Symptoms of impaired hearing
 

•    Hearing without understanding the sounds
•    Inability to hear the TV or the radio, so that you have to turn it up to a level, which is painful for those with a normal hearing range,
•    Must lip-read to understand speech
•    Extra sounds such as traffic drown out conversation when you are in a car.

Effects of impaired hearing

•    Strained personal relationships
•    Social withdrawal
•    Fatigue and stress because of the effort of focusing to hear in a noisy environment and background noises make it impossible to join in a conversation.
•    Social isolation as a result of not being able to communicate properly

Cupping your hand behind your ear is a caricature but it does assist you to hear a little, but a hearing aid would be more effective.