Describing the severity of a hearing loss moderate to profound hearing loss

https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/degree-of-hearing-loss/?

Moderate to profound hearing loss describes significant difficulty hearing and understanding speech and sounds, ranging from struggling with normal conversation (moderate, 41-70 dB) to only perceiving very loud sounds (profound, 81+ dB) without amplification, often requiring hearing aids, cochlear implants, and communication strategies like speechreading or sign language for connection.

Understanding the Levels

Hearing loss is measured in decibels (dB), indicating how loud sounds need to be for you to hear them. Moderate: Normal conversation is difficult; quiet sounds are missed; requires amplification for clarity (41-70 dB range). Severe: Little to no speech heard at normal levels; only loud sounds are audible; speech comprehension is impossible without aids (61-80 dB). Profound: Hearing only very loud sounds or nothing at all; speech is not heard; reliance on visual cues like sign language or lip-reading. Impact on Daily Life Communication: Difficulty following conversations, especially in groups or noisy places. Learning: Missed information in classes, smaller vocabulary, difficulty with speech sounds. Awareness: May not hear environmental sounds like alarms or traffic. Management & Solutions Hearing Aids: Amplify sounds, crucial for moderate to severe loss, sometimes powerful ones for profound loss. Cochlear Implants: Surgically implanted devices for profound loss when hearing aids aren’t enough, bypassing damaged parts of the inner ear. Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs): FM systems for quiet listening. Communication Strategies: Speechreading (lip-reading), sign language, visual alerts.

Degree of Hearing Loss Not all hearing loss is the same. Treatment will depend on how serious your hearing loss is. Audiologists can help. You go to the audiologist for a hearing test. You may be told that you have a mild hearing loss. Or, you may find out that your hearing loss is more severe. This description is referred to as “the degree of hearing loss.” It is based on how loud sounds need to be for you to hear them. Decibels, or dB, describe loudness. The term dB HL describes your hearing loss in decibels.

The table below shows a common way to classify hearing loss.

Degree of hearing loss Hearing loss range (dB HL) Normal –10 to 15 Slight 16 to 25 Mild 26 to 40 Moderate 41 to 55 Moderately severe 56 to 70 Severe 71 to 90 Profound 91+ Source: Clark, J. G. (1981). Uses and abuses of hearing loss classification. Asha, 23, 493–500. If you can only hear sounds when they are at 30 dB, you have a mild hearing loss. You have a moderate hearing loss if sounds are closer to 50 dB before you hear them. To find out how loud common sounds are, visit the noise page.

Describing the severity of a hearing loss https://www.aussiedeafkids.org.au/about-hearing-loss/hearing-loss/describing-the-severity-of-a-hearing-loss/ Moderate Hearing Loss (41-70dB) A child with a moderate hearing loss will need to wear hearing aids to understand normal speech. Without hearing aids, the child will need to rely on speech reading cues. The level of concentration required to speechread is very difficult to maintain over long periods of time.

Hearing aids make all sounds louder for the child, including background noise. Hearing aids work most effectively in quiet environments.

How will this impact on learning?

A child with a moderate hearing loss may:

not hear important elements of a class discussion including key context and content without visual cues have a smaller or more limited vocabulary than their same age peers not hear all the sounds in a word, commonly leaving off ‘s’, ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ in their speech and their writing have problems pronouncing some speech sounds become very tired towards the end of sessions that have required intense concentration or were conducted in noisy environments misinterpret what is said although they ‘hear’ the speaker (they know that someone said something but couldn’t hear clearly enough to understand what was said).

https://www.aussiedeafkids.org.au/about-hearing-loss/hearing-loss/describing-the-severity-of-a-hearing-loss/ Describing the severity of a hearing loss