People affected with partial hearing loss can hear speech and sounds at different sound levels unlike those with profound loss of hearing. Their level of hearing would be lee than 90db. The quality of their hearing varies from day to day and situation to situation. Those with partial hearing loss depend of lip reading and non verbal cues for understanding conversation. Occasionally they may not be aware of the need.

Degrees of Partial Hearing Loss

Partial hearing loss can be moderate, mild, profound and severe. In each degree of this the person cannot hear a sound below a certain level of loudness. They find it different to hear sounds of 25 to 40db. Above this level they have clarity of hearing. They cannot easily understand the meaning of conversation when the surroundings are noisy. People who cannot hear sounds ranging from40 to 70db have moderate hearing loss. These people need a hearing aid to follow conversation well when there is no noise in the surroundings.

Severe Hearing Loss

In the case of severe hearing loss people hearing loss people do not hear sounds of loss than 70-90db. They not only use hearing aids but depend heavily on non verbal cues like lip reading. A few may use sign language for comprehending and communicating meaningful expressions.

Profound Hearing Loss

Though a few equate profound hearing loss to deafness, it is not so. At this stage of hearing loss people cannot hear under 90db level of sounds. They inter act meaningfully by means of lip reading and sign language. Hearing aids do not come to their rescue. Advanced surgical implants in the cochlea produce significant case in their hearing.

Social Interaction Partial Hearing Loss

Partial Hearing impairment is confusing situation where the hearing of the person changes from one situation to another. Thus the person can communicate with one person properly but in a different situation does it very poorly. This difference in speech leads to unsatisfactory relationship. To obviate such misunderstanding he should tell in advance that he cannot understand meanings as they are in all situations. This will save the speaker/listener from any lapses in the hearing during conversation.

[tags]Sign Language, Lip Reading[/tags]