Rehabilitating the Client with Monaural Hearing Loss

Rehabilitators receive little, if any, advice about how to manage the client with a monaural hearing loss (MHL). How seriously should they view that condition? The rehabilitation literature devotes very little space to MHL. Indeed, rehabilitation textbooks have almost nothing to say about the effects of MHL can have and about what steps rehabilitators should take in responding to clients who present themselves with MHL. A review of the audiological and ontological research, however, leads to the conclusion that clients with MHL deserve rehabilitators’ careful attentions. These clients should be treated thoughtfully and sympathetically, because MHL’s effects can be, and often are, psychologically, socially, and economically debilitating