Do you know a COLIN?

How can you help Colin connect, communicate to promote positive wellbeing?

Understand what it means to listen through a cochlear implant, his specialised hearing technology….

His cochlear implant does not restore normal hearing but it does help him hear sounds and speech around him.
Colin only has one cochlear implant and the hearing in his other ear is not good, this means he mostly hears sound from one ear only.

Listening with one ear can make certain listening situations very difficult. These include:

• Background noise and very echoy places make conversations hard to follow
• When lots of people are talking in a group; he may prefer one to one conversations
• Listening to someone who is standing more than 1 metre away
• Conversations where he can not see the speaker’s lip patterns to lipread. (social distancing rules and wearing face masks makes communication very difficult)

You can help by:

• Facing Colin when you talk to him.
• Make sure he has understood the message and never say “oh it wasn't important, or "it doesn’t matter” when he asks for repetition
• Speak clearly and naturally, do not shout as this distorts your lip patterns.
• If you are wearing a face mask you may need to write the message down or use a speech-to-text app.
• Colin could use a personal FM system to stream phone calls, Face Time and zoom sessions straight to his cochlear implant.

 

Useful links:

Learn about cochlear implants
Nottingham Auditory Implant Service
Cochlear Implant information