Language comprehension. Mom 95 is profoundly deaf. Recently having trouble understanding speech even with her good hearing aids.

With the loss of comprehension (receptive aphasia), I wonder if she's had a small stroke that went undetected.

Weeroo, part of the problem is that when we age we will occasionally misunderstand a word. That is happening to me and my sig-others, both 75, and what is interesting is that we will notice the same word at the same time.

Sometimes we have to turn on the TV the "close captioning" especially when someone is mumbling on TV or talking too fast. We found using the bright dark pink for the letters shows up much better than black lettering.

My Mom, when she was in her 90's, also had an issue with deafness even when using hearing aids. She would try so hard to catch just one word so she could join a conversation. I couldn't write down the words as she had macular degeneration so her eyesight was quite poor. Oh how I hated to shout words, especially when filling out forms in the doctor's waiting room.

To other people, who didn't know my Mom, but was starting up a conversation would think she had dementia, when in fact she was still sharp as a tack.

My Dad when it comes to a point where he can't hear, forget the hearing aids, buy him an old fashioned "ear trumpet".

My mother has advanced dementia & is quite deaf at the same time, although she says she isn't, the OTHERS are deaf, she's fine. A few months ago, after she said "WHAT?" about 20x and I repeated myself loudly 20x, I realized she could HEAR what I was saying, she just couldn't UNDERSTAND what I was saying. This is known as aphasia in the world of dementia.

"As Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias destroy brain cells, a significant symptom, known as “aphasia,” is losing the ability to speak and to understand speech. Aphasia worsens as the disease progresses. It becomes harder to remember the right words and process what others are saying."

The aphasia comes & goes with my mother; sometimes it's worse than others. I see it on her face when she looks very confused when I'm speaking. She can't follow along with a conversation that has more than a few words to it, either. So we try to keep the talk as simple as possible.

So use the word aphasia with the ENT doctor when speaking for your mom. And, if you don't speak loudly enough, she's not likely to hear what you're saying anyway, right?

Good luck!

Hearing aides can only do so much. Once you lose hearing in an ear, its lost. No hearing aide is going to bring it back. I am married to a man for 40 yrs who has been extremely hard of hearing since an accident at 4. The accident caused the bone behind the ear to be broken and the nerves involved. Because of this, he does not hear words like we hear words. He says its like trying to hear thru static, you need to turn the volume up. His has lost his hearing in the damaged ear. He now wears one aide and he only hears 30% with the aide, without, nothing.

We recently had to change providers. The change was a plus because after years of wearing digitals, we found out why my husband has a hard time with them. He does better with analog that are no longer manufactured. With analog you hear a persons voice the way it sounds. With digital, its mechanical and the brain has to adjust to that. With digital its adjusted by computer. They only go so low and so high. If Moms hearing has worsened, she may need an adjustment. And by streaming do you mean blue tooth? Did her problem seem to occur since the new hearing aides?

My husband has a plus, he can read lips. Do you look at Mom when u talk to her? Does she have a head cold? This will interfer with the ability to hear.

It has been proven that those who are deaf will probably suffer from Dementia. Mom is 95 so there can also be some cognitive decline. My Mom always called it being heedless when someone didn't hear her. At this point though, maybe Mom just needs an adjustment. Maybe she is having trouble adjusting the volume.

My husband after having a massive stroke at the age of 48, had trouble understanding the spoken word. Over time it seemed to improve some, but later in his life when his dementia got worse his comprehension of the spoken word too got much worse. So it may be the dementia and not her hearing at all. I would ask her doctor what they think.
And if she's having trouble understanding what's being said, I don't know if you have to be worried about what words to use with her Dr. as she probably won't understand what's being said anyway.
Best wishes in getting things figured out.

Well, she can hate your speaking on her behalf as much as she wants. But somebody has to.

My DH is VERY deaf and VERY vain and so getting him to buy & wear hearing aids was a huge challenge. He never wears them at home and only about 10% of the time he's not.

He misses about half of every conversation. I have to find him, make sure he's looking at me and then speak slowly and clearly, then ask a follow up question to make sure he 'gets it'. oh--because he refuses to wear his H/a's.

Nobody else in his life is as 'understanding' and so he misses a LOT.

Also, as he ages, he cares less about bothering to figure out what's being said. At 95, maybe your mom just doesn't care any more?

We do all that for DH--but there is a part of his particular kind of deafness that is not helped by aids. He is supposed to try reading lips a little and to also work at putting what's being said into context with the general conversation.

And, yes, this could absolutely be a part of increasing dementia. Dh doesn't have that, he just doesn't care.

I do often write things down and tell him it's a reminder for ME, but I'll see him sneaking a look at the list.

Believe me, the hearing aid techs have seen and heard it all--every excuse, every ounce of blame--they're not being snowed if mom is 'faking' it. And since they test the hearing they really do have a better understanding than anyone else.

I would write out my concerns for the ENT and pass the note to the receptionist when you arrive.