Final answer:
Individuals with a 60-phon hearing loss may struggle with speech comprehension, especially with higher frequencies common in female voices, indicating a significant implication for therapy efforts to include hearing amplification tailored to their needs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question inquires about the implications for therapy resulting from decreased hearing in an older adult, excluding the need to control background noise. It's important to understand that humans typically do not utilize the entire range of hearing, particularly for frequencies above 8000 Hz; these high frequencies are not essential for understanding day-to-day conversations or appreciating music.
People with hearing loss, for instance of 40 or 60 phons, experience different levels of difficulty in understanding speech. While a 40-phon hearing loss might render conversations very quiet, a 60-phon hearing loss can leave a person only able to hear the lowest frequencies, making normal conversation difficult to comprehend. This is especially true for the higher frequency sounds typically found in female voices. Effective therapy for individuals with hearing loss often includes assistance for understanding conversation through amplification devices tailored to compensate for their specific hearing loss profile.