Effective Communication with People who have Hearing Difficulties

One in seven people in the UK are said to be deaf or hard of hearing. Too often, clients are put off attending centres or have had bad experiences of services and communicating with care or teaching staff. Working through the sessions in this book will enable the reader to understand how to communicate effectively, how to treat individuals with respect and dignity in all types of settings, and how to encourage positive communication with people who have hearing difficulties.

The author has used her own experience of deafness to convey the effects it can have on individuals and to give insight into how people with hearing difficulties like to communicate and be treated.

Divided into twenty sessions for group training, individuals can also work through the book on their own. The information, exercises and case studies in this book will provide the reader with the awareness and knowledge to communicate effectively with people who have hearing difficulties.

Featuring many cartoon-style illustrations, this photocopiable manual is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with people who have hearing problems.

Chapters

• Making a start
• How we hear, what can go wrong - and how people are affected
• What does it sound like?
• The first golden rule
• Hearing aids - the advantages and limitations
• Lipreading - the importance of having a clear view of the face
• Lipreading - difficulties with lip shapes
• Pretending to hear
• Other visual clues
• Gesture, mime and body language
• Writing things down
• Fingerspelling
• Sign language
• Speech and language difficulties
• Knowing when and how to step in to help
• Difficulties in group situations
• 'One to one' is best
• Encouraging openness
• Deafblindness
• Appendices
• Bibliography.