The Curtain Of Silence Horizon


The Curtain Of Silence

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Archive programmes chosen by experts.

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For this collection, Prof Alice Roberts has selected

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a range of programmes to celebrate Horizon's 50th anniversary.

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More Horizon programmes and other BBC Four Collections

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are available on BBC iPlayer.

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Oh, yes, I can hear if anybody is knocking on the front door.

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I go to the door, I watch their mouths move.

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HE MIMICS A PHONE RINGING

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- Hello! - Hello!

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THEY CHATTER

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OK. Bye-bye.

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I cannot hear the birds sing.

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Early morning, the sunrise and the birds, the larks, the thrushes,

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the jays, the finches, even. All of that.

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To wake up in the morning and see the sun shining and hear those birds,

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it must be a wonderful, wonderful thing.

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THEY CHAT

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'If you're lucky, you can probably hear what everyone is saying.

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'With too many voices, you're able to concentrate on one of them.'

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..Saying that it's not a good spot,

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because they're going to be limited for playground space.

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'Some say the ability to hear human speech is our most precious gift.

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'Equally important is the ability to pick it out from other sounds.'

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...right outside and they have their lunches all laid out

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and the lunch ladies come and...

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'But for the deaf, it's very different.'

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SILENCE

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'Nearly all of us are born with virtually perfect hearing.'

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SHIP SIREN BLARES

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'The baby easily hears the low frequency of a ship's siren.

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'It also picks up the high-pitched

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'squeaking of a bat at a very high frequency.'

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'But as we get older, our hearing ability begins to fall off,

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'particularly with high frequencies.' SHIP SOUNDS LESS AUDIBLE

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VOLUME INCREASES

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'We can still hear the ship, but many of us can't hear a bat,

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'however loud it squeaks.'

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SQUEAKING

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'To hear bats may not matter, but to hear speech does.

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'In the whole range of sound - low frequency, top left,

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'high, top right and loudest at the bottom -

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'speech is bang in the middle.

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'It's neither very high- nor low-frequency, nor very loud,

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'but for normal life, it's vital to hear it.

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'Normal adults have no difficulty, but if you're deaf,

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'the curtain of silence cuts you off from speech.'

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'Degrees of deafness are plotted on audiograms.

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'Old people often show some hearing at low frequencies on the left,

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'but little at high ones on the right.

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'This person could hear about half the range of human speech,

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'but would miss any high notes.'

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'Audiograms chart the hearing in each ear separately,

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'as it can vary considerably.

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'This is what your audiogram should look like if you haven't had to turn

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'up the volume on your set and your hearing's really good.

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'You should hear everything from the quietest squeak

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'to the most distant thunder.

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'This is the chart of a deaf child. Normal speech is way above his range.

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'Here's another who can barely hear even the very loudest noises.

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'Even with two hearing aids blasting in,

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'such a child lives in a world of distant rumbles.

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'They look normal, noisy, happy children. Certainly they're happy,

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'but none of them hear any of the noise they're making.'

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Find a bowl. Yes, you've to find a bowl first.

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'In class, their lessons are at full volume in the hope that

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'something gets through. This is probably all they hear.

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TEACHER IS BARELY AUDIBLE

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'It's no ordinary lesson. They are learning to lip read, to understand

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'the meaning behind flickering lips.

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'For without some form of language, there is

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'little hope of gaining any of the knowledge we take for granted.

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'To teach these children involves incredible patience.

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'Only when the child can lip read or relate any faint sounds with speech,

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'will it begin to understand the importance of language

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'and attempt to reply in words it will never hear.'

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'Earphones help, for very few children are totally deaf.'

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I had a green bowl. And I put some...

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'If any sound at all gets through, it encourages the child to listen

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'harder, often causing a slight improvement in hearing and

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'when you're deaf, any improvement, however small, means a lot.

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'We sympathise with such children,

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'because we can see their hearing aids,

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'but no young man wants to reveal he's deaf, he's disabled.

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'We tend to sympathise with the disabilities we can see.

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'The white stick becomes a cry for help

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'when you see a blind person approaching heavy traffic.'

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CAR HORNS TOOT

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'We give more than ten times as much to

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'charities for the blind as for the deaf.

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'But if this girl were deaf,

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'she might be equally at risk from the fast car she hadn't heard,

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'but no-one would have helped, no-one would have known.'

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'Even what are still probably the most neglected people among us,

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'the old, get some help, some understanding.

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'But if you're old and deaf, as millions are, you're very likely to

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'be treated as either stupid or an annoying embarrassment.

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'When did you last see this sign? Probably never.

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'It could help us to help the deaf,

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'but do you blame the deaf for only rarely branding themselves with it?

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'For many, the badge of deafness is the hearing aid,

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'yet, in some ways, their wearers are the lucky majority.

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'They at least hear something. Others are less fortunate.

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'Sound enters our ear as a complex set of ripples in the air.

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'It's channelled by the ear into a tiny living instrument

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'of incredible sensitivity.

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'At the end of the passage is the eardrum, which converts

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'the vibrations of sound in the air into mechanical movement.'

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'Attached to the drum are three minute bones, the hammer,

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'anvil and stirrup.

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'There in the middle ear, the physical joints

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'which relay to the brain

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'both the squeak of a bat and the explosion of a bomb.

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'If you hear these words,

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'your middle ear is vibrating with similar activity, but if you can't,

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'the bones may have become ossified and stilled to silence.

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'This particular deafness can be cured.

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'The operation involves great dexterity,

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'working under the microscope.

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'The cavity of the middle ear is penetrated to remove the stirrup.'

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'It's replaced by a tiny plastic piston.

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'This operation has given thousands a new chance to hear,

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'but that's only a fraction of those suffering other forms of deafness.'

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'It enables the vibrations of the middle ear

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'to pass into the inner ear,

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'a shell-like receiver, smaller than a pea,

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'which captures every sound you will ever hear.

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'The inner ear is like a spiral corridor

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'edged with microscopic hairs,

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'each of which somehow senses the frequency and volume of sound,

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'resonates with it and relays it to the brain.

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'The tragedy is, that though we know what the inner ear does,

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'no-one is certain about precisely how it works.

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'Until they are, no-one can repair any suspected faults inside it.

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'For the time being,

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'its tiny confines are beyond the reach of medical practice.

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'For the deaf person who hasn't learned to speak,

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'this is the easiest way of talking. It's slow

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'and few hearing people understand sign language.'

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'Even slower is spelling each word letter by letter.

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'To spell this fast takes practice.

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'At this speed, not even many experts can decipher what is being spelt,

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'but compared with speech, it's pathetically slow.'

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'Many of these children are potentially very bright indeed.

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'Their tragedy is that they have to spend much of the time

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'when their minds are most receptive, learning speech

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'which other children, however dim, take for granted.

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'Such a delay is often a major educational handicap.

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'It makes early detection of deafness essential.

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'Adam's parents suspected something was wrong

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'and their doctor referred them to this clinic in Manchester,

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'where a precise measure of the degree of his deafness

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'is to be taken.'

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All right? Good.

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- I think that's OK. - There we are.

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'A two-year-old can't tell you about what he can't hear,

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'so special equipment is used to check

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'if the mechanism of the middle ear

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'is relaying sound vibrations properly.

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'The graph of sound bounced back from the ear showed that the middle ear

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'was working normally, so the problem lay with the inner ear.

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'Unfortunately, many deaf children

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'are not diagnosed before the age of two,

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'the critical period for learning speech.

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'As a result, they may be retarded

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'and the longer the delay in finding them,

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'the worse the handicap.'

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That's fine. There. Good.

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That's it! That's a good boy! We'll put this one. Here you are.

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Let's put that one.

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'The child is now exposed to various sounds, all of which have been

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'previously checked to determine their exact frequency.

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'The object is to see which he can hear

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'and if both ears are working equally well.'

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We've got that one. It goes like that.

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Let's try some sounds a wee bit louder now. All right?

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HE CLAPS Bump. There, like that. That's right.

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That's right. Terry. TAPPING

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Very good.

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'It's a very skilled job.

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'The child's attention must be held all the time to be certain

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'he's only distracted by the specific sound under study.'

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CUP TAPS

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'Few ordinary hospital outpatient departments have time or staff

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'to give every child this kind of attention.'

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What's this one? Make it go like this.

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'Now, they try his response to speech.'

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Baba. Baba.

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Baba! BABA!

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'His better ear has picked it up.'

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- Once again. To your right. - Hello. Hello!

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There we are.

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'Now they try a pure tone device.'

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THE DEVICE BEEPS

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BEEPS GET LOUDER

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'Again, his better ear detects the sound first.'

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There was the build-up. That's right.

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HE BLOWS A WHISTLE

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Hey. Here. Watch.

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'All the time, his attention must be held.'

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He's doing very well.

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We'll make this one go, let's make this one go round.

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Make it go round and round.

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THE DEVICE BEEPS

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Yes. BEEPING

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Yes. Still the left is dominant. Hey, there we are!

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HE BLOWS Like that. Make it go there.

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HE TAPS THE XYLOPHONE

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'Such testing takes hours of patient, skilled work.

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'In Britain, it's a lottery whether you live near one of the few centres

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'with either the equipment or the gifted staff to guarantee that

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'a child's deafness is detected early.

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'Too many children slip through the net.'

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Still, the turn tends to be on the right.

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'This family were lucky.

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'They live near Manchester where they can bring their daughter Claire

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'to one of the best hearing centres in the country.

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'Claire 's deafness was detected quite early and although, at four,

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'she's still too young for a special school, her parents

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'can come to this clinic with her to learn to teach her lip-reading

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'and even the rudiments of speech,

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'for every second counts for the developing child.

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'First, a routine check to confirm her degree of hearing loss.

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'The test shows how loud various sound frequencies have to be

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'before she hears them. For Claire, it's a game.

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'She put a ball on a stick when she hears something.'

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Wait and listen. Wait and listen.

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I've got the boost on. We'll start at 250.

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LOW-PITCHED SOUND PLAYS Good girl. Wait and listen.

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HIGHER-PITCHED SOUND PLAYS

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Good. We've got a threshold response there.

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'Catching that threshold response was important.

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'It marked the precise volume

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'at which Claire just perceived the sound.

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'In the future, that volume intensity will be tested again to see

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'if it's got lower and if, therefore, her hearing is getting better.

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HIGH-PITCHED SOUND PLAYS

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Right, good girl. That's right.

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'This is what it's like now.

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'A few years ago, she'd have been called deaf and dumb.

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'Detected young, she'll have a good chance of speaking normally.

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'Claire is now presented with objects, each verbally identified.

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'The tester will then make sure that Claire can't hear him

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'and check whether she's really begun to lip-read.'

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What's that one? SHE RESPONDS

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Spoon. That's right.

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And that is a...?

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SHE RESPONDS Brick.

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What's that? Have a look.

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SHE RESPONDS

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A shoe. And a...?

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Glove.

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- Mmmou... - Mouse. Yes.

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Now, then. OK. Now, then, look. Let's get your finger.

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You show me. You show me. Where is the fish?

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That's a good girl. Watch. Where is the shoe?

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That's a good girl. Where is the spoon?

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Good girl. Show me the house.

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That's right. You listen. You listen.

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SHOUTS: Where's the house?! Where's the house?!

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NORMAL VOLUME: Where's the house?

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'She's lip-reading.'

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OK, listen.

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SHOUTS: Where's the brick? Show me the brick!

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NORMAL VOLUME: Show me the brick.

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Show me the brick.

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'Lip-reading is vital.

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'These parents are getting one of their first lessons in how to teach

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'the skill to their 18-month-old daughter, Tracey.

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'It demands very special techniques.'

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No. Pull. No. Pull. There's the man. That's the man.

