Can someone who is severely deaf talk normally?

[DeafBadger]

I don't think I used to, but over time, I'm having more trouble with words like "push it". It gets slurred together so it comes out more like "puh-shit". It's gotten a few strange looks from people. :Oops:

I think I'll use HH Scientist's tip of finishing each word before moving on to the next. "PuSH" "iT".

 

[HH scientist]

I don't think I used to, but over time, I'm having more trouble with words like "push it". It gets slurred together so it comes out more like "puh-shit". It's gotten a few strange looks from people. :Oops:

I think I'll use HH Scientist's tip of finishing each word before moving on to the next. "PuSH" "iT".

Thx for your confidence. I hope that it will come useful to you. But don't overdo it. You never know whether people might believe that it is some old Monty Python sketch.

 

[HH scientist]

I don't think I used to, but over time, I'm having more trouble with words like "push it". It gets slurred together so it comes out more like "puh-shit". It's gotten a few strange looks from people. :Oops:

Very good by the way. Ha, ha, ...

 

[HH scientist]

You know like those tongue twisters "How much wood can a woodchuck chuck?", well, my vice is "Rear wheel drive". I absolutely cannot say it correctly quickly without slurring the words unless I slow it down. Have had a case of the tongue jumbles at the mechanics before, and they were like "what??"

It is probably your brain that gets confused over pronouncing two vowels repeatedly over and over. Try changing one vowel somewhere (for example "wood" -> "wid") and try again. It works for me. I know a few tongue twisters in Swedish and the pattern is the same there.

I don't mean that you should change vowels when speaking to people, but when repeating TTs. The purpose is to explore the mechanics of the brain.

 

[HH scientist]

Here is another fun thing. I have always been quite good at recognizing dialects and I think that my brain pays more attention to some parts of speech than hearing people do. (So if I could hear normally, I would not be writing this.) I also like attempting to speak various dialects in Swedish and sometimes you manage to fool people that you can from some other part of the country. That is fun!

I remember watching Braveheart long ago and I could hear instantly that Mel Gibson did not speak English with a proper Scottish accent. A few years later I was studying in England and asked my flatmates about it. Two English flatmates said they did never suspect anything. A flatmate who grew up in Scotland did however!!!

Next, I tried to outperform Mel Gibson but I had no luck. All my flatmates claimed that Mel did better. No kind flatmates at all.

 

[FadedRose]

I've thought about doing that too... it gets very frustrating sometimes.

What was it like w/o hearing aids today? Were any hearies bothered by the fact that they couldn't just get your attention as easily?

At work no. I made it clear I would have my HAs off and if they needed to get my attention to tap me on the shoulder and to look at me so I can read lips. Typically I'm left alone anyways so having them off didn't make any difference.

It's my way of getting away from the hearing world and I've explained that to them at work so they understand but do not get the point that I'm actually saying F U to everyone hearing that is around me.

 

[DeafBadger]

At work no. I made it clear I would have my HAs off and if they needed to get my attention to tap me on the shoulder and to look at me so I can read lips. Typically I'm left alone anyways so having them off didn't make any difference.

It's my way of getting away from the hearing world and I've explained that to them at work so they understand but do not get the point that I'm actually saying F U to everyone hearing that is around me.

At my last job, the voice conversations of the people around me was so distracting, I had to turn off my hearing aids to be able to focus on my work and get it done properly.

I'd tell people in my cube area that I was turning them off and just tap me on the shoulder if they needed to talk to me. They acted like it was odd that I was turning off my hearing aids, and I think some even took it personally.

It's hard enough for me to understand one person speaking in a quiet room. Trying to understand one person in a group of talkers, is very, very hard, almost impossible. Trying to understand a whole group is impossible at all times.

I can't concentrate with all that noise coming into my hearing aids when I'm trying to get my work done. They just didn't really seem to understand that.

 

[FadedRose]

I come from Sweden. We could test me.

