Which term describes the absence of useful hearing and limited sound response?

• A. Adequate Hearing
• B. Moderately Impaired Vision
• C. Highly Impaired Hearing
• D. Severely Impaired Hearing

Answer: (C)

When evaluating how well someone can use hearing in daily life, the important idea is functional usefulness: is hearing usable for communication, or is it essentially absent with only minimal response to sound? The term that best captures the scenario of no useful hearing and only a limited, non-meaningful response to sounds is highly impaired hearing. This label signals that hearing cannot be relied upon for communication and that auditory responses are only minimal, guiding care planning toward non-auditory communication methods and supports.

Adequate hearing would imply normal function, which contradicts the description. Moderately impaired vision is about vision, not hearing, so it’s not relevant. Severely impaired hearing describes substantial hearing loss but doesn’t specifically emphasize the near absence of usable hearing with limited sound response as clearly as “highly impaired hearing” does in this context.