Katherine Bouton is the author of "Shouting Won't Help: Why I - and 50 Million Other Americans -- Can't Hear You," (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. February 19, 2013; Picador paperback, February 2014, also available as an ebook).
She is at work on a second book called "How To Hear Better With Hearing Loss," a practical guide to everything from hearing tests and hearing aids to navigating airports, finessing job interviews, figuring out what to say about your hearing on a first date, traveling safely and enjoyably, and many other aspects of daily life with hearing loss. Hearing loss, even serious hearing loss, need not be debilitating. This book, to be published by Workman in June 2015, offers suggestions and information for managing hearing loss, for literally hearing better with hearing loss.
She is a frequent speaker on healthy aging, hearing health and hearing loss. For a full schedule of speaking engagements, see her homepage: (http://www.katherinebouton.com/).
She also writes about hearing and health issues on her blogs "What I Hear" on the Psychology Today website, and "Hear Better With Hearing Loss" on this website.
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About "Shouting Won't Help":
An editor and writer at The New York Times for 22 years, happily married and the mother two, she seemed to lead an enviable life. But a secret undermined every aspect of every day. At age 30, she suddenly went almost deaf in one ear. Progressive loss in that ear and later in her "good" ear left her functionally deaf by age 60. Even with a cochlear implant and a hearing aid, she could barely follow conversations.
In "Shouting Won't Help" she describes the onset of her hearing loss at age 30, the emotional toll it took over the years, the deep-seated stigma against hearing loss that caused her to keep it a secret for more than three decades. She profiles others with similar losses -- an opera singer, a pastry chef, a psychoanalyst. Their stories illuminate hers.
A former reporter, she discusses the causes and treatments for hearing loss. She talks to psychotherapists about the psychological reaction to sudden hearing loss. She reports on the technology and high cost of hearing aids, which are rarely covered by health insurance. She writes about cochlear implants, a miracle cure that nevertheless falls often falls short of restoring hearing to what it had been.
She writes about how employers unwittingly sabotage employees with hearing loss, about the obstacles those with hearing loss face every day, and how those with hearing loss can be the cause of some of their most unhappy moments.
In the final chapter she reports on research into gene therapy and stem cell therapy as a potential cure for hearing loss.
Forty-eight million Americans suffer some degree of hearing loss. Many don't even realize it, because hearing tests are not a routine part of annual physicals. Those who do suspect hearing loss often fail to treat it, out of fear of stigma, or the belief that hearing aids are too expensive or ineffective. This book explains why hearing loss must be treated, not only for one's own future good health and wellbeing but for the country's economic wellbeing. We need to change our health care policies about hearing health -- which currently discourage testing and treatment for hearing loss -- or pay a tremendous price in physical and cognitive decline as our population ages.
"Shouting Won't Help" is also for those who live with someone with hearing loss, or work with them, who teach or minister to them, for health care professionals who may not recognize hearing loss in their patients, for the children of elderly parents who are losing their hearing.
We all know someone with hearing loss. This book will help you to understand them.
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"Katherine Bouton's book is not only entertaining -- it is profoundly necessary. As the daughter of a hearing-impaired person, I found that it offered me insight, inspired compassion, and made me feel less alone. I can't wait to share it the my mom!"
-- Peggy Orenstein, author of "Cinderella Ate My Daughter."
"Katherine Bouton offers a wealth of information and insight about a frustrating and isolating condition. Her book inspires those who suffer from hearing loss and educates those who wish to understand its vicissitudes."
-- Jerome Groopman, Recanati Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and staff writer for The New Yorker.
"Katherine Bouton's book is not only entertaining -- it is profoundly necessary. As the daughter of a hearing-impaired person, I found that it offered me insight, inspired compassion, and made me feel less alone. I can't wait to share it the my mom!"
-- Peggy Orenstein, author of "Cinderella Ate My Daughter."
"Katherine Bouton offers a wealth of information and insight about a frustrating and isolating condition. Her book inspires those who suffer from hearing loss and educates those who wish to understand its vicissitudes."
-- Jerome Groopman, Recanati Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and staff writer for The New Yorker.
Katherine Bouton is a former editor and writer at The New York Times.
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"SHOUTING WON'T HELP: Why I -- and 50 Million Other Americans -- Can't Hear You"
Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013
Order on Amazon or Barnes&Noble.com. Find your local independent bookstore at IndieBound.
Available in hardcover and as an e-book.
Picador paperback available February 2014
Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013
Order on Amazon or Barnes&Noble.com. Find your local independent bookstore at IndieBound.
Available in hardcover and as an e-book.
Picador paperback available February 2014