Drinking Out of a Fire Hose

The words wash over me, saturating me. I am listening intently to the speaker on the other side of the screen, drinking in the information. The information is valuable, priceless even. I pause to write a comment in the chat box.

The flow of information stops.

The speaker is still talking, still dispensing golden nuggets of wisdom. But as someone who is hard of hearing, it takes my full concentration to listen, to understand what is being said. I can hear the speaker just fine but my attention needs to be fully on them. I also need the assistance of lipreading. If I glance away or the speaker turns, my comprehension drops. If my brain needs to engage in another activity, like writing notes, I am unable to follow what is being said. Words become sounds, the noise remains at the same volume but is incomprehensible.

So much for multitasking.

In school, my notes were a jumble of half-finished sentences, a haphazard collection of incomplete information. I could not understand my instructors when I looked away to take notes, when my attention was diverted to the page in front of me, the pen in my hand. Since I was not comfortable sharing my hearing loss at that time, I never spoke up, never shared that I was having a hard time following the information. Even though my notes were essentially useless, I still felt compelled to take them, still felt the need to write down what was being said. My brain would be exhausted at the end of a long day of lectures, tired of translating the sounds of mumbled speech into comprehensible words, tired of filling in the blanks of the words and syllables that I didn't hear. Too tired to study, I would nevertheless open my textbook and mentally chastise myself every time my brain wandered, every time I had to reread a sentence because my mind was elsewhere and didn't fully comprehend it.

I was experiencing listening fatigue.

Listening fatigue occurs when you become mentally and physically exhausted by the experience of having to listen to something for an extended period of time. It is frequently experienced by those who are Deaf or hard of hearing because listening and understanding what is being said takes an intense amount of concentration. With hearing loss, certain speech sounds are frequently not heard or can be indistinguishable from other speech sounds. 'S', 'Sh' and 'Th' can become silent, only distinguishable by the context of the sentence. Other letters can sound the same, 'b' and 'd', 'p' and 'k'. Our brains perform a series of mental gymnastics, filling in missing speech sounds or even entire words. We guess frequently, searching for the most likely answer, like trying to figure out the clues on Wheel of Fortune.

Lipreading is also exhausting as our lip shapes and movements are nearly identical for certain words. Go ahead and try it. Look in the mirror and say the letter 'b' and the letter 'p'. Say 'k' and 'd'. Do you notice any difference in the way your mouth and lips move? Then consider how people sometimes move their mouths differently when speaking. Consider the way the lip movements change when watching the rapid fire speech of a New Yorker versus the slow drawl of a Southerner. Is it any wonder why lipreading can be so exhausting?

Memorization also becomes difficult. Because the majority of our mental resources are focused on trying to understand what is being said, it leaves little for retaining the information we are hearing. Even though I could hear the speakers clearly in my online seminar, I struggled to remember what was said after the talk was over. Like attempting to drink water from a fire hose, my energies and efforts were focused on understanding and keeping up with the flow of what was being said rather than absorbing the information itself. Instead of listening to remember, I listened to understand the words themselves so I wouldn't get lost or not hear key pieces of information.

I am fortunate that the online conference I am attending offers replays of each day's session. I can go back and re-listen to the information if I need to. I could put on captioning if I feel the need to though it still wouldn't allow me to take notes (unless I was watching the replay). I am also doubly fortunate that one of the attendees at the conference is an expert note-taker and has graciously shared her notes online with the rest of the participants. This allows me to read and absorb more of the information.

If you are teaching classes or seminars online, offer a replay if possible. Give handouts so those listening can read what is being said. Repeat key pieces of information several times. Give prompts before stating vital information (such as 'pay attention to this' or 'this will be on the test'). Ask for questions and comments at the end of the lecture or after stating key pieces of information. Be willing to give clarification where needed or state information in a different way. Be open and accessible and ready to give help where needed. Your students will appreciate it.