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Now, I will roll the man to you. I will roll him to you. Hands ready.

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Come on. Let's get your hands ready. That's right. Hands ready.

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There we are. Now, then, I will roll the man to you. Here he comes.

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I will roll him. There we are. There. There. Now, there. Yes.

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Those are his eyes. Those are his eyes. Now put him in your hand.

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There, like that. But I want to take them off. Let's switch off.

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That's it. Now, let's take them off.

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Take it off like that. That's right.

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And we sit on Mummy's knee. Come on. Sit on Mummy's knee.

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Right, you take her on her knee, on your knee.

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That's good. That's fine. Lovely.

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Now, then...

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It isn't automatic that a child

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or a person who has a hearing loss

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automatically lip-reads. They've got to be helped.

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They've got to be taught on this one, all right?

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Now, I did certain things while I was getting her to watch me.

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For one thing, I held items close to my mouth. They were there.

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So that the item is seen and so is the pattern on the lips,

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and it's really not just the pattern on the lips,

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it's the whole expression.

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So, I spoke about the man. Here's the man. I will roll the man to you.

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And when I was doing this, I had it there,

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I didn't have it three inches away, that makes a difference.

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If I move that item, even if looks a short distance, but move it away,

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and a child will follow the item. That's the interest factor.

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And so she's not watching your lips. So I want it there.

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I want it either there or there. But not there.

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Now this is the other danger you've got to watch.

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When you're talking to her and saying, "Here's the man,

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"do you want the man, Tracey?"

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We are blocking the pattern.

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No, I want it there or there. I didn't do this. Here's the man.

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I'll roll the man to you.

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Because if I had have done, I'd have lost something.

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And I want to get in as much as I can in this situation.

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That's a green bus. Green like that. Isn't it? What colour is that?

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Green. Green. It's green. Yes. The Bury bus is a green bus.

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'Claire's mother has already mastered such basic essentials

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'and is now learning how to encourage Claire to reply

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'while teaching her spatial concepts with toys and games.'

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Yes. CLAIRE IMPERSONATES A BUS

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Can you put it on the picture? Can you find the space for it?

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CLAIRE RESPONDS

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Oh, it doesn't fit in there!

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That's right. Press it. Press it down.

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Make sure it's in properly.

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CLAIRE MIMICS SOME SOUNDS

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It's in properly.

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Good. Now, can we take this point up here?

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We've talked about the front wheel.

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And we've talked about the back wheel.

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Now let's take this a step further

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and talk about something in front of the bus, the car,

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and then for the next one, something behind the bus, all right?

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- Yes, I see, yes. - At the back.

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I know, we'll find something else. In the bag.

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Something that goes in front of the bus. What do you think it is?

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- Ah! - You think it's the car?

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Do you think...?

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- A lorry! - A lorry?!

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Oh, no, where's the lorry?

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That goes BEHIND the bus.

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'Claire's lucky, she's now got a place

0:19:310:19:33

'at this special school in Southport,

0:19:330:19:35

'regarded by many experts as being

0:19:350:19:37

'one of the best of its type in the country.

0:19:370:19:39

'Several thousands are less fortunate,

0:19:390:19:41

'going to schools generally agreed as less well-equipped,

0:19:410:19:44

'less able to give the essential, individual tuition, without which,

0:19:440:19:48

'the deaf child will be unable to cope with the hearing world.

0:19:480:19:52

'These children desperately need all of the help we can give them.

0:19:520:19:55

'Too often, they don't get it.

0:19:550:19:57

'This little boy's audiogram shows he can barely hear anything at all,

0:19:580:20:02

'certainly no speech.

0:20:020:20:04

'Unlike Claire, he's had no help with speech until now

0:20:040:20:07

'and he's already five years old.

0:20:070:20:09

'The headphones relay speech at high volume,

0:20:100:20:12

'taking maximum advantage of whatever hearing he may have, however little.'

0:20:120:20:17

Let's have a look at your home book.

0:20:170:20:19

See if you can tell me what you were doing at the weekend.

0:20:190:20:21

You tell me about that. Who's that?

0:20:210:20:23

- Dog. - Yes, whose dog is it?

0:20:230:20:26

UNCLEAR

0:20:260:20:28

Who was catching it?

0:20:330:20:34

- The dog was catching it. - (UNCLEAR) Dog.

0:20:350:20:38

The dog was catching the ball, yes.

0:20:380:20:40

- Ball. - Yes, what colour was that?

0:20:410:20:44

'This book, the work of parents and child,

0:20:440:20:47

'tells what the child has been up to at home,

0:20:480:20:50

'a great help to a teacher making conversation.'

0:20:500:20:52

- Not a big one. It was a small one. - Small.

0:20:520:20:55

What colour was the ball?

0:20:560:20:58

'The child must be exposed to absolutely normal speech

0:20:580:21:02

'with natural rhythms.

0:21:020:21:04

'The over-emphasis we tend to use

0:21:040:21:05

'teaching hearing children to pronounce words

0:21:050:21:08

'just adds to a deaf child's difficulty.'

0:21:080:21:11

What's your dog's name?

0:21:110:21:13

UNCLEAR

0:21:130:21:15

Yes, he was catching the ball. What's the dog's name?

0:21:190:21:22

He's called Frenchy. You say, "My dog's called Frenchy."

0:21:250:21:29

UNCLEAR

0:21:290:21:32

And you were playing with Frenchy.

0:21:330:21:35

UNCLEAR

0:21:360:21:39

You say, "I was throwing the ball..."

0:21:390:21:41

'Teaching the deaf can be most frustrating,

0:21:410:21:44

'for often, its benefits will only be seen years later by another teacher.'

0:21:440:21:48

UNCLEAR

0:21:500:21:52

Those are fireworks. Who is that?

0:21:530:21:55

UNCLEAR

0:21:550:21:57

Fireworks.

0:22:000:22:01

Let's have a look.

0:22:020:22:03

We're going to have a look at what we brought to school...

