Reading Lips
I was born with perfect hearing, then lost most of it slowly over time. The cause is unknown, though the theory is that my cochleas were damaged during an auto-immune disease or some such thing in early childhood– possibly measles. The hearing loss wasn’t diagnosed until I was nineteen. I picked up lip reading (speech reading) naturally as my hearing went, and began wearing hearing aids in my early twenties. Many people think lip reading is an easy skill to master. It’s not. First of all, statistics show only about 30-40% of all spoken sounds are seen on the lips or tongue in the English language. That means the less you hear, the more guessing you must do to keep up with a conversation. Clearly, if you hear nothing, you’ll be guessing more than half the time. Then, factor in tongue, lip and mouth deformities, accents (when words aren’t pronounced the way you’re used to seeing them,) mustaches, beards, nervous oral habits, bad lighting, background noises that drown out what little speech sounds you hear, people who cover their mouths while speaking and those who turn away– it’s virtually impossible to lip read with 100% accuracy. Over the past several decades Hollywood has perpetuated the myth super human lip reading through telescopes a mile away. Yes– we’ve all seen Sue Thomas do it on FBEye. The reason lip reading through a telescope is so laughable to me is that you need to see the tongue and throat as well as the lips which means you need to be fairly close. The smaller the mouth view the harder it is to see tongue movement or shadowy bulges on the throat.
It’s also not very realitic for people to lip read television. The two-dimensional screen skews depth perception. If the head is shown in a straight on shot like you see on the evening news, lip readers will understand more than when watching a movie or TV show because of panning in and out, voice-overs and people talking with their heads turned. This also happens on newscast video clips. In real life, those born profoundly deaf may never master the ability to lip read. Also, lip reading well has nothing to do with intelligence. Some people can and some can’t. That’s all.
I happen to be one of those who lip reads well. By the time my hearing loss was diagnosed at age nineteen, evaluations revealed I was an “expert” lip reader, most likely because I had grown up reading lips. That said, I’ll explain just what it all means. With the use of hearing aids I hear more speech sounds than without, and if you face me, I have a better chance of understanding what you say than if you don’t. If I know you, my chances of lip reading you accurately goes way up. When I’m tired, my lip reading skills suffer because of the great concentration required and all the blanks needing filled. So yeah– I lip read some, I hear some, I guess some. . .
The purpose of my blog is to educate others about hearing loss, and hearing loss issues. D/deafness is grossly misunderstood. I am normal in every sense of the word, and a very capable person who doesn’t hear well.
Hi,
Just wanted to say that you explained the latter deaf experience far better than I have been able to do it for over 50 years. Yes, it is a lonely life but not withour rewards if we only look for the positive. When we apply our unique experience to daily living we can create anything we let our imagination seek. And quite often I’ve found it brings to us those people we so desparately need at those trying times we pass through and most importantly allowing them to be a part of our life.
Be well and laugh!
I was born hearing by the age of 3 ,I started losing my hearing due to bilateral ear infections(every 2-3months I got sick). as I grew up i was always in trouble and it was because I couldnt understand what was being said to me. By the age of 13, I was already in so many fights in school because of it, so I focused on lip ready. By the age of 15 I was getting the hang of it very well. At the age of 35 I got sick , yep it came back bilateral ear infections this time every month. Doctors couldn’t figure it out. I tried hearing aids but they cause me to have headaches, I started looking at people a little harder and got in trouble, mostly women complaints about how i stare. I would explain to people I have a hearing disability so i read their lips, it didnt matter I learned that hearing people are so self conscious that you just cant look at them. Anyway Im 53 profound deaf now , learning ASL and I still tell people I lip read only this time they walk away and dont talk to me. I live in Austin , TX and they dont take kindly to the Deaf culture.
Yes you have explained this really well. People think cos I followed them well I can hear ok, when in fact I just had a good day at lipreading. They don’t realise it can actually be hard and tiring, and some wonder why when its one of those bad days where I ask them to repeat, then they remember I’m HOH.
As well as I can sometimes lipread, and going to classes really helped my confidence. I don’t always feel confident lipreading, and yes sometimes its guess work for the bits I don’t hear.
I ts all wonderful about nature….i just wonder why people will less fully functioning part perform better and in diverse ways with the remaining parts. Is it because they practive more…or ?
See africa,visit Tanzania
Nicholas- Practice helps, but generally speaking lip reading is either something you can or can’t do. Also contrary to what a lot of people think, it has nothing to do with intelligence. Think of it as being a fast runner. Some people are, some aren’t. Many factors have to fall into place to become a champion, but of course if you run all the time you’ll be faster than those who don’t. It’s the same with lip reading.
Your observation skills do tend to increase when you are deaf. Deaf tend to be much more observant and aware of visual detail than the non-deaf.