How one small device changed a Northamptonshire teacher’s life after she hid her hearing loss for years

A Northamptonshire teacher, who concealed her hearing loss for years, has had her life transformed by one small device.

Laura-Jayne Ward, 37, is an assistant principal at Guilsborough Academy who has endured hearing difficulty her entire life after being born with conductive hearing loss in her right ear.

This required her to have constructive surgery on the eardrum when she was just nine years old.

Laura said: “Something that I battle with every day is the big perception that hearing loss and deafness comes with old age.

"It’s about understanding that people need to move past that. It’s also important that people who find themselves in that situation know that there is something they can do about it, that they don’t have to miss out on the things in life that they enjoy doing.”

Laura kept her hearing loss hidden for years, relying on her ability to lip-read throughout her teaching career in order to keep up in the classroom and in social situations.

It was so well hidden that, to Laura's students, she was labelled as having ‘super hearing’ thanks to her uncanny ability to pick up conversations others would miss.

Laura said: “After going into teaching, I never spoke about how reliant I was on lip reading, especially in the classroom. It was quite beneficial. I would be able to tell what students were talking about, even if they were right at the back of the room where they thought they would be able to get away with it.

“I picked up on things that teachers ordinarily wouldn’t. The pupils used to say a lot, ‘miss, how can you tell we’re not talking about our work?’ I used to joke that I had super hearing.”

That was the case until the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK in 2020.

With classes thrown behind Zoom calls and masks introduced, Laura could no longer rely on her ability to lip read.

She became plagued with fears that she would not be able to do her job and found herself avoiding social situations more and more. The noise distortion caused by others wearing face masks also caused her dizziness that required medication.

The pandemic exacerbated her situation, forcing her to seek help from Boots Hearingcare in June 2021. She began wearing hearing aids again for the first time in more than 20 years, having initially worn them when she was 15 years old and, admittedly, ‘hating’ them.

Laura said: “I was just a teenager that didn’t want to stand out from anybody else back then - it was bad enough being a teenager. There was a big piece of plastic that was wrapped around my ear, my hair stuck out, and everyone could see that I wore them.

“However, this time it was different. Technology has changed so much and I’ll never forget the moment I tried my new hearing aids on in the audiologist’s office. I was overwhelmed by how clearly I could hear her and I didn’t have to strain, as I used to.

“She listened to me - not only to the bits about my hearing but also about how it affected my life and stopped me from doing things that I would normally go and do.”

While hearing aids have had a huge impact on Laura’s day-to-day life, there is another piece of hearing technology she claims has made an even bigger difference - the Phonak Roger Select.

The circular device uses multiple microphones across six directions, ensuring speech is covered across 360 degrees. It’s designed to improve group conversations being held against background noise by up to 61 percent than with hearing aids alone.

Laura said: “Putting that device in the middle of the table has made the biggest difference out of everything. It has meant that I can attend work meetings and not feel shattered at the end of them.

“I used to get horrendous headaches after them from trying to use all my senses to keep up with what was happening and what was being said. Now, I can use that device, put it in the middle of the table, and I can instantly work out who is speaking and what is being said.

“I’m looking forward to the day that I can try that device out in the middle of a busy restaurant. It’s made a really big difference and has made me comfortable enough to feel that, when things get back to normal again, I will be able to try things that I was hiding away from and avoiding."