Hearoes

The concept is good, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The speakers have British accents. My husband recently had a cochlear implant, and I downloaded this app in order to mirror it on our television for better sound quality. Even with the enhanced sound quality, he and I both have some difficulty understanding (I have no hearing loss) some words. It would seem that in order to help someone with a new cochlear implant, speaking a bit more slowly and distinctly would be helpful. Some consonants seem to be swallowed, so he cannot hear the difference between the words. The speech is rapid and clipped. I know that in ordinary conversation, people don’t speak slowly and distinctly, but as an exercise for someone trying to learn to understand speech with a cochlear implant, one would expect the early exercises to be pronounced with more distinct enunciation, then working up to speaking more rapidly in later exercises. Combine that with the differences in inflection between American and British speech and it’s a set-up for failure if you’re American. My husband was discouraged after the first few rounds of exercises. What an individual needs at the early stages of trying to hear with a cochlear implant is a feeling of some success, not failure.

I am having troubles listening!