It would be interesting to perform some kind of blind test for detecting accents and dialects. I think that HOH peopl are more sensitive to particular patterns than hearing people. For example, instead of focusing on frequencies, perhaps HOH people focus more on the duration of individual letters in a word.This is pure speculation, but once brain scanners are good enough, you could do some kind of scientific test to see which parts of the brain are active and compare people's neurological response.

Another thing that strikes me is that I sometimes need a few seconds to process the sound after that someone is finished speaking. I do some sort of speech analysis and try to link letters into separate words and then the words into sentences. It may take a few seconds for me to respond, and the occasional impression is that I am retarded.

You raise some good points but I will kindly disagree that HOH/Deaf are good at discerning speech dialects-at least for me personally I have difficulty being able to hear or to tell if someone has an accent. Especially if they are from the U.S. It's easy to spot when the person is from another country such as yourself-sweden is very beautiful by the way...lucky, lucky you! For example I had no idea a co-worker of mine had an accent until another person pointed it out and semi mocked how she said "water" which to them was "whater". I could not hear that. This person is from Nevada but sounds at least to me as if she were from the south, somewhat. When it comes to reading lips there is a difference in people with accents and I agree at least in this regard that the HOH/Deaf can pick up the accent more so than than a hearing person if the accent is subtle enough. You can see it on the lips if you cannot hear it. At least I can.

The bold text I find interesting because I love music but cannot understand what the person is singing until I read the lyrics. After I read the lyrics even without reading along my brain then makes the connection and it's understood. Do you have the same problem? I wouldn't say it's a problem, more or less an annoyance.

I had to see a neurologist last year to be tested for MS and he seemed very, very interested in how I was able to understand/read him as well as I did ( he had a very thick indian accent the most difficult to understand ) There is a connection and I'd like to see an actual test performed using Deaf subjects using a scanner MRI. It would be interesting to see.

It's nice to meet another intellectual on the forum and welcome to AD!

 

[Cheetah]

Yep, the hearing folks just don't understand how much work is involved with listening. Or how distracting having a word or two pop into our ears while the rest is garbage mumble jumbo.

Personally I like to have a bit of background noise as it distracts me from my tinnitus. So, I just turn my CI down until I cannot distinguish any language at all.

 

[FadedRose]

At my last job, the voice conversations of the people around me was so distracting, I had to turn off my hearing aids to be able to focus on my work and get it done properly.

I'd tell people in my cube area that I was turning them off and just tap me on the shoulder if they needed to talk to me. They acted like it was odd that I was turning off my hearing aids, and I think some even took it personally.

It's hard enough for me to understand one person speaking in a quiet room. Trying to understand one person in a group of talkers, is very, very hard, almost impossible. Trying to understand a whole group is impossible at all times.

I can't concentrate with all that noise coming into my hearing aids when I'm trying to get my work done. They just didn't really seem to understand that.

Some people are that way sadly. I've met a few that took it as an insult when I took off my hearing aids around them and to be honest, they took it the right way alright.

When people get offended and I don't intend to offend them it hurts of course but you have to do what you have to do. Have you had people get offended when you tell them you cannot understand them i.e in a resturant and that you'd like a quiet meal? It's as if they feel you don't want to talk to them. I just nod my head and eat. It works.

if anyone responds back just so ya'll know I hurt my hip yesterday and have been fixed up with pain pills so...not only do I feel spacy but I'm also sick to my stomach right now. I'll be back later.
any spelling mistakes made...
blame it on lortab!

later everyone!

 

[katherynne]

My father has a severe hearing loss since age 12 or so, but his talking still sounds like a hearing person -- he was raised entirely oral, I don't know if that makes a lot of difference since the loss is post-lingual? But, it's definitely possible for a deaf person to be sounding "normal" to a hearing person... all of us children in the family are hearies, Dad talks like us. It's often a surprise to outsiders of the family that he can't hear them talking. I don't think he sounds different than anyone else except usually his speaking voice is more soft in volume. But it is normal in inflection and whatever else, I guess? So... it's possible for a deaf person to sounding normal like a hearing

 

[Latascha]

