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How many here have learned to read lips?

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Yes, it is habit. I don’t even think about it nor am I aware of doing so until someone mentions that I am lip reading them.

I don’t lip read fully, and without sound I would not be able to lip read alone, however I do use lip reading to augment my hearing, and help convert the sounds into meaning.

Only problem is it’s very tiring as you have to concentrate quite hard to ‘hear’ people.

@zebra1922 said:

Only problem is it’s very tiring as you have to concentrate quite hard to ‘hear’ people.

It sure is. I’ve been deaf since birth so grew up as a lip-reader automatically. With the help of my aids, I do have some hearing (totally deaf without) so I prefer to lip-read and hear but I can also lip-read without aids if I really concentrate on a good pair of unshaven lips in good lighting. Even so, you’re right, it IS very tiring. I find I can go a max. of 2 hours chatting to someone I don’t really know (someone whose lips I’m not used to) before I’m completely exhausted. It’s commonly stated that lip-reading is 90% guesswork so 90% of the time, your brain is busy filling in the gaps. VERY tiring and very mentally draining.

I think most of us with some hearing loss use lip reading as an addition to the verbal auditory input to decipher speech. I’ve never had lessons but have used these clues long before I ever realized I was doing so. My audiologist only has to hold a book in front of her lips while whispering to show how much I use these cues.

Lip reading is a great asset, not only for hearing but also for increased engagement with the speakers. I find respondents, kind.
Since I have had hearing loss somewhat most of my life, I picked this skill up early. I encourage you to go for whatever can help our (your) being part of the group!l

In reply to @janebkenneweg

I think you are right. After reading this thread and your post, I gave some thought on lip reading. And I come to a conclusion that I will learn lip reading. While I look for the better hearing aid, better accessories, and better audiolgist or ear doctor, I am going to train myself to become a better hearer by learning lip reading.

I couldn’t find any lip reading classes at the local schools. I live in Farmington Hills, Michigan, near Detroit.

Are there any online classes available? Or course materials (DVDs) that I can purchase for self training?

I’m not sure if anyone really learns to read lips. I think it may be more of a combination of looking and someone’s lips along with the assistance of the hearing aids together that helps interpretation. But I wouldn’t stake my life on it. Like I’ve told my local government. You don’t want me on a jury.

Same here. I never learned how to read lips. I don’t always get it right, but somehow I can match mouth movement with what I hear. In short, there’s still some brain processing / guessing involved.

Also, lip reading isn’t always correct. “I love you” could look the same as “I have you”.

My kindergarten teacher realized that I might have hearing issues because she realized that I looked at lips a lot when people were speaking.

I have a much harder time understanding people in a noisy environment if I cannot see their lips, although it still isn’t perfect.

I didn’t realize that there was such a thing as courses on this.

I rely on closed captioning when watching TV. I have a lot of difficulty reading lips when watching TV. There seems to be a lag between the visual and sound in some, not all, programs. Has anyone else noticed this? Very frustrating.

The lag is why I hate closed captions, if I have to depend on them I will just find and read the book.

Had an amusing experience on the plane a little while ago. I used Android Live Transcribe to type that’d I’d like some black coffee please. She said back that she didn’t have any right now due to the turbulence (as she pantomimed the plane rocking back and forth with her arms out) and asked me I would like something else. I held up the water I brought with and she smiled and that was that. This was all with my headphones on and cranking away from my phone, 100% lip cues.

The brain is pretty remarkable.

I worded my previous comment poorly. I’m noticing a lag between the picture itself and audio in some programs. It makes it difficult to read lips because everything feels out of sync - irrespective of captioning.

It would be an interesting experiment to try for yourself if you are watching TV and listen to the dialogue without watching the screen, see how many words you understand. Then, watch the program and when the same person who was speaking before appears again check how many words you understand. I find when I do this that I understand many more words when I can actually see the speaker moving his/her lips. I have proven this for myself.

This topic is very interesting. I discovered I was lip reading about 30 years ago. I had a friend
who was a bartender. I discovered I could understand what he was saying, even from the
other end of the bar, if he was facing me. I’d had a hearing problem in grammer school from
ear infections, and I attended speech classes for two years. In the course of the teacher teaching
us enunciation she was also teaching us lip readig (indirectly). I do have hearing loss, I have lost
most of the upper registers, more so in the left ear, then the right,. The infection could have caused
part of that, however, I attribute a lot of it to loud radio rooms while in the navey, and a Tour in Nam.
I have Phonak Audeo M-90’s from the . Mucho happy.

In reply to @shootingstar

I specifically went to a hearing rehab specialist so he could teach me to read lips. He tested me and said I was doing it very well already. He didn’t have more to teach me. Now I realize I speechread automatically and if I can’t see someone my comprehension suffers more than I expected it would.

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