# My mum heard my voice for the first time today! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 24, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484 "2008-12-24T01:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/21 "2008-12-24T19:39:10Z")
This is wonderful news. Are there prospects for her to be able to learn to distinguish words, or is that skill no longer possible. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/22 "2008-12-24T19:47:57Z")
That’s really amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/23 "2008-12-24T19:48:27Z")
Wow, that’s great! I’m severely bending my mind trying to imagine how it must feel for her to hear things for the first time, however… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/24 "2008-12-24T20:26:57Z")
Fantastic! Reading this really made my day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/25 "2008-12-24T21:51:25Z")
Wicked. I know the feeling. My mum got one, she’s been pretty deaf since the age of about 10. It’s a bit overwhelming at first. I remember her saying she couldn’t believe how distracting and intrusive all these sounds are and would turn it down and she’s never worn it constantly. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/26 "2008-12-24T22:08:26Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > It’s a very interesting aspect of speech, and one I became aquainted with about > two years ago, when I became an OR nurse. I’m fairly hard of hearing, but didn’t realize how much I’d relied on lip reading until I began working in a situation where everyone had their mouths covered! Adding to my difficulty was the fact that I was trying to learn new occupational jargon, and I’d simply never heard many of the words before. I frustrated a LOT of surgeons by saying “I’m sorry, what did you ask for?” twelve times before they spoke loudly enough for me to understand it. Having then heard the word, it was much easier to “hear” it on subsequent occasions. > > And **Francesca** , that’s wonderful for you and your family. I think we all read lips more than we realize - I wear glasses from the time I get up until I go to bed, and if I take them off and try to talk to someone, it just doesn’t seem to work (and my hearing is perfectly normal). That’s super news, **Francesca**. Here’s hoping your father has a good result, too. It’s interesting that you posted about how your mom was almost hit by an ambulance, and safety was a concern for her getting the hearing aids, after hearing about the raging controversy in the deaf community about cochlear implants and how some of them consider being deaf to not be a handicap. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/27 "2008-12-25T12:22:49Z")
Wonderful story! I’m very happy for your family. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/28 "2008-12-25T16:04:49Z")
Very cool… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/29 "2008-12-25T16:33:07Z")
**Francesca,** is the new hearing aid something fancy like a cochlear implant, or just an acoustic amplifier-type device? Hope you don’t mind my asking – I’m just curious for technical reasons how that works. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/30 "2008-12-25T21:24:22Z")
That’s awesome! _glees quietly for you and your mum_ ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/31 "2008-12-26T08:59:40Z")
Your story made me smile and brought tears to my eyes, as its a topic that hits very close to home for me- I totally grok the concept of hearing something for the first time and how mind blowing of a thought that is… Congrats to you and your mother, and best wishes and luck to your father as well. Take Care. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/32 "2008-12-26T13:47:08Z")
that’s fantastic! just remember not to mumble around them anymore… they’ll hear you! ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/33 "2008-12-26T14:30:08Z")
Now you can ask her for money all the time! My cousin Rick is profoundly deaf and has hearing aids since an infant. When he was in his late 20’s, he got a new kind of hearing aid and his first day wearing it, he heard a noise that he couldn’t figure out what it was. Then he tripped over it. It was the cat meowing at him for food. He had never heard him before. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/34 "2008-12-26T17:00:17Z")
Your parents both have a lot of sounds to catch up on! How old is your father, BTW – who you said lost his hearing in his teens? I’m thinking about what changes in music have happened since… and what classic movies your parents can now more fully enjoy. I’m trying to imagine having watched, say, forty-plus years’ worth of James Bond movies without ever knowing the instrumental Bond theme, or for that matter, the sounds of gunshots, explosions, car chases, Shirley Bassey, etc. To pick just one of a zillion such examples… ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484/35 "2008-12-26T18:20:27Z")
That’s fantastic news, thanks for sharing with us? I’m sure others are curious as well…how is she handling exposure to new sounds like music and people singing? Birds? I’m very curious about that kind of thing…really give people new perspective on how our world works. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mum-heard-my-voice-for-the-first-time-today/478484.md?page=1)