10 Things Doctors Want You to Know About Hearing Aids

Get their attention first. Say your loved one’s name, or wait until they’re looking, before you start the sentence. The brain needs a beat to switch into listening mode.

Face them. Visual cues help. When a patient’s kids tease that he’s reading lips, Gural-Toth tells them: “He’s reading my lips—but that’s a good thing.”

Rephrase, don’t just repeat. If a word isn’t landing, swap it for another rather than saying the same thing louder.

Kill the competing noise. Turn off the TV, and don’t try to hold a conversation from another room. Move closer.

Give them a second to process. Before repeating yourself, pause—people with hearing loss often need a beat longer to assemble what they heard, and they’ll frequently get there on their own. “Our brain just takes a little longer to put those pieces together,” Lundstrom says. When something does drop out, repeat just the part they missed rather than the whole sentence.