This reminds me of an article I read a while back about the nature of consciousness and memory. It was about a deaf guy in a less developed country that didn't

This reminds me of an article I read a while back about the nature of consciousness and memory. It was about a deaf guy in a less developed country that didn't know what to do with deaf people. He wasn't taught sign language and grew up deaf and dumb. It wasn't till he was in his early 20s that someone from a developed country visited and helped him learn sign language, though it was tough. His "eureka" moment came when he realized his teacher was naming things (chair, apple, etc). Before that he didn't even have the concept that things could have names! After a few years he was a normal functioning adult. When asked about his life before learning sign language, he describes it as "the dark time" (or something to that nature). That life was very very different for him—just kind of an indistinct haze, almost like a dream. The article was positing that consciousness and memories are strongly dependent on our inner monologue. And that for a person with no language skills (like the deaf man or infants), complex memories just aren't possible at all—life is just a haze.