Share this:

Share this:

 Can You Hear Me?  What Did You Say?
Hearing Loss and Hearing Assistive Technology

Franklin Senior Center – Wednesday, November 13, 2019 1:00 pm  and Milford Senior Center – Thursday, November 14, 2019 10:00 am.

Hearing loss challenges our ability to cope.  Come to the Franklin Senior Center on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 1:00 pm, or the Milford Senior Center on Thursday, November 14th at 10:00 am to learn more about hearing loss issues and helpful resources.

• Hearing Loss Information
• Assistive Technology
• Coping Tips

Refreshments will be served, and handouts will be available.  Presented by Margaret Myatt, Steering Committee Member, Hearing Loss Association of America-Central MA.

Share this:

 

 

Next Meeting: November 2, 2019, 2:00-4:00 PM

Where:  Northborough Public Library, 34 Main Street, Northborough, MA

              

Speaker:  Beth Wilson

Topic: Uh Oh, I Think I Need a New Hearing Aid

Beth Wilson just completed a transition to a new hearing aid and tried to capture all the steps and decisions she went through along the way.  She will describe a generic process of exploring hearing aid technology as a potential means to address hearing loss.  She will then map her own steps to identify available hearing aid options to address her new communication scenarios.  People who are new to hearing aids and people who have worn hearing aids for years will find useful information in this presentation.

Light refreshments will also be provided.

CART (computer aided real time captioning) will be provided.

Parking lot is accessed by Patty Lane:

Share this:

Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle, Priests, 1902 and 1890

Ministry to the deaf in The Episcopal Church begins with Thomas Gallaudet and his protégé, Henry Winter Syle. Without Gallaudet’s genius and zeal for the spiritual well-being of deaf persons, it is improbable that a history of ministry to the deaf in the Episcopal Church could be written. He has been called “The Apostle to the Deaf.”

Gallaudet was born June 3rd, 1822, in Hartford. He was the eldest son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the West Hartford School for the Deaf, and his wife, Sophia, who was deaf.

After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Thomas announced his desire to become a priest in the Episcopal Church. His father, who was a Congregationalist minister, prevailed upon him to postpone a final decision, and to accept a teaching position in the New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes. There he met and married a deaf woman named Elizabeth Budd.

Gallaudet was ordained deacon in 1850 and served his diaconate at St. Stephen’s Church, where he established a Bible class for deaf persons. Ordained a priest in 1851, Gallaudet became Assistant Rector at St. Ann’s Church, where he conceived a plan for establishing a church that would be a spiritual home for deaf people. This became a reality the following year, with the founding of St. Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes. The congregation was able to purchase a church building in 1859, and it became a center for missionary work to the deaf continuing into its merger with the parish of Calvary-St. George in 1976. As a result of this ministry, mission congregations were established in many cities. Gallaudet died on August 27th, 1902.

One fruit of Gallaudet’s ministry was Henry Winter Syle. Born in China, he had lost his hearing as a young child as the result of scarlet fever. Educated at Trinity College, Hartford; St. John’s College, Cambridge, England; and Yale University, Syle was a brilliant student, who persisted in his determination to obtain an education in spite of his deafness and fragile health. He was encouraged by Gallaudet to offer himself for ordination as a priest, and was supported in that call by Bishop William Bacon Stevens of Pennsylvania, against the opposition of many who believed that the impairment of one of the senses was an impediment to ordination. Syle was ordained as a deacon in 1876, the first deaf person to be ordained in this church, and later ordained as a priest in 1883. In 1888, he built All Souls Church for the Deaf in Philadelphia, the first Episcopal church constructed especially for deaf persons. He died on January 6th, 1890.

The Geranium Farm, 3455 Table Mesa Drive G165, Boulder, CO 80305

Share this:

 

Joint Statement of Support for the Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act of 2019

On July 25, 2019, U.S. Representatives Tom Rice (R-SC), Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Mark Meadows (R-NC), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Ann Kuster (D-NH), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Lisa Blunt-Rochester (D-DE) introduced the Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act of 2019 (H.R. 4056). This legislation will enhance the Medicare benefit by providing beneficiaries critical direct access to both diagnostic and therapeutic services of audiologists.

The bill is endorsed by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA). Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) plan to introduce imminently a Senate companion bill.

Read more about the joint statement and the bill.

Read the HLLA news on Medicare and Hearing Aids.

Share this:

From From hear Me now! – Maine’s leading Listening and Spoken Language Center

Hearing Loss: When a Dinner is a Disaster

Reprinted from Eberts, Shari, Hearing Health Advocate. “Hearing Loss: When Dinner is a Disaster.” Livingwithhearingloss.com, September 10, 2019

“Someone at the end of the table was telling a funny story. Someone else jumped in to add a related comment or share an anecdote. Interrupting was the norm. As was covering mouths with hands when speaking. The pace was rapid fire. The background noise was incessant. But nobody seemed to mind. There were smiles and laughter and joy — a celebration of the camaraderie and interconnection of the group as each person enjoyed this special connection with new friends.

Except for me. I was at the other end of the table, too far from the speaker to get in on the action and too overwhelmed with the pace of the overlapping chatter to even try. In the moment, I felt isolated and alone, but strangely, also gratitude. I realized how lucky I am that I spend most of my time in the land of well-trained conversation partners. I vowed to try to remember that feeling the next time my family and friends forgot to talk so I could hear them.”

Tips for speaking to someone with hearing loss:

1. Keep your mouth visible: Seeing lips provides critical lipreading cues that help with speech comprehension.
2. Speak one person at a time: It’s difficult for someone to know where to look if many people are speaking at once. Overlapping voices are also very challenging to separate.
3. Talk clearly and at a moderate pace: Quick speech leaves not enough processing time.
4. Face the person with hearing loss, even when talking to others,

5. Optimize the seating arrangement. Seat the most challenging speaker across from you on the diagonal.
6. Be prepared to repeat or rephrase.

7. Be attentive. Observe the person with hearing loss occasionally to see if they are following the conversation. If they are leaning forward or looking confused, they probably are having trouble.
8. Don’t shout. Louder is not always better for people with hearing loss. Clarity can often be more helpful.