You Are The Boss of Your Hearing Loss Scenario: At School In the Noisy Hallway

Characters:

Ally, a girl who wears hearing aids

Brandon, Ally’s classmate

Background Information/Scene:

At school in the busy hallway.

Person # 1- Brandon	The Scenario	Person # 2 - Ally
	Ally is walking in the busy hall at school right before the morning bell rings.
You say: Hi Ally.
	Ally didn’t hear him.
You say: HEY ALLY!
	Ally still doesn’t hear Brandon so says nothing.
	Brandon thinks, What’s wrong with Ally? She is not very friendly
	Later at lunch, they meet again.
		Hi Brandon. Are you getting hot lunch or did you pack today?
So now you’re going to talk to me? Well, I’m not talking to you!
		What?
Well, you didn’t talk to me this morning. You just ignored me.
		When did you talk to me?  I didn’t hear you.
Stop pretending.		Oh my gosh! You are really mean!
	Ally gives a dirty look to Brandon and walks away.

Person # 1- Brandon	The Scenario	Person # 2 - Ally
	Ally is walking in the busy hall at school right before the morning bell rings.
You say: Hi Ally.
	Ally didn’t hear him.
You say: HEY ALLY!
	Ally still doesn’t hear Brandon so says nothing.
	Brandon thinks, What’s wrong with Ally? She is not very friendly
	Later at lunch, they meet again.
		You say: Hi Brandon. Are you getting hot lunch or did you pack today?
You say: So now you’re going to talk to me? Well, I’m not talking to you!
		You say: What?
You say: Well, you didn’t talk to me this morning. You just ignored me.
		You say: When did you talk to me?  I didn’t hear you.
You say: Stop pretending.		You say: No really, it’s hard for me to hear and understand when it’s noisy. Remember, I wear hearing aids. I told you that before.
You say: Oh yeah.” I totally forgot. I thought you were just being rude. It’s cool then I guess. No worries!
		You say: So, I brought leftover pizza. What are you having for lunch today?

How does Ally feel? How would you feel? What would you do?

Discussion:

What was the communication break down?

What would you do in this situation?

Use the Boss of your Hearing Loss strategies.

Now, let’s try again: