To the Editor: I am a pediatric audiologist and a listening- and spoken-language specialist, and have been one for over 50 years. I have seen unbelievable changes during that time. Both Katie Booth's new biography on Alexander Graham Bell, "The Invention of Miracles," and Andrew Solomon's review (May 2) are missing the fact that deafness is very different now from when Bell was alive. The work Bell did was forward-thinking but difficult. When Bell was alive, hearing loss was not diagnosed until parents realized their children were not talking, and there were no hearing aids to help. Things are very different today. Now deaf newborns are identified at birth and can be fitted with hearing aids within weeks. They can begin to hear very quickly. If hearing aids are not providing enough benefit, they can receive a cochlear implant. They can then learn language the same way their siblings learn it, by hearing it spoken around them. They can attend school with siblings and have the same opportunities as adults. Parents can immediately communicate with them. More than 90 percent of children with hearing loss are born to hearing parents. If these parents want to learn sign language, it will take them a few years to become fluent, and during that time the child will not have good language exposure.