I have never met a PWHL (person with hearing loss) who didn’t admit to bluffing (pretending to understand). Even people with normal hearing bluff sometimes. The difference is that hearing loss is a permanent condition for us. As an ongoing strategy, bluffing has its limitations.

Why would any PWHL do this?

One reason is that the PWHL has already asked the other person to repeat. If the message is still not understood the second time around, there’s a strong incentive to bluff.

I ask my clients to notice when and why they bluff. I also ask them to stop themselves from bluffing just once, and we discuss it at the next session.

Breaking it down to a manageable step, *just once*, is less daunting; I am not asking for the moon. Asking the PWHL to report back keeps them accountable for actually doing it. And then talking about how it went is so informative.

So much can be learned from observing yourself.

Related video: People with hearing loss who say, “What??”