Author: Katie Ekberg, Senior Lecturer, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University

For many people, Christmas can be the most social time of the year. The holiday period is often filled with parties, lunches, dinners and celebrations of all kinds with family, friends and colleagues. For adults with hearing loss, however, these social gatherings can bring unique challenges. Communicating with others can be difficult, particularly in group conversations. And the more background noise there is (for example, Christmas music or children playing), the harder it is. For age-related or acquired hearing loss, hearing ability typically starts to decline from age 50 onwards. One in six Australians experience some hearing loss, so it’s…