Getting started Before trying any exercises over the phone, your audiologist will show you the different ways to use your technology: for example, you can use the phone on speaker, or hold the receiver against the microphone of your processor, or use the telecoil inside your processor. Using your chosen method, start with an exercise you can already do easily with your speaking partner without lip reading. Try to repeat back what is said. Remember to listen for the key words and aim to get the gist. Exercises that work well over the phone include: • Sentences people say every day like those in Module 8. • Words with a common theme like your family names, months of the year, similar to Module 4. • Sentences on a specific topic such as booking a restaurant or arranging a trip to the movies or a picnic, similar to Module 5. • Following and repeating a passage of text over the phone, such as Module 7. Material that works well includes recipes, children’s stories, a description of a TV program in a TV guide. You could email a piece of familiar text to your phone buddy and ask them to read it to you over the phone, so that you can become accustomed to their voice. • Ask your speaker to say 10 things about themselves and repeat back each item, for example, I have brown hair, I am 6 ft. 2 inches tall, I work on a farm, I ride a motorbike, my favourite hobby is football. • Try information transfer exercises like that in Module 12. Ask your phone buddy to look out of the window and describe the house across the road, while you repeat back.