I read the last few pages and had to smile a few times. German people not beeing able to understand people from Switzerland or struggle to be understood there - some memories pop up at this one
People in Bavaria tell me I speak with no accent at all, people from other parts of Germany tell me I do have an bavarian accent. My english has a strong accent, that's what they tell me anyway but I'm not really sure.
French...that really was a lot of hard work in school. I never really was good at it, totally understand why someone could get confused with "Ils ont" and "Ils sont" I always had trouble with "é" and "è"
If I really do concentrate I can speak without any deaf accent, but if I don't pay close attention I talk sloppy. Even then people don't believe that I'm deaf, that actually is the worst part. Because I speak so well it is just impossible for me not to hear them. I noticed people "forget" more often I'm deaf during times I speak properly. If the accent is there, they sometimes remember.

I have two deaf friends who speak perfect. Funny thing, both have deaf parents and a deaf family and their first language was sign language. Maybe never being forced to go to speech therapy makes the thing acutal some fun?

 

[Cheetah]

I have two deaf friends who speak perfect. Funny thing, both have deaf parents and a deaf family and their first language was sign language. Maybe never being forced to go to speech therapy makes the thing acutal some fun?

Speech therapy and fun do not belong in the same sentence!!!

When I finally convinced my parents that speech therapy was not needed anymore I did my happy dance!

 

[ash345]

Speech therapy and fun do not belong in the same sentence!!!

When I finally convinced my parents that speech therapy was not needed anymore I did my happy dance!

I agree, speech therapy and fun should never ever be in the same sentence... now speech therapy and hell... perfect for each other.

I was so excited when I convinced my parents i wasn't going to speech therapy again too!! (granted i was 17, almost 18) but still...I was not going... instead... that time that would have been for speech therapy, I found an ASL class in town... and took it... my parents not happy at all... but me, ecstatic!!

 

[Latascha]

Ok, ok, you are right, it never was any fun. I was just wondering, they weren't forced to go but did. I have to ask them some time.

 

[rebeccalj]

I've thought about doing that too... it gets very frustrating sometimes.

What was it like w/o hearing aids today? Were any hearies bothered by the fact that they couldn't just get your attention as easily?

What was it like to just be allow be deaf? No voice. No oral.?

 

[rebeccalj]

Duplicate

 

[rebeccalj]

My father has a severe hearing loss since age 12 or so, but his talking still sounds like a hearing person -- he was raised entirely oral, I don't know if that makes a lot of difference since the loss is post-lingual? But, it's definitely possible for a deaf person to be sounding "normal" to a hearing person... all of us children in the family are hearies, Dad talks like us. It's often a surprise to outsiders of the family that he can't hear them talking. I don't think he sounds different than anyone else except usually his speaking voice is more soft in volume. But it is normal in inflection and whatever else, I guess? So... it's possible for a deaf person to sounding normal like a hearing[/QU.OTE]

I bet it's important that everyone around you sound *normal*. Like a 'hearing person' you say. F#$k are there really people like this out there????? In my dreams I *so* want to be 'normal':roll:.

 

[Vespertine]

Something I find rather interesting has been bothering me lately...Can a late-deafened adult's speech quality change after loosing their hearing? I thought after you learn to speak, your speech quality would remain the same
but a lot of people, including close family members have commented on my voice
sounding different...
when I ask what they mean the response is "well..you're starting to SOUND like you can't hear..."
they said it is quite subtle, but sometimes more noticeable..

i can't hear myself speak anymore , so it surprised me..has anyone else experienced this????

 

[Banjo]

Something I find rather interesting has been bothering me lately...Can a late-deafened adult's speech quality change after loosing their hearing? I thought after you learn to speak, your speech quality would remain the same but a lot of people, including close family members have commented on my voice sounding different... when I ask what they mean the response is "well..you're starting to SOUND like you can't hear..."
they said it is quite subtle, but sometimes more noticeable..

i can't hear myself speak anymore , so it surprised me..has anyone else experienced this????

Yes, especially if you don't wear hearing aids. Don't feel too bad about it though, you will still be able to speak well enough to be understood, it's just that you won't sound the same as you used to.