40-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hears For The First Time

[onehandle]

[valerief]

1. Wow, that was sooooo rewarding to watch. nt

[progressoid]

2. Lovely.

[FourScore]

3. Okay. I'm crying. That was really beautiful. n/t

[cyberswede]

4. So cool!

Very touching.

[pnwmom]

5. What I don't understand how any newly hearing person can understand anything.

What gives meaning to the new sounds?

[ljm2002]

7. And how did she know the voice sounded high pitched?

Compared to what, if this was the first time she had heard anything?

Not trying to take away from the video, it is very moving. Just wondering how that works -- your question too.

[Hyper_Eye]

12. We really don't know that she does know that it is high pitched.

She surely understands the concepts of pitch and volume as she understands the language. It's possible that she was simply looking for a word to describe discomfort that she was unfamiliar with. Going 40 years without hearing anything and then suddenly having your ears turned on I wouldn't be surprised if everything seemed pitchy and loud. I imagine all the things we are used to hearing and ignoring are coming in at the same time like the sound of the computer, air vents, the sound of breathing. It's a lot to have turned on in an instant for the first time.

[Hyper_Eye]

10. She is lip reading

Of course she has never heard words before and she can't comprehend vocal speech. She does know the language and communicates through a combination of her vocal speech and others visual movement including lip reading and sign language. I believe the person is saying basic words that are used in a certain order, which she can anticipate, to help her brain make connections between the communication she understands and audible cues like pauses between words and emphasis. Thus the days of the week and the months of the year.

[pnwmom]

11. Thanks!

[mountain grammy]

6. Beautiful. Thank science!

[ReRe]

8. Deny that, science haters!

This is just one small reason that science is so important. Beautiful moment.

[gordianot]

9. I have seen incredible things happen with cochlears all of them different and some failures.

I suspect she has had hearing at sometime. By first time they may mean first time they were switched on. Many in the deaf community reject cochlears but attitudes are changing at least Aural/Oralist and manualist are now more willing to sit in the same room (Hands and Voices). I have video of a one year (I worked with) I recorded the first week after she got her cochlear. When I feel down I get it out for a pick me up.

[Hyper_Eye]

13. The video description states that she was deaf from birth. n/t

[Beaverhausen]

14. they should play music for her

Bach perhaps?

[jakeXT]

15. It was Lennon's Imagine

But as the sounds of John Lennon’s Imagine filtered into the room, she was able to hear for the first time what music sounds like.

When she discovered she was going to have the operation, Joanne asked her friend Tremayne Crossley, from Washington, to make her a compilation of songs as she had always wondered what music sounded like. Tremayne selected a song from year of Joanne’s life, and sent his compilation to radio presenter Lauren Laverne for her BBC 6Music radio feature Memory Tapes.

An Introduction to Music playlist, including When Doves Cry by Prince, Common People by Pulp and One Day Like This by Elbow, was played out on the show yesterday. DJ Lauren Tweeted: “Just watched a video of today’s #MemoryTape recipient having her cochlear implant turned on and hearing for the first time. Studio in floods.”

What is on Tremayne’s Memory Tape? An Introduction To Music includes:

Ken Boothe – Everything I Own

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – She’s the One - Live at Hammersmith Odeon

Paul McCartney – Silly Love Songs

Joni Mitchell – Black Crow

Steely Dan – Peg

Electric Light Orchestra – Mr. Blue Sky

Gary Numan – Are ‘friends’ Electric?

The Specials – Do Nothing

Soft Cell – Tainted Love

The Jam – Town Called Malice

Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Prince – When Doves Cry

Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

The Smiths – Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Fleetwood Mac – Big Love - Live (Lindsey Buckingham solo acoustic version)

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

The The August & September

Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart

Ozric Tentacles – Sploosh!

INXS – Baby Don’t Cry

Nirvana – All Apologies

Richard Thompson – King Of Bohemia

Pulp – Common People - Full Length Version / Album Version

Everything But The Girl – Missing

Foo Fighters – Everlong

Massive Attack – Teardrop

Jimmy Eat World – For Me This Is Heaven

The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist

Daft Punk – Digital Love

The Streets – Turn The Page

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps

Beastie Boys – An Open Letter To NYC

Nine Inch Nails – The Hand That Feeds

Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place

Elbow - One Day Like This

Maximo Park – Tanned

Gruff Rhys – Shark Ridden Waters

The Joy Formidable – Whirring

Bat For Lashes – Laura

Haim – Don’t Save Me


http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/inspirational-gateshead-woman-joanne-milne-6879841

[Beaverhausen]

16. that works too

[nmbluesky]

17. I'm deaf but

I don't care!!! I'm so proud be deaf... I don't need any hear!! I don't care!!!

I'm anti cochlear implant, sorry!!!

[phleshdef]

18. I'm sorry but I'll never understand that.

Especially if you've never heard music...

[nmbluesky]

19. Yes.. I can feel

Really stuipd question..