What it’s like to gain hearing as an adolescent
A few weeks ago, the radio show This American Life featured an interview with Scott Krepel, a man who was born deaf but was given the ability to hear around the age of 11 or 12 when he received a cochlear implant. Scott describes the thrill of first experiencing sound and the eventual over-stimulation and disappointment that ensued. The story is reminiscent of the cases of adults gaining the ability to see described by Oliver Sachs in An Anthropologist on Mars and by Gregory and Wallace in Recovery from Early Blindess: A Case Study. The interview is short, well worth listening to, and is freely available here:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/411/first-contact
It’s at the very beginning of the show.
-David Groppe
REFERENCES:
Gregory, R.L. & Wallace, J.G. (1963) Recovery from early blindness: A case study Experimental Psychology Society Monograph, No.2. Cambridge: Heffers.
Sachs, O.W. (1995) An Antrhopologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales, New York: Knopf.
Spikes & Waves 