My family is one where a NORMAL hearing is out of the ordinary! LOL
I have a hereditary high-frequency nerve deafness type of loss. My grandmother, my mother had the same type. No idea why it is that one out of four of us siblings (ME ME ME) was only one that got these genes. I've had aids in both ears since I was 45. I have about a 30% loss.
My son was flunking hearing tests at school when he was in only 5th grade. At age 18 he got hearing aids in both ears. He was told that he has 60% hearing loss in each ear.
Two years ago, while running a circular saw thru flooring and underlayment, my husband's hearing became suddenly MUCH worse. We knew he had a bit of loss prior to this time, doctors said it was with age. Hearing tests showed that he had damaged his ears with the constant high freqency and loud noise of the saw. He soon had aids in both ears, learning that he only had about half of his hearing left.
We aren't ashamed of our loss, it's nothing more to us than wearing glasses or braces, or having to walk with a cane. It's part of who we are.
Yes, there's a lot of misunderstandings, sometimes it's actually funny the things that we THOUGHT were said! LOL
Many people with normal hearing think that talking LOUDER makes it easier to understand. Not all the time. Some losses fall into the range where all the consonants such as B,P,C,D,G all begin to sound the same. Instead of saying the word LOUDER, we've found that it helps to say such things as "B, as in boy" or "D as in dog" to help the other person understand the word we're speaking of.
Don't think of hearing loss as an "old age condition". As is evident, the nerve deafness seems to be appearing at an earlier age with each generation in my sons case.
I just pray that with all the modern technology..that within a few years, they'll be doing inner ear transplants and we won't have to WORRY about wearing hearing aids!