Like others, I’ve never had any formal training; but I realize that I do look to people’s mouths in complex hearing environments and that I have a much harder time understanding them when I can’t see their lips moving.
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If you asked me, I would tell you that I have no idea how to read lips.
But last year I found myself in an airport protest, and was pressed into service to do an impromptu interview with a reporter from the Boston Globe. It was a challenging environment — big open space, lots of talking everywhere, lots of acoustic reflections — but I was managing OK.
Then the reporter wanted to do some video. Fine! So, she takes out her iPhone and naturally holds it right in front of her face. Suddenly, I literally cannot hear a single word she says. It was very puzzling, but moving the phone solved the problem.
Of course, my new Phonaks are a better solution!
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I haven’t tried this course, but you can look at https://www.lipreading.org. It’s $20/month(USD) or $100/6 months. There’s also a reddit thread (doesn’t seem very lively) that discusses online lip reading.
https://www.reddit.com/r/deaf/comments/4ge27r/what_is_the_best_online_lip_reading_course/
This article mentions several software systems (again, I haven’t tried any of them).
Lipreading Software and Online Resources
I’d be interested to find out if anyone here has tried any of these courses.
I am profoundly deaf since birth, so I read lips for all my life
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I have genetic hearing loss, which means I have never had full spectrum hearing. I learned to lip read out of necessity and didn’t know I was doing it until I was a teenager and girls thought I was too focused. LOL! I learned to look away occasionally, but still had to rely on the visual crutch. Often I would tell a person that I could not hear them when they turned away from me, but the truth was that I needed to see their lips move to understand what they were saying. Practice is the best answer. Watch TV and guess what they are saying, them rewind it and see how you did.
I believe we tend to “read lips” by nature even if we have fully functional hearing. However, it isn’t just a matter of the lips. Facial expression and body position also play a part. Having someone rephrase what they said, rather than just repeating it, can be useful at times. It also helps if you know the subject being discussed; your brain kind of fills in some of the words you might miss. I did take a workshop on speech reading from one of my audiologists some years ago, but I’ve never attended a full course.
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My dentist is in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. She only speaks Spanish–I speak English. Lip reading doesn’t help much in that situation. (Although, on occasion, even my “rusty” ASL has been helpful.)
I’m self taught from necessity… If people don’t look at me when they are talking to me I don’t hear a word they say… When they do look at me it depends on how close they are, as to my need to read lips. eg if we’re in a restaurant it’s a full time job and very tiring…
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I have read lips all my life did not get ha till age five have had 13 yrs speech therapy
The best tips I can tell is the English language most ppl move the mouth the same
You can practice reading your own lips in the mirror it works
@alwysnomi I’m self taught from necessity. You will find most HOH people can read lip to vary degrees of accuracy. The difficult part is getting people to tLk to you rather than to your back, making it impossible to hear.
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And men with beards are the worst of all to understand
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Many years ago the company I worked for scanned employees for hearing loss. They provided me with about four sessions of one on one lip reading classes. That was helpful, and made me more aware of reading lips. Having said that, I used lip cues to help even before that, but after was more aware. Not many companies provide extras like that. I rely a lot on visual cues even more now and find I need them to “hear.” Have to agree with cvkemp that men with full beards are a challenge!
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People with full beards are more challenging, people that talk through closed mouths even more so! haha. In my city there is an organization, SMD, and they offer speech reading courses for people to attend at no charge. It helped for basic reinforcement of what most people already do, but did provide a place to practice in a more focused way which was definitely helpful.
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Welcome to the forum.
I had lessons to read lips without hearing the voice. I didn’t use it much so I am no longer able to read lips w/o hearing.
The funny thing in my case: I am watching US Blockbusters translated into my native language while the actors still move their mouth depending on the original english text. But anyway, without watching the mouth I don’t understand what the person is talking about but I do when looking at these movements …
So far I didn’t find an acceptable explanation for this strange effect.
Based on my recent evaluation for CIs I must be much better at this then I thought, because that showed that I wouldn’t be able to follow much of anything in noise without it.
I’ve never taken lessons for lip reading, but I’ve taught myself to an extent anyway. Instead of looking at people in the eye when we talk, I look at their mouth.
A B and a D might sound the same but they look different. Unfortunately D and T sound similar but look the same.
Anyway I do what I can, the best that I can.
Bob
I think a bunch of us read lips and don’t realize we are.
Today I had a hearing test at Costco. My word recognition is 12% in both ears. I also know that without aids my speech recognition is much better talking to an adult, not kids. The only reason that can be is reading lips. Maybe if I got on my knees to talk to kids I would do better. Hmmm
I never took lessons in lip reading, nor even knew there was such a thing as lessons. Lipreading just came natural to me without even thinking about it. I don’t even realize that I’m doing it, but my audi pointed it out to me. My neighbor frustrates me as she mumbles and doesn’t move her lips when she talks. My wife who has perfect hearing has trouble understanding this neighbor even. My new aids are making a big difference with her and have increased my word recognition even with this neighbor. but I still look at her mouth when she talks.
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Looking at a persons mouth becomes habit. It takes mental will power to not look. When I have purposely done this my word recognition drops like a rock.