English Hearing

Eloquent. Philosophical. Introspective. These are not the words usually associated with an autistic child. But in a remarkable display of courage and creativity, a boy named Tito has shattered stereotypes, and in The Mind Tree makes us question all of our previous assumptions about autism. For Tito is severely autistic and nearly nonverbal, and this is his story.

Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (MT) is the neurological re-education of the orofacial muscles. It is a rehabilitation therapy program designed to re-pattern teeth, jaw, and soft tissue functions such as chewing, swallowing and breathing. This is accomplished through the use of therapeutic techniques and positive behavioral modification.

For almost 30 years as label boss, producer and talent conductor at XL Recordings, Richard Russell has discovered, shaped and nurtured the artists who have rewritten the musical dictionary of the 21st century, artists like The Prodigy, The White Stripes, Adele, M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal and Giggs. Growing up in north London in thrall to the raw energy of 80's US hip hop, Russell emerged as one part of rave outfit Kicks Like a Mule in 1991 at a moment when new technology enabled a truly punk aesthetic on the fledgling free party scene.

Whistle is a heartfelt story blending family connections, personal growth, and the magical bond between a mother and her autistic daughter, Kennedy. Centered around the unique communication method of a whistle sound, the story narrates Kennedy’s experiences and how the whistle became a bridge to understanding her inner world. Through imaginative storytelling, the book captures Kennedy’s challenges and triumphs, the unwavering love of her family, and the lessons they learn about patience, acceptance, and connection.

As a child, Matt Hay didn’t know his hearing wasn’t the way everyone else processed sound—because of the workarounds he did to fit in, even the school nurse didn’t catch his condition at the annual hearing and vision checks. But by the time he was a prospective college student and couldn’t pass the entrance requirements for West Point, Hay’s condition, generated by a tumor, was unavoidable: his hearing was going, and fast. A personal soundtrack was Hay’s determined compensation for his condition.

Early-morning jackhammering from construction down the block. The dull roar of jet overflights. Your officemate's phone conversations. Noise is everywhere, disrupting our sleep, ratcheting up our stress, destroying our concentration—yet it's a problem that many of us shrug off once the immediate annoyance passes. In Clamor, Chris Berdik reveals noise as one of the most pervasive, yet underacknowledged, pollutants in our daily lives, the harms of which extend far beyond our hearing, from our children's learning outcomes to our longevity to the natural world around us.

Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our five senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems.

This illuminating book weaves personal stories of a multilingual upbringing with the latest scientific breakthroughs in interspecies communication to show how the skill of deep listening enhances our curiosity and empathy toward the world around us.

Hearing is the first sense we develop—a primary warning instinct hardwired into our brains. And yet, in an increasingly noisy and distracted world, most people pay very little attention to sound. In school, we teach reading and writing, but not listening. Conscious listening is rare, and, with over half the world's population now living in cities, billions of people never experience the rich and health‑enhancing sounds of the natural world. Every day, the sounds around us affect our experience and fundamentally alter our quality of life, for better or worse.

Surrendering Certainty addresses a key misconception about God's voice: that it will tell what will happen tomorrow. We've mistaken God's voice in our lives for a means of obtaining knowledge instead of embracing its power to give us peace for today. Since the fall in the garden of Eden, humanity has carried the same deception that misled Eve. We think more information will give us more freedom. But if we look at Jesus's teachings, we that his direction was never intended to give us a roadmap.

Wondering when to expect baby's first word? Want to get your toddler talking? Worried your child is not speaking as clearly as his peers? When it comes to language acquisition, all parents have questions, and Time to Talk has the answers.

After the death of her fiancé, Catherine Johnson, a New York schoolteacher in 1902, travels to Nebraska to teach in a one-room school. When violence erupts in the sleepy town, Catherine saves deaf stable hand Jim Kinney from torture by drunken thugs. As she begins teaching Jim to read and sign, attraction grows between them. The warmth and humor in this silent man transcends the need for speech, and his eyes tell her all about his feelings for her. But the obstacles of class difference and the stigma of his handicap are almost insurmountable.

The testimony that the author has gleaned for this audiobook from the 30-year record of the House Un-American Activities Committee focuses on HUAC's treatment of artists, intellectuals, and performers. This highly listenable and absorbing collection of significant excerpts from the hearings shows with painful clarity how HUAC grew from a panel that investigated possible subversive activities in a "dignified" manner to a huge, unrelenting accusatory finger from which almost no one was safe.

According to Mencap, there are approximately 351,000 children in the UK with a learning disability. In the US, 17 percent of children have delays in physical, learning, language, or behavior development. It doesn’t stop there. Worldwide, there are around 18.5 million people with speech, voice, or language disorders! If you yourself don’t have or never have had a speech and language delay or disorder, it’s nearly impossible to understand what your little one is going through.

Hearing Maud: A Journey for a Voice is a work of creative non-fiction that details the author’s experiences of deafness after losing most of her hearing at age four. It charts how, as she grew up, she was estranged from people and turned to reading and writing for solace, eventually establishing a career as a writer. Central to her narrative is the story of Maud Praed, the deaf daughter of 19th century Queensland expatriate novelist Rosa Praed.

For 12 years, Bella Bathurst was deaf. She missed the punchlines and the jokes, avoided busy restaurants and raucous parties, and grew her hair long to cover hearing aids. But then, 12 years later, pioneering surgery on her ears gave her the chance to hear again. Sound is the extraordinary story of Bella's journey into deafness and back to hearing. Mixing memoir with interviews with soldiers, sign language experts, musicians, and mental health workers, Bella explores what it means to live with and without sound, and, in the process, uncovers a hidden world of sense and connection.

“I never wanted to be hearing. I said this out loud in my TED talk, and the audience went bug-eyed, struggling to process this heresy. How could anyone not want to be hearing? I wasn’t anti-hearing. I just felt my life would be simpler if everyone else were deaf.” So begins the compelling story of acclaimed TED speaker Rebecca Knill as she guides us through a life shaped by hearing loss. Throughout, Knill offers eye-opening insights into disability and celebrates the power of technology to level the playing field.

For two decades a father kept a secret journal documenting the life of his only son, Christopher, who was born profoundly deaf. He had a simple dream of someday presenting that journal to Christopher as a special gift from father to son. But as each new challenge was surmounted, it became clear Christopher Caulfield’s story had to be shared.

When you think about God, what’s the first image that pops into your mind? Even when you hear the word “God”, what feelings arise? Are those thoughts and feelings of a loving, forgiving Father or a harsh, distant Judge or someone in between two–or perhaps even something else entirely?

Lydia Denworth 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.