system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 how people, who were deaf their whole life and just now began to hear, can instantly understand spoken word?

How were they able to associate words with the sounds? Like if you go on youtube and find videos "hearing for the first time" etc.
gpt
Hearing and comprehending are two completely different things.  They're aware of the *concept* of speaking, so it's not surprising to them and are able to associate "dad is making sounds" with "dad is communicating," even though they have no idea what those sounds actually mean.

There may be a few out there that seem like they're comprehending, but they're still using the skills they learned to comprehend while deaf, such as lip reading -- and there could be someone off-camera signing to them.