A Quiet World: Living with Hearing Loss

by David G. Myers

Book Overview

Some 28 million people in America and 350 million people worldwide live with hearing loss. How do these people and their families cope? What are their experiences of pain, humor, and hope? What... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300084390
• ISBN13: 9780300084399
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

If you have hearing loss, read this book.

Anyone with hearing loss will identify with the content of David Myer's book. Very inspirational!

Very informative

This book has so much to offer for the hearing-impaired and their families. I almost skipped over it because it is the author's story of losing his hearing as an adult. My son was diagnosed at age 4 1/2. I am so glad that I decided to read it! Myers offers a wealth of technical information along with an impressive list of internet resources. Perhaps the most important aspect of the book is the emotional insight in dealing with hearing loss. I definitely learned to be more patient with my son after reading this book. I visited the author's website and emailed him about his helpful book. He even emailed back with more suggestions for my son!

A Heart-Felt, Exquisitely Written Piece!

If you have loss of hearing, the prose and memoirs by Dr. Myers will be profoundly familiar. You will find yourself sitting and listening to this friend as he shares secrets you seldom discuss with anyone. The author offers rich experiences in roller coaster rides of emotion. He is insightful, humorous, sensitive, revealing, encouraging--and often painfully honest. You feel his torment and elation, and through it, not only come to know the author, but clearly more about living with hearing loss. An excellent recommendation for those with hearing loss, and professionals who desire to learn more about the experience.Dr. Myers leaves you anxiously waiting for his next book. . .Richard Carmen, Au.D. Clinical Audiologist, Sedona AZ rcarmen27@yahoo.com [and Editor/Author, "The Consumer Handbook on Hearing Loss & Hearing Aids: A Bridge to Healing," Auricle Ink Publishers, 1998]

Exploring hearing loss

This book is wonderful and useful in a variety of ways. It deserves all of the praise it has earned. The chapter "Aids and Advice" contains a helpful subsection, "Advice for Friends and Family Members" that is invaluable. Tips such as "invite us to a quiet place," "get our attention," "face the light and face us," "rephrase," "create a context," and "speak slowly" are essential for successful communication with people with hearing loss since, for many people with hearing loss, lip-reading is necessary or at least desirable. Wearers of hearing aids become particularly vexed by, for example, noisy restuarants. This is because most hearing aids still amplify all sounds without prejudice - the words you want to hear (the signal) along with the crash of dishes three tables away (the noise). Add curtainless windows, uncarpeted floors, background music, and ever-increasing decibel level of voices competing to be heard, and you get a very noisy place. Myers explains this in good detail. He then shares his wonderful fantasy : respite from the "noisy world" of most restaurants and coffee shops via a chain of acoustically thought-out tea rooms and coffeehouses named "A Quiet Place." He quotes various studies and surveys that have shown that a great many restaurant patrons object to excessive noise. Myers offers some great trivia, such as the fact that umpires' hand signals were invented in 1892 by William Hoy, the major leagues' first deaf player. In addition, Myers cites the works and writings of others (whom he names) - Oliver Sacks, linguist William Stokoe, Alexander Graham Bell, for example - leading his reader further into this interesting field, should one wish to read on. He also mentions, though not in much detail, some current research and developments, using lay person's terms. There is an appendix of resources for the hard of hearing, and an index. No bibliography, unfortunately.A great book and thoroughly worthwhile.

Encouraging!

The vulnerability of hearing loss is being replaced with the confidence of new discoveries and the promise of exciting advances in hearing technology. David G. Myers takes us through his journey to the silent world. He has lived through the panic of searching for a replacement battery for his hearing aid and responded to words that were never spoken. Later he realized what he had misunderstood or laughed at what he thought he had heard. Like a comedy of "ears," he recounts the humorous and sad "errors" in his life due to hearing loss and takes us through a myriad of experiences with various hearing aids. Many of these accounts are laugh out loud funny, while others tell of a world where words are garbled, sentences lack clarity, and the sound of his own voice sounded strange and hauntingly distorted. Many in the silent world compensate with sign language, learn to read lips, or use computer technology to communicate effectively. The denial of the hearing impaired also points to the fact that it can at times be embarrassing. In his journal-style writings, David draws on his own experiences and explains the dread he feels when he must ask for a sentence to be repeated. He tells of the isolation he feels when he must mimic others laughing around him even though he didn't hear the punch line, or how he is determined to see his life from different eyes than his mother saw her own silent life. You will be amazed at the patience and love his wife shows as she finally convinces David to seek out an audiologist. Through a great love for each other, they manage to maintain an optimistic outlook, show immense patience, and stay emotionally connected. Together they offer sage advice on how friends and family can encourage hard of hearing relatives and friends to seek treatment. In the first part of this book, I laughed. In the middle, I felt well informed. The ending left me hopeful. I was pleased to see a comprehensive resource guide for further study. David is well known for cutting the facts down to size and for explaining them in a way that makes you feel enlightened, or at least very well informed. You will learn how sound travels from the ear to the brain, see a picture of the hearing mechanism, find out what 16 thousand hair cells are doing inside the cochlea, and finally wonder where your biology teacher was and why she never taught you this! (pages 120-128) "Why not do today's kids a huge favor and make information about hearing an essential part of their health education curriculum? Listening to loud music can have devastating repercussions." --David G. Myers After reading "The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty," also by David Myers, I believe his writings should be in every library, home and school. He has the amazing ability to discover what America needs to hear. Through his writings, he has inspired me in my own life's journey and always leaves me with a sense of hope for the future. If you know someone who is deali