An approach I like to use with students wearing one hearing aid with normal, or mild, hearing loss in one ear is to mask the good ear in order to get the student to use the poor ear to listen (this activity can be adapted for all degrees of hearing loss, either with unilateral or bilateral hearing aid wearers) Listening is a skill that can be learned and lost, so it's important to utilize the poor ear as much as possible during listening sessions. Here's how it can be done.
1) Have the student insert the ear bud into the good ear and play music or white noise.
2) Do not use any visual cues and place yourself behind the student on the side of the poor ear.
3) Have a conversation, repeating as often as needed in order to keep the conversation going. Don't ask yes/no questions, rather ask open-ended questions.
