Hi new friends! Is anyone interested in helping me learn more about hearing aids?

#1

Hi new friends, thanks for looking at my thread! I am a student studying communication disorders and deaf education. I would like to learn more about hearing aids and how they help you in everyday life. I have some specific questions I’d like to ask. If you have time, please comment back. Please feel free to be honest and know that I will not share any personal information such as your username or any other details from this site. I am only trying to apply what I have been learning to real life. Thanks in advance!

  1. How long have you worn your hearing aids?
  2. For how long before you got your hearing aids did you suspect you had a hearing loss?
  3. How long do you wear your hearing aids each day?
  4. Do you feel like you get benefit from your hearing aids?
  5. What complaints do you have about your hearing aids?
  6. Do you feel like your hearing aids have lived up to what your audiologist or hearingaid dealer told you they would do?
  7. Did you get your hearing aids from an audiologist or a hearing aid dealer?
#2

I suspect the purpose of the assignment is to get you some experience talking to people one-on-one about their hearing aids. You might be able to get some local pros to agree to let you do the brief interview on their patients. Posting questions on a forum is not the same as talking to people face to face. Everyone wants to help students and everyone has been a student, so the local pros are probably your best option, plus you would be making some potentially important contacts (for a job later).

#3

Dear Don, thank you for your reply. I would love to have a one-on-one conversation with someone. I only have one friend who wears a hearing aid, so I am trying to reach out in a non-invasive way to strangers. Just putting myself out there in hopes that someone will share their thoughts with me. I should have added that I can be contacted by email as well: Kerstin.Budisch@gmail.com

#4

Your local hearing aid offices (audiologists, ENT doctors, and dispensers) are probably the best source of people with whom to have one-on-one conversations. They might let you hang out in their lobby and approach people as they wait for their appointments. Like everything, it is a numbers game. You might have to make contact with 20 offices to get 1 to agree to let you hang out, which is all you need. To talk to people at 20 offices you might have to actually call 50 to eventually reach 20.

#5

see answers above

#6

Hi Chuck, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I very much appreciate it! I saw you wrote that you can’t wear them 24/7. That seems to be the top complaint so far. I hope that in a few more years, technology will advance even more and make that option available. I’m glad to head the VA clinic was able to get you started and big thanks for serving our country!

#7

I talked to a person today that has really bad hear issues and wears one of his aids at night due to living alone. I would not wear my aids at night due to like my peace and quiet for part of the time. But that is me.