0:22:040:22:06

'Individual tuition is the ideal,

0:22:060:22:08

'though much can be achieved with small groups.

0:22:080:22:11

'But here again, there are too few schools like this,

0:22:110:22:14

'too few classes sufficiently small and too few teachers

0:22:140:22:18

'either capable or unselfish enough

0:22:180:22:20

'to wait months for seemingly minimal results.'

0:22:200:22:22

Sit down.

0:22:220:22:24

That's a good boy. You smell.

0:22:240:22:27

It makes a dust. It's old paint.

0:22:290:22:32

It was stuck onto the brush.

0:22:330:22:35

I think your daddy didn't clean it properly.

0:22:350:22:37

Sean, you say, "It makes a dust."

0:22:390:22:41

It makes dust.

0:22:410:22:42

Yes, it's a very dusty brush.

0:22:420:22:44

Your daddy didn't clean it properly, did he?

0:22:460:22:48

My daddy... (UNCLEAR) ..brush.

0:22:480:22:51

Yes. What's this one? What's this?

0:22:510:22:54

It's a toothbrush. A toothbrush.

0:22:550:22:58

What colour is it, Sarah?

0:22:580:22:59

A red one. Yes, it's a red toothbrush.

0:23:010:23:03

Sean? Are you looking?

0:23:030:23:06

All right.

0:23:060:23:07

All right, just look at the toothbrushes.

0:23:070:23:10

UNCLEAR

0:23:100:23:12

That's like a little toothbrush, isn't it?

0:23:120:23:15

Yours is at home. You say,

0:23:170:23:19

"My toothbrush is at home."

0:23:190:23:22

Yes, that's right. Let him have yours.

0:23:220:23:25

Let's have yours. That's right.

0:23:250:23:27

Now, let's have a look at the colours.

0:23:270:23:30

What colour is that one, Darren?

0:23:300:23:32

UNCLEAR It's blue.

0:23:320:23:34

- What colour is this one? - Blue.

0:23:340:23:37

It's pale blue. Pale blue.

0:23:370:23:40

What colour is this one?

0:23:400:23:42

- Pink. - Pink.

0:23:420:23:44

Yes, and that one is...?

0:23:440:23:46

- Red. - Red.

0:23:460:23:48

It's your toothbrush, isn't it?

0:23:480:23:50

It's a red one.

0:23:500:23:52

Carl...

0:23:520:23:54

'Only when the teacher has improved their speech and lip-reading

0:23:540:23:57

'can she begin their wider education.

0:23:570:23:59

'It's laborious and critics say the children would be happier

0:23:590:24:02

'with sign language.

0:24:020:24:04

'But then, there'd be no chance of coming to terms

0:24:040:24:06

'with us, the hearing world.'

0:24:060:24:08

All right.

0:24:080:24:09

'These are some of the more senior pupils.

0:24:120:24:14

'They hear nothing, but by now can talk remarkably clearly,

0:24:140:24:17

'even in the presence of their headmaster.'

0:24:170:24:20

..Arranged a football match. It was Manchester who played Derby County.

0:24:200:24:24

I thought it was a good game.

0:24:240:24:26

They won 4-0.

0:24:260:24:27

I've never seen a game like that before, they all played well.

0:24:280:24:31

He was married in St Helen's.

0:24:330:24:35

Got married at three o'clock.

0:24:350:24:37

Married with Ann, who used to be here.

0:24:370:24:40

TEACHER: Ann McDermott, yes.

0:24:400:24:41

And, er...

0:24:410:24:43

There were 80 people in the reception in the afternoon.

0:24:440:24:48

- And 150 in the evening. - 150?

0:24:480:24:51

- What did you have in the evening? - A party, dance.

0:24:510:24:54

A party and dance?

0:24:540:24:56

I see, and then what happened after that?

0:24:560:24:58

- We went home. - You went to...?

0:24:580:25:00

I went home...

0:25:010:25:02

'It's difficult for us hearing people to begin to understand

0:25:020:25:05

'quite what an achievement for a deaf person speech is, however faltering.'

0:25:050:25:09

Yeah...

0:25:090:25:11

'The deaf can't even tell if they are shouting or whispering.

0:25:110:25:14

'That too can be embarrassing.'

0:25:140:25:16

Outside St Helen's...

0:25:160:25:17

'Ken Skarratt has been totally deaf from 18 months old.

0:25:170:25:21

'We asked him about those early days.'

0:25:210:25:24

I remember very distinctly

0:25:240:25:26

my parents being very, very concerned about my deafness.

0:25:260:25:29

And they took me to several specialists.

0:25:290:25:33

I have vivid memories of this.

0:25:330:25:35

Because they kept probing into my ear and it was frightening,

0:25:350:25:40

a very frightening experience at that time.

0:25:400:25:43

And of course I did eventually go to a normal school for children.

0:25:450:25:50

And I never got anywhere there at all.

0:25:510:25:53

And I did...

0:25:530:25:55

well, in fact I'm given to understand,

0:25:550:25:58

pick up a certain amount of lip-reading ability,

0:25:580:26:01

which proved very useful indeed to me.

0:26:010:26:04

And of course, later on, I was admitted

0:26:050:26:08

to a special school for deaf children.

0:26:080:26:10

And it was then that I began to make real progress.

0:26:100:26:15

'Frequently, too little progress can be made

0:26:160:26:19

'by any child with such educational handicaps.

0:26:190:26:22

'The emphasis in the outside world is on paper qualifications,

0:26:220:26:25

'hard to come by for children whose main struggle is learning to speak.

0:26:250:26:29

'Often very able mentally, they regularly find themselves

0:26:290:26:33

'limited to jobs well below their abilities.

0:26:330:26:36

'In our loquacious society, the deaf are linguistic lepers.

0:26:370:26:40

'Rarely can we be bothered to make that little extra effort

0:26:400:26:43

'in talking to them, trying to understand them.

0:26:430:26:46

'We give them the jobs we don't want.

