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I CAN HEAR YOU WHISPER
An Intimate Journey through the Science of Sound and Language
Lydia Denworth
A science writer’s poignant and fascinating look at the
science of sound and the developing brain—the result
of her own son’s inability to hear her lullabies
Lydia Denworth’s third son, Alex, was almost two when he was diagnosed with
profound and progressive hearing loss. As both a science writer and the mother
of young children, Denworth was steeped in messages about the importance of
enrichment to the developing brain. She became determined to do whatever it took
to allow Alex to hear and acquire spoken language, a quest that ultimately led to a
controversial piece of emergent “superhero technology”: the cochlear implant.
In this engrossing journey to the frontiers of science, readers will learn why sound
is so important to the developing brain, what new possibilities come from the latest
research, and what exactly is going on when you focus your hearing at a cocktail party.
Denworth goes beyond her personal experience with her son, interviewing the world’s
leading experts on child language development and hearing technology, leaders in the
deaf community, and neuroscientists.
I Can Hear You Whisper weaves together Alex’s story with the tales of two
scientific revolutions: the centuries-long quest to develop the cochlear implant and
science’s changing understanding of the brain’s remarkable plasticity—all told against
the sometimes-incendiary backdrop of identity politics and medical ethics.
✦ MSNBC’s The Cycle featured Denworth as an expert commentator on the positive
neurological effects of playing video games on young brains.
✦ Scientific American Mind featured an article by Denworth on child brain
development.
✦ The New York Times Motherlode blog made her a special guest blogger with a
three-part series on her son Alex’s hearing—she’s been invited back to promote
the book.
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