[joeysteele]

If something is being said directly to somone with hearing problems with little other noise around then they will pick it up very easily.
However once there are several people all talking and other noise, even with a hearing aid/s the sound gets distorted.

He will hear some things more easily, also if someone is looking directly at him when talking,that will help too.
Most of the time however I doubt he can make out any continuity of the conversations and that is why he spends a lot of the time it seems on his own.