Selective Hearing?

Q. I can hear people talking, But I can't always make out what they are saying. My family says I have selective hearing. What can help me?

A. People hear and communicate better when:

1. They are in smaller rooms.
2. They are in smaller groups.
3. There is a limited amount of noise in the room.
4. They sit as far away from the noise as possible.
5. They sit with their back to a wall or room divider.
6. No water is running; no silverware is hitting dishes
7. They are in the same room as the person talking to them.
8. They are looking at the person speaking to them.
9. The person speaking is not covering his/her mouth.
10. They know or are told the topic of conversation.
11. They have a hearing loss which can be helped by wearing hearing aids.
12. They have properly fitting hearing aids that have effective noise reduction circuits.
13. They are sitting with their better ear, or the ear with a hearing aid, closer to the source of the voice.
14. They sit next to or under a wall or ceiling speaker in rooms with public address systems.
15. They sit as close to the person speaking as possible, in rooms without a PA system.
16. They use closed captions on the TV set.
17. They use assistive listening devices, like FM systems, in locations where they are available.
18. They use a telephone with an amplified handset receiver.
19. They use an amplified speaker telephone.
20. They select restaurants which have thick draperies, cushions and carpeting.
21. If they do not hear you, you reword your sentence keeping the same meaning:
    Example A. "Honey, please check to see if the mail is here."
    Example B. "Do you know if the mailman was here yet, please check."
22. They limit social activities to locations where they have success communicating.
23. They visit more difficult places at quieter times of the day or week.
24. They ask people to speak more slowly, more clearly, in shorter sentences and with easier words.