Reading Lips Must Be Hard As Shit

[AquaBlue]

Deaf and HH folks are champs in my hearie book. How you guys are able to read lips is beyond me. How in the world can one learn to do that? I mean it must be very hard to learn. How do they teach such an impossible technique?

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[CSign]

As a hearing person, I agree that it must be incredibly challenging. I would think to a certain extent it's a guessing game.

My understanding was that nowadays it's referred to as "speech reading" or are the terms synonymous?

 

[SophiaG]

My parents said I did it and it disguised my hearing loss until I was 2. They found out I had a hearing loss because I didn't react when people said my name out of ear-shot. >.>

 

[MidnightSun]

lip reading

Well I am profoundly deaf , can't even hear the sound of my own voice, happened 7 years ago...you both are correct it is very hard to teach and learn...I the very early years of working with the deaf children were made to stand in front of mirrors for hrs while the parent or teacher said the word and then squished the poor kids face into a posisition ,,they thought would magically let then say it...OMG....I can tell you I speak perfectly so when i lost my hearing I had a head start to lip reading..I usually stand very close to the person speaking,,(laughing usually freaking them out) but I can stand and watch a conversation now and by picking up words, start to fet involved in that conversation without theose ppl even knowing im deaf,,they usually think I am faking..yeah right..I stuck pencils in my ears...geez...It is much harder I know for a child to learn to lip read and some don;t....Midnight♥

 

[drphil]

Speechreading is very difficult-at least English- as many constants are "down one's throat". Some are easy P/B/M are quite visible-most are not. Plus the other half: what are you hearing? Thus one will decrease speechreading ability as one's Hearing lost increases. Vowel sounds can't be speechread-very well. The basic idea" grasp" the sentence without "worrying" of every word. Right: pay attention!

This is from my experience from the many classes at Canadian Hearing Society/Toronto. After I became Bilaterally deaf in December 2006 awaiting the process of getting a Cochlear Implant, actually took a class in early 2007. Results 20% less than the previous test of 8 months before.Not a surprise.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07

 

[MCB]

nowadays it's referred to as "speech reading"

It is the same thing. The new term reflects the idea that the process involves more than just watching a person's lips. Facial expressions, eyes, and gestures also fill in the information gaps.

 

[AlleyCat]

Lipreading and Speechreading are essentially the same thing.

For the deaf (especially when you really rely on visuals), it comes as you travel through life. From interacting with family, strangers, teachers, classmates, etc. I consider myself an excellent lipreader; no one taught me. I just learned over time.

I would not have the slightest clue how to "teach" someone to lipread, except that before I've said to try watching TV with the volume off and focusing totally on the lips. I guess that's hard, though, when watching shows where they are not directly facing you. And others said that didn't work for them.

 

[KristinaB]

Since I was told a a young age, that I would lose all mu hearing at some point, I took it upon myself to study people and how they spoke and basically taughty myself. It is not easy and I now realize that as more time goes on after losing all hearing, I am also losing the ability to do a lot of lip reading. Maybe it's because I spend more and more time at home.

 

[shel90]

Thanks for complimenting us...lipreading 24/7 SUCKS big time. I am so glad that I dont have to do it anymore.

 

[Beowulf]

"Where there's life there's hope."

"What do you mean, 'Where's the olive soap?'"

 

[AlleyCat]

Since I was told a a young age, that I would lose all mu hearing at some point, I took it upon myself to study people and how they spoke and basically taughty myself. It is not easy and I now realize that as more time goes on after losing all hearing, I am also losing the ability to do a lot of lip reading. Maybe it's because I spend more and more time at home.

I can relate! There's a huge difference in what I can understand via lipreading with my HAs than without.

 

[Beowulf]

I "hear" the voice when I lipread. Know what I mean? The voice I "hear" while lipreading a burly construction worker is decidedly different from lipreading a petite female librarian. Same thing with reading captions on a muted television show: I "hear" the words being spoken by whatever character the words belong to. I am sure I am not the only one.

 

[MCB]

My loss isn't that severe, but after I got my HA's I realized that I was "hearing" more than what my ears were hearing, because of lipreading. Now I am so used to them, I'd hate to switch back.

I need to work on switching the volume up when someone is talking quietly. My son is notorious for that. Without my HA's, or glasses, I have to get about ten inches from his face to understand what he is saying. :roll:

 

[whatdidyousay!]

As a hearing person, I agree that it must be incredibly challenging. I would think to a certain extent it's a guessing game.
leave of absence
My understanding was that nowadays it's referred to as "speech reading" or are the terms synonymous?

Good lord what is wrong with saying lips reading! That is what I been calling it all my life and I am not going start saying 'speech reading'!
Lipreading is easier to say than 'speech reading' to me. I have trouble 's'
and 'ch' etc! I do not always feel like doing lipreading and some people are hard to 'read'. I learned how to lipread on my own but I did have lessons at
a school in Boston. My speech teacher was really good , she had me read her lips from the side , so I was able to read people lips when I could not see their whole face! I am not that good anymore.

 

[deafskeptic]

There's a reason why I call lipreading the guessing game from hell.

 

[Bottesini]

"Where there's life there's hope."

"What do you mean, 'Where's the olive soap?'"

 

[CSign]

Good lord what is wrong with saying lips reading! That is what I been calling it all my life and I am not going start saying 'speech reading'!
Lipreading is easier to say than 'speech reading' to me. I have trouble 's'
and 'ch' etc! I do not always feel like doing lipreading and some people are hard to 'read'. I learned how to lipread on my own but I did have lessons at
a school in Boston. My speech teacher was really good , she had me read her lips from the side , so I was able to read people lips when I could not see their whole face! I am not that good anymore.

Woah, woah, woah there champ. I never said there was anything wrong with saying "lip reading." My understanding though, was that in recent years the term has shifted to "speech reading" because that better describes the process. I personally don't care what one calls it, I prefer to call it "speech reading." I realize it's essentially one in the same. No matter what you call it, I can imagine how frustrating and tiring it can be.

 

[Bottesini]

Woah, woah, woah there champ. I never said there was anything wrong with saying "lip reading." My understanding though, was that in recent years the term has shifted to "speech reading" because that better describes the process. I personally don't care what one calls it, I prefer to call it "speech reading." I realize it's essentially one in the same. No matter what you call it, I can imagine how frustrating and tiring it can be.

Not for me! Anyone who tries making me speech/lip read, at least learns to fingerspell.

Or they just don;t try again. I am bad at it.

 

[Beach girl]

I began to lose my hearing as an adult. One sign that made me realize something was up was when I realized I couldn't understand someone unless I had my glasses on and was looking at them. Amazing how putting my glasses on increased my hearing ability!

I must have been lip-reading for some time, unconsciously. I still do, quite a bit. No one taught me, I just watch carefully.

 

[Buffalo]

I read somewhere long time ago that the hearing people make better lipreaders than the deaf people because they already have the language and know how the words are pronounced. I suspect that those late-deafened people make the best lipreaders.

I found that I can't just lipread and I can't just relay on my hearing aids.... I need both lipreading and hearing aids to understand hearing people.