I Can Hear You Whisper, Lydia Denworth
I Can Hear You Whisper, Lydia Denworth
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I Can Hear You Whisper
An Intimate Journey through the Science of Sound and Language

Author: Lydia Denworth

Narrator: Karen Saltus

Unabridged: 11 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 05/01/2014


Synopsis

An investigation into the science of hearing, child language acquisition, neuroplasticity, brain development, and Deaf culture.

A mother notices her toddler is not learning to talk the way his brothers did… Is something wrong? Her search for answers is a journey into the mysteries of the human brain.

Lydia Denworth’s third son, Alex, was nearly two when he was identified with significant hearing loss that was likely to get worse. Her sweet boy with the big brown eyes had probably never heard her lullabies.

Denworth knew the importance of enrichment to the developing brain but had never contemplated the opposite: Deprivation. How would a child’s brain grow outside the world of sound most of us take for granted? How would he communicate? Would he learn to read and write—weren’t phonics a key to literacy? How long did they have until Alex’s brain changed irrevocably? In her drive to understand the choices—starting with the angry debate between supporters of American Sign Language and the controversial but revolutionary cochlear implant—Denworth soon found that every decision carried weighty scientific, social and even political implications. As she grappled with the complex collisions between the emerging field of brain plasticity, the possibilities of modern technology, and the changing culture of the Deaf community, she gained a new appreciation of the exquisite relationship between sound, language and learning. It became clear that Alex’s ears—and indeed everyone’s—were just the beginning.

An acclaimed science journalist as well as a mother, Denworth interviewed the world’s experts on language development, inventors of ground-breaking technology, Deaf leaders, and neuroscientists at the frontiers of research. She presents insights from studies of everything from at-risk kids in Head Start to noisy cocktail party conversation, from songbirds to signal processing, and from the invention of the telephone to sign language.

Weaving together tales from the centuries-long quest to develop the cochlear implant and simultaneous leaps in neuroscientific knowledge against a tumultuous backdrop of identity politics, I Can Hear You Whisper shows how sound sculpts our children’s brains and the life changing consequences of that delicate process.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lauren on January 17, 2020

I just had the great satisfaction of reading, and the great sorrow of finishing, Lydia Denworth's latest masterpiece, I CAN HEAR YOU WHISPER. I kind of expected as much, being that Denworth's first book, TOXIC TRUTH, blew my lead-weighted socks off. Who knew that a book about two guys battling the le......more

Goodreads review by Yibbie on September 16, 2019

Just what does it mean to be deaf? This book doesn’t answer that question. No book could. But it is a wonderful introduction to that world for those of us who are hearing. It’s a well-balanced mix of personal memoir, scientific treatise, historical text, and social commentary that helps us see a li......more

Goodreads review by Judy on March 11, 2015

What an excellent book. When the author discovered her third son was profoundly hearing impaired, she embarked on an exploration of hearing, speech, language, neurology, neuroanatomy and the history of Deaf culture. I read this as a physician and as a parent of a child who had learning difficulties......more

Goodreads review by Atila on November 24, 2017

O livro é uma biografia/explicação da autora conforme ela descobre que o filho nasceu com perda auditiva, entende o que é e passa pelos obstáculos que aparecem, até terminar com a colocação do implante coclear. É uma discussão bem embasada, com muita neurociência e muito tato, falando sobre a criaçã......more

Goodreads review by Timothy on September 13, 2022

This is a well written book about the author's journey into the deaf world, as a result of having to raise a child who is deaf. She talks about the medical science, the culture, and the community of deafness. She also takes a deep diving into the sense of hearing, and why and how things can go wrong......more