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Normal Hearing - Impaired Hearing
What are the functional effects of hearing loss?
So far, we have considered the audiometric effects of hearing loss. Stach (1998) has determined the communication effects of different degrees of hearing loss as follows:
| Degree of Loss | Communication Problem |
|---|---|
| Minimal | Difficulty hearing faint speech in noise |
| Mild | Difficulty hearing faint or distant speech |
| Moderate | Hears conversational speech only at a close distance |
| Moderately Severe | Hears loud conversational speech |
| Severe | Cannot hear conversational speech |
| Profound | May hear loud sounds; hearing is not the primary communication channel |
