40 yo Woman Hears for the First Time

[Cephalic Trauma]

Jo Milne has been deaf since birth due to Usher syndrome, a rare and incurable genetic disorder that can cause hearing loss and visual impairment. Now, at age 40, her new cochlear implants are allowing her to hear for the first time.

Milne, from Gateshead, U.K., was actually fitted with the implants in February, and had to wait more than a month for the emotional moment when they could finally be switched on.

"The switch-on was the most emotional and overwhelming experience of my life and I'm still in shock now. The first day everybody sounded robotic and I have to learn to recognise what these sounds are as I build a sound library in my brain," Milne told The Journal.

Milne is also able to listen to music for the first time. Her friend Tremayne Crossley, who posted this video to YouTube, put together an "Introduction to Music" playlist—including Prince, Bruce Springsteen, The Smiths, and Nirvana—which was played out for Milne on BBC6 Music earlier this week.

The first song she heard? John Lennon's "Imagine."

[Holladay]

I can't hear very well in my left ear. An 80% loss, birth defect. In college, I tried a hearing aid. My left ear/right side of the brain couldn't understand. It sounded like the adult voices from Peanuts or Charlie Browns' teacher...Agrrrug buptrra.

[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.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It's hard to pick up, but I'm trying to figure out if she has a bit of an English accent even though she's never heard an English accent. That's fun to think about. I guess if you learn to talk by watching mouth movements, you pick up the local accent.

I guess that makes sense, because I suspect that deaf people in the U.S. speak with an American accent. It would be cool if American deaf people spoke with a British accent, though.

I'm very familiar with deaf people and their accents. You would not describe them as "American", or any other regional dialect. Deaf people who did not go to schools that were intensive in mainstreaming and heavily focused on oral communication (i.e. schools that utilized sign language instead) generally just have very poor pronunciation skills because they can't repeat a sound they've heard.

[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.

[kepp]

Originally Posted by Holladay

I can't hear very well in my left ear. An 80% loss, birth defect. In college, I tried a hearing aid. My left ear/right side of the brain couldn't understand. It sounded like the adult voices from Peanuts or Charlie Browns' teacher...Agrrrug buptrra.

It's crazy interesting how the brain works.

[Halfcan]

Awesome-now she can listen to Rush!

[GloryDayz]

Wow, that' pretty kickass! Love that stuff!

[BWillie]

They should have played a prank on her. Right when she regains hearing, blare some Justin Bieber right in her ear. She'll be wishing she went back to being deaf in no time.

[PunkinDrublic]

Typical woman she ignores everything until she hears what she wants to here.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by PunkinDrublic

Typical woman she ignores everything until she hears what she wants to here.

Apparently you had selective hearing in english classes.

[Joe Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Cephalic Trauma

The first song she heard? John Lennon's "Imagine."

Awesome she got her hearing back!

Bummer Imagine was her first song..

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Joe Seahawk

Awesome she got her hearing back!

Bummer Imagine was her first song..

I would've gone with this one:

[Aries Walker]

One of her friends actually made her an 'Introduction to Music' mix tape. The first song she heard was "Imagine".

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/nor...-milne-6879841

Incidentally, she's also blind.

[Rukdafaidas]

I would have gone with some Def Leppard.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

Incidentally, she's also blind.

Wow, that's a tough break. Diseases suck.