Hearing Loss

The most common is severe deafness that is unable to be corrected by a hearing device. The SSA will conduct a series of tests and compare your audio results with no hearing aid, your own hearing aid and finally with a highly sensitive hearing aid. Children will not be required to wear a hearing aid depending on their age. To qualify a child must merely meet threshold levels of hearing without the use of a hearing aid .

For this condition to be severe enough to meet the Social Security Administration's listing the claimant must have:

• Average hearing threshold sensitivity for air conduction of 90 decibels or greater in the better ear and a corresponding loss in the bone conduction; OR
• Speech discrimination score of 40% (severe difficulty in conversation most of the time) or less in the better ear.