0:26:460:26:48

'Having struggled into our world of speech,

0:26:480:26:50

'their opportunities are very limited.'

0:26:500:26:53

I am concerned at the moment

0:26:530:26:56

not only with the placement of deaf children

0:26:560:27:00

in jobs which are, at that time, commensurate with their ability.

0:27:000:27:05

But I'm very concerned at the opportunities

0:27:050:27:09

which are not given to the deaf.

0:27:090:27:12

The deaf can be given more opportunity to better themselves

0:27:140:27:18

in the industrial field.

0:27:180:27:20

I feel this very strongly.

0:27:200:27:21

Because many of them are doing jobs which are far below their potential,

0:27:210:27:27

when they can be doing something greater and more rewarding.

0:27:270:27:32

Not only to themselves financially, but to the rest of the deaf world.

0:27:320:27:36

MUSIC: Gudbuy T'Jane by Slade

0:27:360:27:41

'The cruel irony is that we hearing people live in a world

0:27:480:27:52

'we choose to make more and more deafening.

0:27:520:27:54

'This sound isn't too damaging in small doses,

0:27:550:27:58

'but many hours of it close to loudspeakers can ruin your hearing.'

0:27:580:28:02

# Goodbye to Jane Goodbye to Jane

0:28:020:28:06

# Painted up like a fancy young man

0:28:060:28:09

# She's a queen... #

0:28:090:28:11

'Far too many discotheques amplify sound to danger levels,

0:28:110:28:15

'with few, if any, breaks between numbers for the ear to recover.'

0:28:150:28:18

INDUSTRIAL DIN

0:28:180:28:21

'And if you spend your whole working life in this din,

0:28:210:28:25

'your hearing is almost certain to be damaged.'

0:28:250:28:27

REPETITIVE BANGING

0:28:270:28:30

'The human ear can often recover from brief exposures to noise,

0:28:320:28:35

'but long-term exposure gives no time for recovery.

0:28:350:28:39

'Aircraft noise, traffic noise, even excess pop music,

0:28:390:28:43

'they are our latest pollution.

0:28:430:28:45

'But it's constant noise like this that really gets you.

0:28:450:28:48

'Not mentally, but physically.'

0:28:480:28:50

GRINDING

0:28:500:28:51

'In remote parts of Africa, where the loudest normal sound is birdsong,

0:28:540:28:59

'recent research has discovered some alarming facts.'

0:28:590:29:02

BIRDSONG

0:29:020:29:04

'It was found here that deterioration of hearing as people get older

0:29:040:29:08

'hardly occurs at all.

0:29:080:29:10

'Children's hearing was compared with that of the most senior citizens.

0:29:120:29:16

'They were both excellent.

0:29:160:29:18

'Although it's not yet possible to say lack of noise is the reason,

0:29:180:29:21

'the implications for us are obvious.'

0:29:210:29:23

# I say you're so young

0:29:230:29:26

# You're so young... #

0:29:260:29:28

GRINDING

0:29:310:29:34

BANGING

0:29:360:29:38

'Loud noises can perforate the eardrum,

0:29:400:29:42

'but that nearly always heals up,

0:29:420:29:44

'unlike the inner ear where prolonged noise louder than 90 decibels

0:29:440:29:48

'can cause permanent damage.

0:29:480:29:51

'The inner ear is minute, only a fifth of an inch across.

0:29:510:29:54

'It contains 30,000 hair clusters like this,

0:29:540:29:57

'seen under the electron microscope.

0:29:570:30:00

'Each cluster senses a specific frequency,

0:30:000:30:02

'and for perfect hearing every single fibre is important.

0:30:020:30:06

'Whole areas of these tiny receptors can be knocked out for ever

0:30:060:30:10

'by sustained excess volume or a quick series of shocks.

0:30:100:30:13

'This damage was caused by listening to rifle shots.'

0:30:130:30:17

RIFLE SHOTS

0:30:170:30:19

BANGING

0:30:190:30:21

'In industry, there's a growing awareness of the dangers of noise.

0:30:220:30:26

'Unfortunately, sometimes even acoustically treating a machine

0:30:280:30:32

'doesn't get noise down to safe levels.

0:30:320:30:34

'Here, in an iron foundry, noise was above 100 decibels,

0:30:340:30:39

'certain to induce deafness if heard for any duration of time.

0:30:390:30:42

'Research shows some people are more prone to noise-induced deafness

0:30:440:30:47

'than others, but so far there's been no attempt to spot such people

0:30:480:30:51

'and give them quieter jobs.

0:30:510:30:53

'At this foundry, the management

0:30:550:30:57

'provided ear protection, both ear muffs

0:30:570:30:59

'and medically recommended fibre down to wear inside the ear.

0:31:000:31:03

'Wherever possible, they'd introduced sound dampers to cut noise levels.

0:31:030:31:08

'But this isn't the Army,

0:31:080:31:09

'and it's impossible to force people to take precautions.

0:31:090:31:12

'It'll be a long battle using every persuasion technique available,

0:31:120:31:16

'and today it's hardly begun.'

0:31:160:31:18

I know the noise is deafening,

0:31:180:31:19

but you still want to hear things around you.

0:31:200:31:22

For safety reasons.

0:31:220:31:23

GRINDING

0:31:230:31:25

I do know you should wear something,

0:31:250:31:28

but...I suppose I'm too idle really to do, you know.

0:31:280:31:31

Nobody else does it, so I suppose why should I do it?

0:31:310:31:34

GRINDING

0:31:340:31:37

The biggest danger, I think, is overhead cranes.

0:31:370:31:41

Accidents to eyes, fingers.

0:31:430:31:46

Er, normal accidents that happen at work where they could grind stuff

0:31:480:31:52

and probably cut their fingers, their kneecaps.

0:31:520:31:55

I think noise, myself, comes very low on the list,

0:31:550:31:58

as a danger point of view.

0:31:580:32:00

I don't know if noise has ever killed anybody yet.

