Will my voice change?

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alison21

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I recently loss the rest of what hearing I did have, and now I am concerned if my voice will go with it. I am not used to not being able to hear myself when I talk, so now I can't control my tone, or volume, or how the words come out. I get anxious if I have to talk because I don't know how it will come out.
 
how old are you.?i lost hearing at 32 i went a rehabilitaion place and was shown somethings to do,I told i can be loud at times but it usually when anxious ,not thinking in hurry,bad temper, frustrated with people etc...it dont bother me but it can upset other people...Why are you not referred to speech therapist or rehabilitation..
 
Your voice won't change. I lost my hearing when I was 4, but I learned to speak before I lost my hearing and I have good speech. One of my friends lost his hearing in Desert Storm due to an.explosion. His speech is still very good.
 
i think the younger you are when go deaf then more likely have deaf accent,you have heard pronunctiation and will remember it....i may be wrong but i been told that many times before...do you sign,good if you do and mix in the deaf society it help confidence
 
steiner post was not up when wrote my post he worded it better than me
 
I've been profoundly deaf all my life and I speak like a hearing person. My friend who is profoundly deaf all her life can speak like a hearing person as well. She's just had an operation for 2 x CIs.
 
I lost my hearing at 16. For the most part I still sound hearing but when I first wake up, if I'm tired, If I'm not concentrating, or if I'm signing while talking I get a bit of a Deaf accent. I also talk to loud or quiet at times but I've learned to control it a little bit. One thing I did was speak with the computer mic open so it shows how loud you're talking. I also practice speaking to myself a little bit first thing in the morning or I'll have a bit of a Deaf accent all day. The hardest parts for me is when I'm inside doctors office or stores and all that because I can't determine how loud it is in there. I'm always nervous I'll speak too loud for the environment. I'm trying to learn to whisper right now but so far it's really hard. I'm over 5 years into being Deaf so far and it took a couple years to get the 'Deaf Accent'. Ironically, I've been signing and a part of the community since I was a toddler. I have no Deafies in my family, I had just always loved the language, people, and culture.

[Just so I don't offend anyone... I use the big D because I've always been a part of the community and other people in my Deaf community want me to. I always felt more apart of the Deaf culture than hearing, even while I still had hearing.]
 
I have been told I have developed a "Deaf accent" since I lost my hearing a few years ago. I am not sure what that means, but I guess maybe I sound funny to other people?

In any case, I rarely talk any more. I can't hear myself any more and when I do talk I tend to go really loudly. I do ASL all the time now...although it seems to annoy some of my family that I do ASL instead of talking because they haven't even tried to learn ASL. I'm not going to force them to learn, but it would be nice if they would.
 
caz12 said:
how old are you.?i lost hearing at 32 i went a rehabilitaion place and was shown somethings to do,I told i can be loud at times but it usually when anxious ,not thinking in hurry,bad temper, frustrated with people etc...it dont bother me but it can upset other people...Why are you not referred to speech therapist or rehabilitation..
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Caz,speech therapy cannot correct issues like tone, or volume, or how the words come out.It's TOO HARD to do it 24/7!..............Let me put it this way.......actors and singers study the same vocal techniques we do......and it wipes them out and takes a TON of energy........enough said!
 
Lost my hearing around 5 years ago or so... Was referred to Vocal Therapy... Still attend weekly or so... It helps. You won't lose your voice, though you may develop a "deaf accent" so to speak. You will still be able to communicate clearly. It doesn't completely take away the ability for people to understand you. The biggest issue I have like many others have said is volume control. It happens... friends and family should understand. I go voice off most of the time now a days anyway... But when I'm at work and have to talk, you can't really tell. When I talk without my H.A. or whatever, sometimes you can, but it's not much... so don't worry about it too much honestly... As said earlier, you already know how to speak clearly, it's not like you have to learn to speak all over again. =) Just be conscious of the surroundings and proper volume. I tend to ask my friends "Is it loud in here, or is it quiet?" and they'll usually tell me a low, middle or high volume and I'll try to adjust that way... sometimes it still doesn't work,... stuff happens. Most of them will just look at me and lower their hand as to say "omg your'e talking loud shhhh get quieter... lol! It's no big deal really. =)
 
Thanks everyone. I am probably just anxious. I just went back to work. Haven't worked since losing my hearing.
 
