Eli5: How do people who’ve never had any hearing, but who receive cochlear implants later in life, understand their “native” language?

Question

I’ve seen videos of people sitting in the doctor’s office getting their implants turned on, and they’re responding to questions like, “Can you hear me?” or “How is the volume?” How do they know what they’re being asked if they’ve never before heard how language sounds?

In: 672

Answer 1

Your native language is the first language you learn. If a Deaf child learns sign language first, then that is their native language.

When they get their cochlear, then they’d be learning their L2 or second language.

When profoundly Deaf children aren’t provided with language early on (including signed languages)… they are delayed in their learning until that education begins. The language center of their brain would be better off if they used sign language to start that process until they had the surgery. That way, those language centers start to be developed, and they’d experience less of a developmental delay.

Source: I have a degree in American Sign Language interpreting.