Vicdeaf - Frequently Asked Questions

How can I improve my hearing when I am out for dinner with friends?

Why do I find it easier to hear in some settings yet have so much difficulty in other places?

How can I hear when people mumble so much?

How can I hear more on the telephone?

Why is it so difficult to hear in a group?

Why do I have so much difficulty understanding someone with an accent?

How can I encourage others to speak more clearly?

Why does my partner seem to have ‘selective’ listening?

How can I improve my hearing when I am out for dinner with friends?

Through the Vicdeaf Managing Your Hearing Loss Course, you can learn about the many factors that impact on listening in a variety of settings. Conversational strategies, speechreading and planning ahead are some of the skills taught and practiced to help you improve your listening, particularly for those noisy restaurants!

To register your interest or for more information please Email:

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Why do I find it easier to hear in some settings yet have so much difficulty in other places?

The majority of people presenting with a hearing loss have damage to the tiny and very sensitive hair cells in the inner ear. Our inner ear is a delicate structure called the cochlea – a sac of fluid curled around in a snail shape. A membrane, called the basilar membrane, continues from the outer part of the cochlea for the whole length and consists of 30,000 fibres that send the message from the hair cells to the brain. Some of these hair cells, the outer hair cells, can help us listen more effectively in noisy situations by enhancing the sound we want to focus on or helping our brain ignore unnecessary sounds.

Unfortunately these hair cells are vulnerable to wear and tear, noise and other factors.

This is in part one of the reasons why you find it easier to hear in some situations, such as a quiet lounge room compared to the noisy restaurant.

Some other factors that may contribute to this variation in listening ability include how clearly the other person is speaking, the acoustics of the room (hard surfaces causing echo and distortion) and your familiarity with the speaker and topic of conversation.

Click here for Information Sheets

To book an:

  • Audiological Assessment
  • Hearing Loss Rehabilitation session
  • Devices Showroom visit

please Email:

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How can I hear when people mumble so much?

How often do you find yourself accusing other people of mumbling? While there is certainly a wide range of ability when it comes to speaking ‘clearly’, it is important to understand that part of the difficulty you are experiencing may be an inherent part of your hearing loss.

For many people, hearing loss is due to damage to the tiny hair cells of the inner ear. Once these have been damaged, through wear and tear, noise, disease or some other less common causes, they cannot be repaired. As a result the person may experience hearing loss including difficulties hearing sounds clearly, problems in background noise and some intolerance to loud sounds, as well as the most obvious symptom- certain sounds are no longer perceived as loud enough.

So the fact that other people seem to mumble may be largely due to your damaged hair cells distorting their speech, or unable to cope as well as before with the person’s unclear speech.

What can you do about this?
Vicdeaf offers Free Preliminary Hearing Checks for Adults is a first step in addressing your hearing health. If a hearing loss is identified you will be referred for a full hearing assessment. Following this a Managing Your Hearing Loss course or Hearing Loss Management Sessions will assist you to learn a range of conversational strategies to utilize in different listening situations.

To book an:

  • Audiological Assessment
  • Hearing Loss Rehabilitation session
  • Devices Showroom visit

please Email:

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How can I hear more on the telephone?

I am struggling to hear the TV and I seem to miss people who ring my doorbell.

hearservice has an Assistive Listening Devices showroom open for free consultation by appointment to assist you with any queries regarding listening on the telephone, hearing the television and alarms.
For more details Email:

Our display room has a wide range of Assistive Listening Devices that you can trial and discuss with our devices officer. Telephone devices to alter the pitch or loudness of the ringer, devices that amplify the incoming speech signal and portable devices that provide amplification or induction that can be used with a compatible hearing aid are all available for trial at the hearservice Assistive Listening Devices showroom. Other devices that convert the ringer or the telephone signal to a visual signal can also be trialed. Television devices that amplify the signal, induction systems and closed captions are also on display. Information can be provided regarding a wide range of alarms, from door bells to smoke detectors and visual or vibratory systems for the Deaf community.

When inquiring about Assistive Listening Devices, it is important to consider the need for hearing aids or an update of your current hearing aids

To book an:

  • Audiological Assessment
  • Hearing Loss Rehabilitation session
  • Devices Showroom visit

please Email:

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Why is it so difficult to hear in a group?

