Certainly significant others need to understand that hearing aids can typically only restore about one-half of the degree of lost hearing resulting in a certain amount of residual deficit. They also need to appreciate the importance of speech recognition loss and that if their loved one only understands 80 percent of words presented under ideal hearing examination conditions one cannot expect perfect speech reception in the real world. Both parties need to understand the speaker, listener, and environmental barriers to effective communication. (See Table 6.4.) Equally important is the appreciation of the difficult communication task me significant other has in delivering their message effectively to the person with hearing loss (Clark, 2002b).