Thanksgiving is a joyous time for many, as families get to sit down with one another, enjoy each other’s company and eat delicious food! The holidays are a perfect time to reconnect and catch up with the people that you love. However, for individuals with hearing loss, Thanksgiving may bring about a sense of fear and anxiety. No matter how severe, hearing loss can alter the ways of communication, which can make a person feel alienated and disconnected from others.

Holidays are a time for reconnecting, despite one’s ability to hear. If you or someone you know suffers from hearing loss, check out our tips to learn how to handle Thanksgiving and hearing loss successfully.

• If there is a hearing aid available, use it! Some individuals don’t like to wear hearing aids, but they will only help. Experimenting and getting used to a hearing aid beforehand may help with this transition by making the user more comfortable.

• Try not to have conversations that stretch across the room. With hearing loss, long-distance conversations can be hard to follow. Try to have everyone keep their conversations intimate by conversing with those in your immediate surroundings.

• Individuals who have hearing loss often have a difficult time hearing a conversation when there is a lot of background noise. To help prevent this from occurring, make sure that the background noise is kept to a minimum.

• A person with any degree of hearing loss should never overdo it. When your ears are getting a lot of action, it is important to remember to take a break every once in a while. Taking some quiet time away from conversation can give a person’s ears and brain a much need rest.

• Be mindful of a person with hearing loss, and pay very close attention to where they sit at the dinner table. For many, being sat in the middle of the table, with a wall behind them is most helpful. This helps filter out distracting background noises and gives them a better shot of hearing and participating in a conversation.