Group conversations are typically fast. By the time you have identified who is talking you may have missed the initial visual (speechreading) cues and acoustic (sound) cues. As a result you may not realise that the topic has changed. Your brain is constantly working hard to try and fill in the gaps. This can be very difficult to do effectively if you are unaware of the topic change. The noise level of these situations will be an additional factor adding to the difficulty you experience.

To book an:

  • Audiological Assessment
  • Hearing Loss Rehabilitation session
  • Devices Showroom visit

please Email:

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Why do I have so much difficulty understanding someone with an accent?

When you have a hearing loss, you are listening with an incomplete auditory (hearing) system, that is you cannot hear all the sounds people say and your ears cannot send all the information to the brain. When you speechread you can only see a selection of the speech sounds that are spoken towards the front of the mouth. Approximately 90% of our communication is nonverbal such as our facial expression, tone of voice, posture, distance from the other speaker and our use of gestures. The limited sounds you hear, the limited lip-reading cues that are available and this important nonverbal information are combined with cues from the conversational environment and memory and interpreted by your brain which then works hard to fill in the gaps.

When you are listening to someone with an accent, they may use different nonverbal communication, the way they structure their sentences may be different to how you commonly form sentences and their production of speech sounds may be more like their language than yours. As a result the brain receives less familiar information and this makes it more difficult to fill in the gaps and understand the person with the accent.

This communication skill is covered in our Managing Your Hearing Loss Course.

To register your interest in our Managing Your Hearing Loss Course please Email:

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How can I encourage others to speak more clearly?

The Rehabilitation Team can assist you to develop your use of the range of strategies and tactics that are helpful when you have a hearing loss. It is important to be an active listener, sharing the responsibility of your hearing loss. Remember: Communication is a Two-way process!
Some strategies to consider:

  • Be specific when you tell the other person to change the way they are speaking. For example, don’t ask them to speak up if the main problem is that they are speaking too fast.
  • Confirm what you think you have heard and ask the person to repeat only the part you have missed out on.

We can offer individual sessions at a number of our locations in and around Melbourne.

To make a Hearing Loss Rehabilitation appointment Email:

You may want to consider a Managing Your Hearing Loss Course. Register you interest by Email:

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Why does my partner seem to have ‘selective’ listening?

The majority of people presenting with a hearing loss have damage to the tiny and very sensitive hair cells in the inner ear. Our inner ear is a delicate structure called the cochlea – a sac of fluid curled around in a snail shape. A membrane, called the basilar membrane, continues from the outer part of the cochlea for the whole length and consists of 30,000 fibres that send the message from the hair cells to the brain. Some of these hair cells, the outer hair cells, can help us listen more effectively in noisy situations by enhancing the sound we want to focus on or helping our brain ignore unnecessary sounds. Unfortunately these hair cells are vulnerable to wear and tear, noise and other factors. As a result the person with a hearing loss may find it easier to hear in some situations, such as a quiet lounge room compared to the noisy restaurant. To you, this may appear as though your partner ‘listens when he wants to’!

There are other little hair cells called inner hair cells. These hair cells send information to the brain where it is interpreted and we ‘understand’ what we hear. When a person has a hearing loss, not all these hair cells are working and as a result not all the sounds you say reach the brain of the person with the hearing loss. When your partner is speechreading he can only see a selection of the speech sounds that are produced towards the front of the mouth. He will rely on nonverbal messages (facial expression, tone of voice, posture, distance from the other speaker and gestures). The limited sounds heard, the speechreading cues that are available and the nonverbal information are combined and interpreted by the brain which then works hard to fill in the gaps using cues from the conversational environment and memory. You can imagine the amount of effort and energy required to do all of this at the fast pace of many conversations.

As you can see , there are many reasons to do with the complexity of hearing loss that result in your partner hearing easily at some times but apparently having difficulty or struggling at others. Why don’t you and your partner consider attending our Managing Your Hearing Loss Course. We also have individual Hearing Loss Management Sessions, information sessions and groups where you can both learn to increase the range and effectiveness of your communication strategies.

To make a Hearing Loss Rehabilitation appointment Email: 

Register your interest for a Managing Your Hearing Loss Course by Email:

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