HIhi~ I FORGOT TO POST THIS LAST MONTH!!! ANYWAY- October is hearing loss awareness month! Don't forget to offer to turn on the subtitles when watching shows with you hearing impaired friends, or be mindful of your volume when talking to someone with a hearing aid on! I wanted to share some Dos and Donts of communicating with us hearing impaired! **✿❀❀✿** DOs!!!!! ✿ Do get our attention before speaking to us! It would suck for both of us, if you were to tell me something, or a story, only to find out I didn't hear a thing! You can get our attention by a light tap, or aggressively stomping on the ground! ✿ Do repeat words/phrases we didn't get the first time! Please have patience, and understand we are not trying to be difficult or rude when we go "Hmmm?" or "Huh?" mid conversation! Some words, sounds, or phrases are harder to hear for me than others. ✿ Do- only if you are comfortable with it, and only when you are not practicing social distancing- Move closer! When I am talking and hanging out with friends I tend to get all mushy smushy, its so much easier talking with people when they are close by my side. (This is hard, as I am on the shorter side, I'm 4'10 so I really need to get super close to others as most of the time I am not at eye/mouth level with my peers! I swear I'm not being creepy its just hearing and personal space do not go together for me lol, ofc advocate for yourself if someone gets too close to comfort though!!) ✿Be expressive! It is so so much easier communicating with expressions! Even if you do not know sign language, communicating with your body goes beyond SL! Like thumbs up when something is good, a frown when something is wrong, raised eyebrows when something is confusing, etc! **✿❀❀✿** !!!!!DONTS!!!!! ✧ Don't try to yell from afar to get our attention! We both know that will not work, I will not hear you and your voice will be sore. ✧Do not yell in general! Yelling does not help at all, it makes it harder to read lips, expressions, and pick up on your annunciation. Project! Don't yell! ✧Unless wearing a face mask- Do not cover your mouth when speaking! It makes reading lips hard, and the sound does not travel as clearly and loudly when your mouth is covered! ✧DO NOT SAY "NEVERMIND"! When talking to your hearing impaired friend and they don't hear you the first time, do not dismiss what you just said! Even if there is no ill intent, we feel excluded and awful when we missed something you wanted to tell us :(, I usually carry around a phone or journal and pen, if hearing will not cooperate, try typing/writing your conversation instead! ✧!!!!NEVER EVER EVER EVER TOUCH SOMEONE'S HEARING EQUIPMENT!!!!! Hearing equipment is so so so so expensive, while I was shopping for hearing aids, the ones I was looking at were around 2 thousand - ten thousand dollars! (I ended up getting ones that were 5K) No matter how close you are to someone, you should never touch their hearing equipment without receiving permission to do so, or unless you absolutely must. If you want to hold or try on my hearing aids, I ask of you, PLEASE ASK!!! TY FOR READING!!! (´∩。• ᵕ •。∩`) ♡