40 yo Woman Hears for the First Time

[Shag]

I feel like this might be a stupid question, and I'm missing something obvious, but how can she understand the woman talking to her? Having never heard anyone speak, she wouldn't be able to understand conversational speech, right? Doesn't seem like she's reading lips the whole time...

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by Shag

I feel like this might be a stupid question, and I'm missing something obvious, but how can she understand the woman talking to her? Having never heard anyone speak, she wouldn't be able to understand conversational speech, right? Doesn't seem like she's reading lips the whole time...

Probably a combination of the two. Good point.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by Shag

I feel like this might be a stupid question, and I'm missing something obvious, but how can she understand the woman talking to her? Having never heard anyone speak, she wouldn't be able to understand conversational speech, right? Doesn't seem like she's reading lips the whole time...

From what I know, which is admittedly very little, they are really, really good at reading lips. So she is clearly overwhelmed because she's trying to correlate what she sees with what she hears (not to mention she's hearing for the first time, which is on the level of HOLY SHIT WOW). And, it seems the professional working with her is enunciating her words very carefully.

However, I don't know how music would work. And if there's anyone else who knows more about this, I'd be interested in knowing as well.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Cephalic Trauma

From what I know, which is admittedly very little, they are really, really good at reading lips. So she is clearly overwhelmed because she's trying to correlate what she sees with what she hears (not to mention she's hearing for the first time, which is on the level of HOLY SHIT WOW). And, it seems the professional working with her is enunciating her words very carefully.

However, I don't know how music would work. And if there's anyone else who knows more about this, I'd be interested in knowing as well.

For the hard of hearing/deaf people who have suffered total hearing loss, it's hard for them to get a understanding on music, in terms of lyrics and sounds. But they can pick up the "bass" of the music, if that makes sense.

And they also use lip reading as well. I know I have used it, as it worked to my advantage on situations where, for instance, if I'm swimming, I don't have my hearing aids on, but it's still good to be able to communicate with others, just have to remind them to slow down a little bit so I can see their face.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by Coach

For the hard of hearing/deaf people who have suffered total hearing loss, it's hard for them to get a understanding on music, in terms of lyrics and sounds. But they can pick up the "bass" of the music, if that makes sense.

And they also use lip reading as well. I know I have used it, as it worked to my advantage on situations where, for instance, if I'm swimming, I don't have my hearing aids on, but it's still good to be able to communicate with others, just have to remind them to slow down a little bit so I can see their face.

Interesting. Thanks.

[Cephalic Trauma]

I'd also like to make the point that legally blind does not equal total blindness. Legally blind is defined by 20/200 or worse vision, meaning they can see at 20 feet what individuals with normal vision can see at 200. So, she probably has some vision, which she can use for lipreading with the therapist sitting so close.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Cephalic Trauma

I'd also like to make the point that legally blind does not equal total blindness. Legally blind is defined by 20/200 or worse vision, meaning they can see at 20 feet what individuals with normal vision can see at 200. So, she probably has some vision, which she can use for lipreading with the therapist sitting so close.

so you're saying that the simply red should sit at least 20 feet away on their date?

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Shag

I feel like this might be a stupid question, and I'm missing something obvious, but how can she understand the woman talking to her? Having never heard anyone speak, she wouldn't be able to understand conversational speech, right? Doesn't seem like she's reading lips the whole time...

Correct, it's still all a matter of lip reading and trying to pick up on context. If you've never heard language before, your brain can't interpret the sounds... they actually perform tests after someone gets a CI where the speaker will put something in front of their mouth and the person with the CI has to listen and basically guess what was said. If you've been deaf your whole life, it can take years of practice, and I'm not even sure if it's possible or if modern CIs have been around long enough to know if someone can become completely non-reliant on lip reading. It can take several months to years just for your brain to learn how to separate out background noise and learn where different sounds are coming from, much less interpret them and then be able to interpret language.