’t Hear You! Speak Up
My husband is extremely hard of hearing. His hearing aids help but he still has difficulty with background noise and following multiple conversations. "What?" and "I can’t hear you" are frequent responses.
I must admit that I will sometimes talk to him from another room or forget to face him when I speak. I grew up in New Jersey and I also lived on Long Island for years. I do tend to talk fast and, as any of my friends will attest, a lot.
Admittedly, I had been under the impression that our communication challenges were due to Jim’s hearing loss and not related to my a Parkinson's disease. My son doesn’t usually have a problem hearing me, but he can hear snow falling.
Noticing changes in my voice
Imagine my surprise when I recently noticed a change in my volume, especially when I was tired. My voice was quieter and somewhat hoarse. I found it more difficult to carry on a conversation and I felt as though I did not have enough air. Unfortunately, we spend the most time together in the evening when my voice is at its weakest.
If I tried to speak louder, it felt as though I was angry and shouting. We obviously needed a solution to address our communication difficulties.
A referral to speech therapy
Since my husband was doing the best he could, it was up to me. I saw my primary care physician and got a referral for speech therapy. I am now scheduled to begin speech therapy soon. I was diagnosed with hypokinetic dysarthria, which causes stiffness in my rib cage and weakness in my diaphragm.
I will be doing the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment known as LOUD with a certified therapist starting next month. This method is considered highly successful in treating voice difficulty for people with Parkinson's disease. It is recommended to do the sessions daily and I am committed to do so.
In the meantime, I have already found several voice training sites online and have added them to my routine. YouTube has several options and they are also fun to do.
Listening techniques
There are also listening techniques that are suggested for when speaking to someone who is hard of hearing. Many of these techniques are proving to be helpful for both myself and my husband.
We try to be sure to face one another, turn down or turn off the TV or music, put more space between words, and use fewer words. Sometimes adding a gesture or saying something in a different way makes all the difference.
I am excited and looking forward to being able to enhance our level of satisfaction while communicating with one another after speech therapy.
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