At least you have a job. =) That's optimism. =P I was anxious too, I lost my hearing around the same age you are now. =) Just know, everything's going to be okay, and it could always be worse. People ask me all the time how I live with being deaf... I tell them, you know what, I could be blind, and for me, that would be much much worse. Being deaf doesn't inhibit my life in the slightest. I know there are blind people that it doesn't either. ( I know a blind couple ) but honestly, I'd take waking up deaf over blind any day. Plus, I've met some really awesome people in the deaf community. =) People I probably wouldn't have met had it not been for my "issue." I actually don't mind it... I can tune out all the annoying idiots all day... how many people can do that!? It's a gift in its own way. =) In all seriousness though, everything will be okay, and there's always tons of people here to vent to... we even have a thread where you can vent about stupid interactions you have with hearing people! =P Heheh... Just stay strong and know you'll always have someone there. =P
 
Phoenix23 said:
At least you have a job. =) That's optimism. =P I was anxious too, I lost my hearing around the same age you are now. =) Just know, everything's going to be okay, and it could always be worse. People ask me all the time how I live with being deaf... I tell them, you know what, I could be blind, and for me, that would be much much worse. Being deaf doesn't inhibit my life in the slightest. I know there are blind people that it doesn't either. ( I know a blind couple ) but honestly, I'd take waking up deaf over blind any day. Plus, I've met some really awesome people in the deaf community. =) People I probably wouldn't have met had it not been for my "issue." I actually don't mind it... I can tune out all the annoying idiots all day... how many people can do that!? It's a gift in its own way. =) In all seriousness though, everything will be okay, and there's always tons of people here to vent to... we even have a thread where you can vent about stupid interactions you have with hearing people! =P Heheh... Just stay strong and know you'll always have someone there. =P
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Thanks so much Phoenix23, that is EXACTLY how I feel! I always figure it could be WAY worse. Being deaf doesn't really bother me too much. I was a singer for some years, I had a 3 octave range...(alto, tenor, soprano)...but I have since accepted I will not sing again. It's ok. I agree it is a gift in it's own way. I can certainly focus better on work. I write for a living...and I rarely get distracted. ;)
 
I'm going on 7 years.
People who knew me before notice different speech and I guess I talk at a lower pitch although I can't figure that one out - it's just what I've been told. I get worse when I'm tired, on pain meds, distracted, talking too fast, or unfocused - but I've always been clear when speaking except with new words that look really weird phonetically.
Everyone is different, but you will likely keep your ability to speak. You will probably loose some clarity over time but not so much that people can not understand you. I'm asked to repeat maybe a few times a day for clarity, but that becomes a reminder for me to slow down and focus on what I'm trying to say.
 
Voice? No. Speech and pronunciation? Probably, yes. I know mine has and I'm getting that deaf accent. :deaf:
 
Alex said:
Voice? No. Speech and pronunciation? Probably, yes. I know mine has and I'm getting that deaf accent. :deaf:
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I wonder if maybe it's because as people with "late onset deafness' or whatever you want to call it, tend to sign more and more and use their voice less and less? I know I have gotten to the point I even sign to my dog and cat rather than talk. LOL

Been really throwing myself into ASL for about the last 6 months to a year. I have hearing aids, they worked a little for a while, but not so much now. I realized I really had to accept I am deaf now. It's taken some work on my part to accept it and now I am trying to re-find my place in society. :)
 
hoodoowytch said:
I wonder if maybe it's because as people with "late onset deafness' or whatever you want to call it, tend to sign more and more and use their voice less and less? I know I have gotten to the point I even sign to my dog and cat rather than talk. LOL

Been really throwing myself into ASL for about the last 6 months to a year. I have hearing aids, they worked a little for a while, but not so much now. I realized I really had to accept I am deaf now. It's taken some work on my part to accept it and now I am trying to re-find my place in society. :)
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It has nothing to do with signing, as it happens to those who don't sign. I've had a lot of speech therapy, probably more than most, I've had about 10 years of it. It's all to do with how you push the air out and how you time it with your tongue, lips and teeth. When you stop hearing yourself, you get sloppy. You don't enunciate as well and you don't push the air out properly and your timing can also be off.

Because you were a singer with apparently some training, you can continue to use that in your daily speech. It can get pretty exhausting, just like if you were singing professionally all day long every day. It's not like the singing you do in the shower ;-)
 
Speech and pronunciation could change, but that is definitely something that varies person to person. When my hearing first went at around 16, which was also when I could hear the least (perforated both eardrums and damaged some nerves in my inner ear), I was told by a couple people I was starting to "sound funny" every now and then after about a week and a half because my speech got lazy, fast. Now I still get it years later whenever I cant really hear myself or don't pay much attention to how I speak I get asked where I'm from(I get the UK and Russia a lot as my potential regions of origin). It seems to depend on quite a few things.
 
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