Speech/Accent in HOH Late Deafened/born deaf

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mimimama

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Hello, as a late deafie I get the comment alot that I "don't talk like I am deaf" lol I am wondering if anyone could fill me in on what to expect with my speech. Will I eventually "forget" how to form words right? Sorry if I am offending anyone, not meaning to. Or is there a difference between being born deaf and never actually learning and talking forming the words and being a late deafie and already having years of speech. I know I am fortunate enough to have lost my hearing over the last ten years or so compared to being born deaf or just waking up deaf, so that I am an excellent lip reader from years of being HOH. If anyone could shed some light on this to educate me so I can pass it on to those who ask this annoying question I would appreciate it.
 
From what I am told my speech has started to change but I'm not sure if its from the lack of hearing myself or more of a confidence thing... I get nervous using my voice, I'm not comfortable talking when I can't hear myself its still strange for me
 
All I can really give is my personal experience. I'm late deafened and have absolutely NO hearing left what so ever. I've only been Deaf a few years (I say Deaf and no deaf because I grew up in the Deaf Community and everyone thought of me as Deaf even before I became physically deaf. Make sense? I just don't want to offend anyone.) and I apparently still talk fairly normal. I have to really concentrate on annunciating, pronouncing, and remembering words. If I'm tired or just not really paying attention, apparently I start to slur my words a bit and basically start speaking in ASL gloss. I also for some reason do aquire a full Deaf accent if I'm signing and speaking at the same time. I believe this is just because I'm concentrating on my signing and not so much my speech. I know one thing I tend to do a lot if forgetting words. I'm usually able to know the sign for what I'm trying to say but I just can't think of the English word. I can't remember how to say it, pronounce it, or sometimes even spell it.

I think for the most part if you just continue to use your speech, you shouldn't get much of an accent. You may just start to slur some words here and there. I personally have slowly started to become voice-off this past year. I do still talk to close friends, in emergency situations, or if a conversation will only consist of a few words, such as getting checked out at the grocery store. I do lip read extremely well so it's been a bit of a problem for me because people tend to assume if you can speak, you can hear. With some people no matter how many times you say, "I'm Deaf, I need to read your lips." they just CAN'T get it through their head. So I've just made a personal choice to use a pen and paper when I'm out in pubilc. It's helped me a lot because not only do I have issues when people don't understand I'm Deaf but I also just feel very uncomfortable using my voice. However, I have made sure not to completely stop speaking. Like I said, I still talk with my close friends quite a bit. I do think if I stopped speaking at all my ability to speak as clearly as I do would dissipate pretty fast.

So after all that, I guess to answer your question, I do believe you can aquire a Deaf accent as a late deafened person. I'm pretty much in the early stages of it and I've only been Deaf a few years.

:)
 
My own experience is that I was hearing until my late teens I am now 40 years old. I have no hearing at all and Im told that my voice has changed a lot in the last 2 years. I realise that stangers sometimes look perplexed when I speak to them so it must be worse than I thought. I am now losing confidence and rely on sign more and more
 
I have no deaf accent or anything different with my voice. I have been total deaf for 5 years and still no change. The only change we have noticed and we think it is stress related, but I do sometimes forget how to pronounce a word that is not used often.
 
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