Patient's  hearing loss. It is important for patients to understand their specific hearing loss. Sometimes it takes several discussions with their audiologist and with their family for things to "click." By better understanding their hearing loss, they will gain new insights into why you think people are mumbling, why they "hear" but cannot "understand," why they have difficulty with female voices, and the other questions they have been asking themselves for so long.

Patient's family's understanding of his/her hearing loss. Their family does not know how they hear. What they do know is that they do not hear well! They know they use lots of energy trying to communicate with them. Sometimes, the audiologist will play a recording that simulates their hearing loss so that their family can understand better what they are going through.

Patient's  hearing aid. What will the hearing aid do and what will it not do? When a patient has realistic expectations, it is easier to adjust to hearing aids.

Learning to listen again. Even if the patient doesn't have hearing aids but have discovered a hearing loss, aural rehabilitation services can give strategies to improve listening and increase communication effectiveness. Through training and practice it is possible to acquire new listening habits.

Assistive listening devices. There are many other devices that can help, such as TV listening devices, personal FM systems to use in lectures, conference microphones, and telephone amplifiers.

Using visual clues. Everyone uses their eyes to get clues about what people are saying, their mood, their interest in the topic of conversation, and so on.

Speechreading training provides formal instruction in how speech sounds are made, which sounds look alike on the lips. Learning which words have the same mouth movement but very different meaning can be incredibly useful in increasing understanding of conversations. A patient can also gain a great deal of helpful information from following other visual clues like facial expression, gestures, body movement, and body language.