0:32:000:32:04

I have recommended them to wear

0:32:050:32:07

the fibreglass that's provided by the management.

0:32:070:32:10

MAN: I haven't seen anybody wearing them.

0:32:100:32:12

- Well, it's left to the men. - Why don't you wear them?

0:32:130:32:16

I've tried it and I find it irritates my ears.

0:32:160:32:19

The management seems to be worried.

0:32:210:32:22

And the Inspectorate, they seem to be worried, but I'm not.

0:32:230:32:26

'Management, unions and Inspectorate are concerned

0:32:280:32:31

'about men refusing the protection provided.

0:32:310:32:33

'Noise-induced deafness is, after all, a disability which is avoidable.

0:32:340:32:38

'But in one form of deafness,

0:32:390:32:41

'all hearing is swamped by noises like this,

0:32:410:32:44

'inside the sufferer's head.

0:32:440:32:45

'It's called tinnitus. Luckily, it's very rare.'

0:32:450:32:48

THEY LAUGH

0:32:500:32:52

They all seem to get some, except me.

0:32:520:32:55

I think they're taking the competition out of school...

0:32:550:32:57

'The father of this family is Jack Ashley MP,

0:32:570:33:00

'whose crusade for thalidomide victims made headline news.'

0:33:000:33:03

Do you know what time Jane came home last night?

0:33:030:33:05

- What time was it, Janey? - I was in by 11.15.

0:33:050:33:08

'Jack Ashley suffers from tinnitus. This is all he hears.'

0:33:080:33:12

WHOOSHING

0:33:120:33:15

'He considers himself lucky. He only went deaf five years ago.

0:33:190:33:23

'He wanted to resign,

0:33:230:33:24

'but his constituents persuaded him to carry on.'

0:33:240:33:28

WHOOSHING

0:33:280:33:30

To me, it consists of a hissing noise, like the escaping of steam.

0:33:310:33:39

Or a roaring noise, like an express train.

0:33:390:33:43

Or a thundering noise, like thunder itself.

0:33:450:33:48

Sometimes, I can hear a cacophony of all kinds of these noises.

0:33:500:33:55

I think perhaps the worst of all is like a whine through my skull.

0:33:570:34:03

Which, at times, can be almost unbearable.

0:34:040:34:07

When this happens, when it is almost unbearable,

0:34:090:34:12

the only thing I can do is to take a sedative and hope to sleep,

0:34:120:34:17

or really throw myself into work in the hope of forgetting.

0:34:170:34:20

But of course sometimes that doesn't work and one really has to,

0:34:200:34:24

as the doctor says, learn to live with it.

0:34:240:34:27

I can't hear my own voice at all.

0:34:270:34:30

It's one of the oddities of being totally deaf,

0:34:300:34:32

that one is communicating to viewers,

0:34:320:34:35

but I can't hear what I'm saying.

0:34:350:34:38

I'm only judging the level of my voice

0:34:380:34:41

and the timbre and quality of my voice,

0:34:410:34:44

I think by memory, and partly by the flickering of muscles.

0:34:440:34:48

And while I've been fighting to come to terms with deafness,

0:34:480:34:52

the House of Commons, unostentatiously,

0:34:520:34:55

has been coming to terms with me and helping me out.

0:34:550:34:59

You see, remarkably enough, the man who I find easiest of all

0:34:590:35:04

and most helpful of all,

0:35:040:35:07

is an arch political opponent, the Prime Minister.

0:35:070:35:10

Because I'm very critical with the Prime Minister.

0:35:100:35:13

I ask lots of very critical questions on a Tuesday and Thursday,

0:35:130:35:17

that's part of my job, is to attack him.

0:35:170:35:20

And yet it's Ted Heath who,

0:35:200:35:22

when I put these critical questions to him,

0:35:220:35:25

turns to me and speaks clearly.

0:35:250:35:27

I think it's marvellous the way he does it.

0:35:270:35:30

PHONE RINGS

0:35:310:35:34

'Today, to be both executive and deaf is well nigh impossible.

0:35:340:35:38

'Even the simplest so-called aids become barriers.

0:35:380:35:42

'Mrs Grant holds down a high-powered job

0:35:420:35:44

'with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf,

0:35:440:35:46

'but she can't even hear the telephone.

0:35:460:35:49

'She needs help.'

0:35:490:35:50

Royal National Institute for the Deaf.

0:35:510:35:54

Good morning.

0:35:540:35:55

Oh, yes, just a moment.

0:35:570:35:58

A gentleman inquiring about homes for deaf people.

0:35:590:36:02

How many people to each home?

0:36:020:36:06

Well, it's about 30, although we do have a larger home for men only.

0:36:060:36:11

'Everything Mrs Grant wants to hear

0:36:110:36:14

'must be mouthed at her for her to lip-read.'

0:36:140:36:16

..To go into the home.

0:36:160:36:17

I think you have to get in touch with the local welfare officer first,

0:36:190:36:23

for a recommendation.

0:36:230:36:25

Send your application form to the Institute.

0:36:250:36:29

Then we will go into it with the local welfare office.

0:36:290:36:34

Or even our own welfare officer will go and visit

0:36:340:36:38

the man or the woman who wants to come in.

0:36:380:36:39

'This could be an answer.

0:36:410:36:43

'Her phone and that of the person on the other end

0:36:430:36:45

'are each plugged into a television and a special typewriter.

0:36:450:36:49

'She sees the phone ring and switches on.

0:36:490:36:52

'She reads the message as it's written on her television.

0:36:570:37:00

'The total cost to the deaf subscriber

0:37:030:37:05

'would be little more than an average telephone rental.

0:37:050:37:08

'Without even having to speak, Mrs Grant can now reply.

0:37:170:37:21

'It's a new American device now being tried out for the British market.

0:37:450:37:49

'Mrs Grant was surprised, considering its seeming simplicity,

0:37:490:37:52

'why we hadn't come up with it ourselves.

0:37:520:37:55

'Until now, technology has mainly helped the deaf with hearing aids.

