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.