Salt Lake City HLAA chapter

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Merry Christmas 2016!

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The HLAA Salt Lake City chapter had its winter social last weekend.  It was another wonderful potluck social and our now traditional white elephant gift exchange.

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There’s nothing like socializing with others who are hard of hearing also.  We enjoyed each others company immensely.

HLAA-SLC has two potluck socials a year; one in July and another in December.  Our 2017 meeting schedule is posted to the left.  There are some topics yet to be announced (TBA) and we’ll update as soon as we can.  All our meetings are captioned and most of our meetings in 2017 will be in the looped room at the Sanderson Center to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

We have two very special events in 2017.  Mark calendars!

The Better Speech and Hearing Expo on May 20th from 9 Am – 5 PM at the Sanderson Center.  Loop Utah and HLAA-SLC are coming to together to create a day of learning and fun.  Stay tuned for more information.

The national HLAA convention will be here in Salt Lake City June 22-25.  All workshops are captioned  and have hearing loops.  The exhibit hall has many wonders and that part of the convention is free to all.

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Assisting Individuals With Hearing Loss Who Experience Auditory/Listening Fatigue

Whether an individual has had hearing loss their entire life, or their hearing loss has been slowly progressing for years, focusing auditory attention to the task of understanding speech can be an exhausting experience. Add a difficult listening situation such as noise, and the experience is made worse.  Despite the marvelous benefits received from hearing aids and cochlear implants, listening continues to be “work” for most individuals. Aural rehabilitation therapy consists of therapy that assists individuals in developing their listening skills, but, also, provides counseling tools and compensatory strategies to aid in reducing auditory or listening fatigue and maximize the listening experience.  This session will discuss these tools and strategies for reducing listening fatigue, as well as, problem-solving examples of difficult listening situations. 

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Susan Naidu, guest speaker, is presenting on: Assisting Individuals With Hearing Loss Who Experience Auditory/Listening Fatigue.  Susan has been a practicing audiologist for over 30 years.  At the U of U, Susan teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in pediatric audiology and aural rehabilitation therapy for children and adults.  Additionally, Susan is a clinical supervisor at the U of U Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic and supervises graduate audiology students in aural rehabilitation therapy for children and adults with hearing loss, as well as, the assessment of auditory processing disorders in children and adults and hearing evaluations with children.

When?  August 20, 2016

Where? Sanderson Center to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 5709 South 1500 West, Taylorsville, UT  84123 in the Conference Room.

For more information email: hearinglossutah@gmail.com

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Humor in Hearing Loss

“People who live successfully with hearing loss must develop the ability to laugh at their mistakes.  This helps to make family, friends and coworkers feel more at ease.  Using self-deprecating humor to relieve tension and laughing with others is an expression of kinship or social bonding.”  Laine Waggonerlaughter 1

Our next meeting is June 18, 2016 from 10a-Noon at the Sanderson Center in the conference room.  Our topic is Hearing Loss and Humor.  We will take a look at Kathy Buckley’s book If You Could Hear What I See.  Kathy grew up with a severe hearing loss and though her childhood must not have been easy, she looks back over it with sense of humor.  She is a stand up comedienne, actress, writer, producer, and humanitarian.  She is also a motivational speaker, traveling all over sharing inspiration.

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Laine Waggoner dedication a section in her book to humor and hearing loss.  The quote at the beginning is from her book, Imperative Information for People with Hearing Loss and their Partners written with her husband Rex Waggoner.  We will share some of her insights at the meeting as well.

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We cannot leave out Gael Hannan the Better Hearing Consumer from Hearing Health Matters Magazine.  She keeps an updated blog writing about the issues those with hearing loss face daily and she often does it with humor.

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Afterwards the discussion of these three ladies, we’ll open up the meeting to share our own funny stories.  There will be a light lunch and drinks at the meeting so come join us!  We’d love to see you.

 

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HLAA Event/Meeting on May 3 from 9-1:30

May 3 HLAA Meeting is two weeks earlier than normal. To celebrate May’s Better Speech and Hearing Month, we teamed up with Loop Utah and the Sanderson Center to hold a two day event called, “Don’t Be Left Out of the Loop!” On May 3, 2014 the National HLAA office is sending us their Loop Advocate, Dr. Juliette Sterkens to talk about the necessity of hearing loops, the advantages and how to advocate for them ourselves. Here’s our schedule:

8:30-9:00 light breakfast

9:00-11:00 Dr. Juliette Sterkens

11:00-11:15 break

11:15-12:00 the Loop Challenge

12:00-1:00 Lunch for all attendees

1:00-1:30 Home Loops presentation

Feeling Loopy? Come join us. Send your RSVP to chellegeorge@utah.gov. We hope to see you there.

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Sharing Information From Our Last Meeting

Last Saturday morning we had our meeting and it’s topic was Don’t Be a Victim. Dr. Susan Chilton led the discussion and Julia Stepp provided CART.  Our discussions ranged from not getting the punchline, not hearing alarms, to relatives who refuse to repeat and how we are treated at businesses. We talked about drive thrus, staying safe at home and pre-boarding on planes. Coping skills were discussed afterward, working to improve our situations. Our topic discussion lasted about an hour.

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Dr. Susan Chilton with a CART backdrop and our favorite CART person, Julia.

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Later we discussed the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Festival being held at the Sanderson Center Saturday, September 21st from 11-7. HLAA will have a booth at the event and we are hoping to attract more hard of hearing people to our chapter. Tomorrow I will post a schedule of presentations on our website (www.hearinglossutah.com) as well as parking instructions. CART will be available during presentations and Listen Tech is looping a portion of the gym for us as well. If you haven’t experienced a loop yet, Saturday is your chance. Crafts will be on sale made by our own community. Be sure to join us, it will be a fun, fun day. Stop by our HLAA table and say hi.

Utah-CAN successfully got captions in the Rice-Eccles stadium. The first captioned game was August 29. Users picked up a tablet which relayed the captions. More about this later on our HLAA website.

Loop Utah, a new movement here in Salt Lake is underway. The official kick off will be at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Festival at 4:00 pm. Learn more about loops, how they work, what we hope to accomplish and you can help.

There are officially 18 hard of hearing assistants in Utah spread throughout the state. They will provide their areas with classes such as Living With Hearing Loss, CASE, Hearing Aids 101 and more. They hope to reach out to many people who feel lost and isolated. The Sanderson Center works hard to spread support.

Our next meeting will be November 16, from 9am-11am at the Sanderson Center in classroom B/C. Our topic that morning will be Stress Management for the Holidays.  Refreshments provided.  We hope to see you there.

Thank you.