Affects of Hearing Loss on Communication

The type of hearing loss and its severity determines how a person's communication will be affected.

• Causes difficulty hearing soft speech at conversational level.
• Difficulty hearing in noise.

• Causes difficulty hearing speech at conversational level.
• Increasing difficulty in group discussions and significant problems understanding in background noise. 

• Can hear only loud speech in quiet situations.
• Extreme difficulty understanding conversation in background noise.

• Typically will not hear loud speech.
• Relies heavily on speech/lip-reading cues.
• May be a candidate for a cochlear implant.

Profound Hearing Loss 

• May hear loud environmental sounds.
• Likely to be a good cochlear implant candidate, depending on duration of profound hearing loss