One can wonder how the various levels of hearing impairment impact speech and language.

Professor J.C. LAFON helps us on this: « …the audiometric classification of hearing impairments issued by BIAP (International Bureau for Audiophonology) summarises how the various levels of impairment affect speech and language. The key elements of this classification are presented below.

It refers, obviously, to a probability of occurrence that will depend on when the deafness arises, how early the child is equipped with hearing devices, on parental educational guidance, on speech therapy, on the child’s intellectual capacities, personality and behaviour, on the social and educational environments, on psychological and medical monitoring, on family care…

Mild hearing loss : average tone loss (a.t.l.) from 20 to 40 dB. Speech is perceived if the voice is normal, but some phonetic components are missing in the child’s perception, in particular if the voice is low-pitched.

Moderate hearing loss : a.t.l. from 40 to 70 dB. Speech is only perceived if the voice is loud, lip reading is employed, the patient encounters serious issues without hearing devices.

Severe hearing loss : a.t.l. from 70 to 90 dB. Speech is hardly perceived and only if the voice is very loud, lip reading is heavily employed, hearing aids are formally required and speech therapy is essential.

Very severe hearing loss : a.t.l. over 90 dB. Muteness is systematically observed if the child does not receive appropriate education and hearing devices. Lip reading is essential. If the average tone loss is over 100 dB at the 250 Hz, 500 Hz et 1000 Hz frequencies, then the hearing loss is considered to be almost total. This is cophosis. This does not mean that nothing can be perceived, but the informational content is so low that no acoustic structure can be identified through hearing. »(1)

No doubt you noticed Professor J.C. LAFON only refers to children here, but many of these lessons could also be used in adults.

JYM

(1) Professor J.C. LAFON « les enfants déficients auditifs » (« hearing-impaired children ») page 75.

El viernes 29 de diciembre 2017, a las 5 de la tarde, mi mujer vino a verme para pedirme que lea un artículo que había visto en LE FIGARO (1), parecido este mismo día, diciéndome que ¡debería interesarme!

Me intereso tanto que transcribo aquí una parte, aprovechando de agradecer LE FIGARO que, ojala, no se enfadará tanto conmigo de no haberle pedido su autorización previa.

Pensé que así, con lo que dice Tom WOLFE, seria empezar bien el año y ¡aportar una nueva piedra a mi « edificio LAFONnista »!

LE FIGARO entrevista Tom WOLFE quien acaba de publicar un libro intitulado «El reino del lenguaje » en las ediciones Robert LAFFONT en la colección « Pavillons ».

… LE FIGARO: En su último libro, El Reino del lenguaje, explica que es el idioma que hace la especificidad del ser humano. ¿En qué?

Tom WOLFE: Existe entre el ser humano y el animal una diferencia esencial, una línea de demarcación tan empinada e inamovible como una falla geológica: el habla! El lenguaje dio a la « bestia humana » mucho más que una ingeniosa herramienta de comunicación. En realidad, es una innovación del valor de una bomba atómica! El habla ha sido la primera invención, el primer artefacto, la primera vez que una criatura terrestre, el hombre, tomó elementos de la naturaleza, en este caso sonidos, para transformarlos en algo totalmente nuevo y forjado por él, secuencias de sonoridades que formaban códigos, que recibieron el nombre de «palabras».

No sólo el lenguaje es una herramienta pero en la primera de todas, la que hizo todas las demás posibles, desde el más simple de los picos al primer bastón hasta la rueda y al cohete espacial. Sin el lenguaje, no hay baile, no hay música, ni siquiera un tarareo de una melodía, un tamborileo, o existe ritmo de ningún tipo ni compás para palmear.

En resumen, es el lenguaje, y sólo el, que confirió a la «bestia humana» la fuerza de conquistar cada parcela de tierra sobre este planeta y de comer la mitad de los recursos comestibles del océano. Y, sin embargo, esta explotación del globo terrestre es tan solo el resultado menor de la potencia de las palabras: su proeza principal es de haber creado el ego, la consciencia de sí. Solo el lenguaje permite al hombre de cuestionar su existencia, de vivirla o de renunciar a ella.

Ningún animal piensa en el suicidio, o en masacrar su clase a gran escala. Es solo la palabra que nos permite auto-examinarnos y hacer que el planeta sea inhabitable, simplemente asi, en el transcurso de treinta a cuarenta minutos nucleares…

JYM

1. http://premium.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/2017/12/29/31003-20171229ARTFIG00012-tom-wolfe-le-politiquement-correct-est-devenu-l-instrument-des-classes-dominantes.php

On Friday 29 December 2017, at about 5 pm, my wife came to me and asked me to have a look at an article published in the French newspaper LE FIGARO (1) that she had come across that day: the paper was about the language, and she was sure it would be of interest to me!

It was, indeed, so interesting that I have decided to quote part of it here – I hope that LE FIGARO will not be offended of me quoting their article, as I did not ask for their permission, and I am very grateful for them to let me do so.

I thought that the words of Tom Wolfe reported in the article were a good start into the New Year, and that they would constitute a key contribution to my “LAFONian project”.

The article published in LE FIGARO is an interview of the writer Tom Wolfe about his new book entitled ‘The kingdom of speech’ (“Le règne du language” in French, published in France by Robert Laffont Publishing, as part of the ‘Pavillons’ collection).

… LE FIGARO: In your last book, The Kingdom of Speech, you explain that speech is what makes the uniqueness of human beings. How is that?

Tom Wolfe: There is a fundamental distinction between animals and human beings, a demarcation line as steep and immutable as a geological fault: the speech! The language provided the “human beast” with a tool that is much more than a mean to communicate. It is actually an innovation just as important as the elaboration of the atomic bomb! Speech was the very first invention, the first artefact, the first time when one kind of creatures living on Earth, i.e. human beings, turned elements from Mother Nature – the sounds – into something totally new and solely designed by them, strings of sonorities assembled into codes that were lately named “words”.

Not only is speech a tool, but it is the very first one of all, the one that made the elaboration of all others possible, from the most rudimentary pickaxe to the sledgehammer, the wheel and so on up to our current spatial shuttles. Without speech, there is no dance, no music, not even the slightest humming of a ritornello, no drum beat, no rhythm of any kind and thus, no hand-clapping.

In a nutshell, speech – and speech only – provided the “human beast” with the strength to conquer every single inch of land on the planet, and to eat and stuff its face with half the resources of the ocean. Still, this meticulous control of the planet’s surface is just a minor consequence of the power of speech: its major achievement being the elaboration of the ego and the rise of self-consciousness. Only speech can allow human beings to question their own existence, to decide whether they should go on with it or terminate it.

No animal can think of suicide, or of the large-scale extermination of its peers. Only speech makes it possible for the humanity to run a self-reflection, and to turn the planet into a hell within thirty to fourty minutes of nuclear reaction.

JYM

(1) The article published in LE FIGARO newspaper can be found here: http://premium.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/2017/12/29/31003-20171229ARTFIG00012-tom-wolfe-le-politiquement-correct-est-devenu-l-instrument-des-classes-dominantes.php