0:37:560:37:59

'But today, at last, other ideas are getting off the drawing board.

0:38:000:38:03

'These are finger vibrators, devised at Imperial College,

0:38:030:38:07

'to help the deaf actually sense

0:38:070:38:09

'through their fingers what sound feels like.

0:38:090:38:11

'The box damps the buzz of the vibrating pads.

0:38:110:38:15

'Through them, the deaf can sense

0:38:150:38:17

'different frequencies and volumes in each finger.

0:38:170:38:19

'The advantage is that both the hearing and the deaf

0:38:190:38:22

'can feel the words they speak.'

0:38:220:38:24

Start reading.

0:38:270:38:28

UNCLEAR

0:38:280:38:32

'The vibrators cause the buzz.

0:38:330:38:35

'Lydia's totally deaf, but here can feel the sound

0:38:350:38:38

'as she speaks or lip-reads.

0:38:380:38:40

Now.

0:38:410:38:42

With the word "human", you had difficulty.

0:38:460:38:49

Human.

0:38:490:38:50

Human.

0:38:500:38:52

You have to remember the I before the U.

0:38:520:38:57

- Human. - Human.

0:38:570:38:59

- Right. - Human.

0:38:590:39:00

Human.

0:39:000:39:02

- Human. - Right.

0:39:030:39:04

Human.

0:39:040:39:05

So it's...

0:39:050:39:07

hiu-man.

0:39:070:39:08

Hiu-man.

0:39:080:39:10

Now, you should feel that on the finger.

0:39:100:39:12

If I exaggerate it a lot, you'll feel the "ee" slightly on that finger.

0:39:120:39:18

- Hu... - Human.

0:39:180:39:21

Hoo-man is wrong.

0:39:210:39:23

Hiu-man is right.

0:39:230:39:26

- OK? Human. - Human.

0:39:260:39:28

- Hu-man. - Human.

0:39:280:39:30

Fine. Now try "human being".

0:39:300:39:34

Human being.

0:39:340:39:36

That's good.

0:39:360:39:38

Now try a little bit more attack.

0:39:380:39:40

Being.

0:39:400:39:42

- Being. - Being.

0:39:420:39:43

- That's very good. - Human being.

0:39:430:39:45

That's marvellous, excellent. Very good.

0:39:450:39:48

'Other work at University College London concentrates on intonation,

0:39:480:39:52

'showing the deaf how they speak as they speak.'

0:39:530:39:56

WOMAN: Good morning. How are you?

0:39:560:39:59

'The screen shows the natural rhythms and emphasis of speech.'

0:39:590:40:02

Good morning. How are you?

0:40:020:40:05

'It helps the deaf copy the sounds as they lip-read.

0:40:050:40:07

Good morning. How are you?

0:40:080:40:11

You can see that the voice goes high in one place

0:40:110:40:16

and then falls down quite quickly.

0:40:160:40:19

It starts to fall on the first bit of "morning".

0:40:190:40:22

And in the second phrase, it's basically the same pattern

0:40:240:40:28

and it starts to fall on "are".

0:40:280:40:30

Now, I'd like you to put the electrodes on

0:40:300:40:32

and we'll ask you to say it and see what yours looks like.

0:40:330:40:36

And if it doesn't look exactly the same as mine,

0:40:360:40:38

then we'll work on it and try and make it look more like that

0:40:380:40:41

and sound more natural. All right?

0:40:410:40:44

That's it.

0:40:450:40:46

Hold them fairly firmly.

0:40:460:40:48

- Errr. - That's right.

0:40:480:40:49

Now, I'm going to start this

0:40:490:40:51

and when you see the dot appearing in the left-hand corner,

0:40:510:40:54

you can start. Good morning, how are you?

0:40:540:40:57

MAN: Good morning.

0:40:580:40:59

How are you?

0:40:590:41:00

Try and put a bit of energy into "mor",

0:41:020:41:04

that'll give us the right pitch change.

0:41:040:41:07

Good morning.

0:41:090:41:11

How are you?

0:41:110:41:12

That's fine.

0:41:120:41:13

You can see now you've got something which is very much like my pattern,

0:41:130:41:17

with a fall beginning on the right syllable and then falling.

0:41:170:41:20

And the speed is pretty much the same as mine, I think that's fine.

0:41:200:41:24

Could you do it once again to see if you can repeat it?

0:41:240:41:27

Here we go.

0:41:270:41:29

MAN: Good morning.

0:41:290:41:30

How are you?

0:41:300:41:31

WOMAN: Very good.

0:41:320:41:33

What we'll do now is to say the same pattern with different words.

0:41:330:41:36

So we'll go on after "good morning" and say something else.

0:41:360:41:40

We'll say, "I'm fine, thanks."

0:41:400:41:42

"I'm fine, thanks."

0:41:420:41:44

I'm fine, thank you.

0:41:450:41:47

That's the same pattern.

0:41:490:41:50

Would you like to try again?

0:41:500:41:51

I'm fine, thank you.

0:41:530:41:55

OK, you can see that you didn't get much of a fall there.

0:41:550:41:59

Try again on "fine".

0:41:590:42:01

MAN: I'm fine, thank you.

0:42:030:42:05

That's coming on.

0:42:050:42:07

Good. You try again.

0:42:070:42:08

'This new system is now being tried out with very young children.

0:42:100:42:14

'They can learn and remember even more easily.'

0:42:140:42:16

OK, that's fine.

0:42:160:42:18

'But for the majority of the deaf, the old and very old,

0:42:190:42:22

'it's a bit late to start learning new tricks.

0:42:220:42:25

'Most old people can still talk, but need a hearing aid.

0:42:250:42:29

'Some don't even get that.

0:42:290:42:31

'A consultant who has closely studied the problems of the old, Dr Fisch.'

0:42:320:42:36

I can recall an elderly lady I examined

0:42:360:42:41

in one of these old people's homes

0:42:410:42:44

when we investigated hearing, deafness in the elderly,

0:42:440:42:48

and I was informed by some of the staff

0:42:490:42:53

that she was confused,

0:42:530:42:55

that really you can't talk to her,

0:42:550:42:58

there's not much point to talk to her and so on.

0:42:580:43:01

Well, I ignored that and I placed a hearing aid in her ear

0:43:010:43:07

and talked to her as one should, face-to-face, slowly.

0:43:070:43:11

Her eyes lit up and she heard me.

0:43:110:43:14

She understood everything what I said.

0:43:140:43:16

And I had an intelligent conversation with her.

0:43:160:43:20

She was a highly intelligent woman, about 78, a former teacher.

0:43:200:43:25

And I... Probably I was the first person who talked to her

0:43:260:43:30

in a way that she could understand after many, many months.

0:43:300:43:34

She was deaf, she wasn't confused, she was deaf.

0:43:350:43:39

But nobody knew how to talk to her.

0:43:390:43:42

And in fact, it wasn't recognised

0:43:420:43:44

that what they called confusion and...

0:43:440:43:47

..possibly not a very high intelligence was simply deafness.

0:43:490:43:53

'Not even counting those whose deafness hasn't been detected,

0:43:530:43:57

'there are over two million people

0:43:570:43:59

'with some degree of hearing disability in Britain today.

0:43:590:44:02

'Less than a third of them have been given free government hearing aids.

0:44:020:44:06

'They're worn on the chest and called Medrescos,

0:44:060:44:09

'after the Medical Research Council who designed them.

0:44:090:44:12

'If you're an adult and you want anything else,

0:44:120:44:14

'you've got to pay for it.

0:44:140:44:16

'You'll be faced with a very confusing variety of choices.

0:44:170:44:20

'And worse, an even more confusing variety of prices.

0:44:200:44:25

'Head of the technical department,

0:44:250:44:27

'Royal National Institute for the Deaf, Mr Martin.'

0:44:270:44:29

This collection of hearing aids

0:44:290:44:32

represents about £3,000 worth of aids.

0:44:320:44:35

And it's just a small portion of the tremendously wide range of aids

0:44:350:44:41

that are currently available on the market.

0:44:410:44:44

These aids, in fact, vary from type to type.

0:44:440:44:48

And the type that is most widely used is probably the body-worn type.

0:44:480:44:53

But this is difficult to wear

0:44:530:44:56

and very many people prefer the type that is worn on the head,

0:44:560:45:00

such as these, which is worn behind the ear.

0:45:010:45:03

You've got spectacle aids here,

0:45:030:45:06

where the aid is built into the arm of the spectacle.

0:45:060:45:09

And you can even have tiny little aids

0:45:090:45:12

which fit right into the ear itself.

0:45:120:45:15

'But you won't get invisible

0:45:150:45:16

'head-worn aids on the National Health.

0:45:160:45:18

'What you'll get is the Medresco, designed over 20 years ago.

0:45:180:45:22

'It's clumsy and ugly, but fairly efficient,

0:45:230:45:26

'if you don't mind displaying your deafness.

0:45:260:45:28

'Long-awaited improvements are a story of crass bungling.'

0:45:280:45:31

The latest thing which appeared last year was in fact the OL 66.

0:45:310:45:36

They aid, which probably cost over £100,000 to produce,

0:45:360:45:41

in fact never got beyond the trial stage,

0:45:410:45:44

and after criticisms, in fact was withdrawn.

0:45:440:45:47

So that, after 15 years, we have in fact not progressed very far.

0:45:470:45:53

'In Denmark, they took our National Health idea,

0:45:530:45:56

'but spend seven times more than us on the deaf.

0:45:560:45:58

'Their flourishing industry provides a truly comprehensive service,

0:45:580:46:02

'offering not only chest-worn hearing aids,

0:46:020:46:04

'but free head-worn aids for all who need them.

0:46:040:46:06

'In Britain, it's said we just can't afford to give away aids

0:46:060:46:10

'that often cost more than £70 bought privately.

0:46:100:46:13

'But the actual components can cost under £5

0:46:130:46:16

'and two companies have offered to service us with head-worn aids

0:46:160:46:19

'at about £9 each.

0:46:200:46:21

'It doesn't seem too high a price to pay,

0:46:210:46:23

'but in Britain, the deaf always come last in priority.'

0:46:230:46:26

All other disabled people have the best possible facilities

0:46:260:46:30

the government can give them.

0:46:300:46:32

But the deaf don't. And I think it's quite wrong.

0:46:320:46:35

The government ought to provide

0:46:350:46:37

ear-level hearing aids for all people.

0:46:370:46:40

Deafness is a Cinderella of all the disabilities.

0:46:400:46:44

But although it doesn't appear as a crippling disability,

0:46:440:46:48

in fact, it is something which can ruin people's lives.

0:46:480:46:54

And what is needed is a reappraisal of the whole situation.

0:46:540:46:59

It needs an enormous injection of money and staff and ideas.

0:46:590:47:04

It isn't a political, a party political question,

0:47:040:47:07

it's a question no government, Labour or Conservative,

0:47:070:47:11

have helped the deaf as much as they ought to have done.

0:47:110:47:14

Practically every service that you look at for the deaf is run down.

0:47:140:47:18

And this is not just one opinion,

0:47:180:47:23

this is an opinion that was even expressed by Sir George Godber,

0:47:230:47:27

who is the Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health.

0:47:270:47:30

INDUSTRIAL DIN

0:47:450:47:49

BIRDSONG

0:47:540:47:55

BEES BUZZING

0:47:560:47:57

EXPLOSION

0:47:590:48:01

WHIRRING

0:48:070:48:09

POP MUSIC

0:48:150:48:18

HAMMERING

0:48:210:48:24

WHIRRING

0:48:270:48:29

ELECTRONIC HOWLING

0:48:340:48:36

CRICKETS CHIRRUP

0:48:390:48:42

GRINDING METAL

0:48:460:48:49

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