Why noise is a problem if we can lipread?

Hearing Loss
1

Hello,

I have two requests from you.

First of all, I wrote this as a brief version to share with people I get in contact with.

Do you think it’s clear and inclusive? Is there anything I forgot to add or maybe I should delete?

Secondly, after reading it, someone asked me, “if you’re lip-reading and can hear the noise anyway, why does it matter if it’s noisy?”

I didn’t know what to answer. What came to my mind was that I don’t proficiently read lip but seeing the lips helps me guess the words.

What are your thoughts on this?

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I think your note is great! As for the question about noise and why it matters, I’d say your reason is fine. I find noise distracting and tiring when I’m trying to focus on the face and mouth of the person who’s talking to me. It makes it easier to miss important visual cues.

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One tip for communication is to make sure the HOH person knows what the general topic of discussion is before getting into details.

Two issues here. First, even the best lip readers can only understand around 40% of conversations. One obstacle is that some sounds look the same on the lips, such as m and b.

Second, many HOH people need a higher signal to noise ratio then the normal hearing. This means that the speech needs to be a lot louder than the background noise before it can be understood.

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Lip reading is cognitively tiring, even if you don’t realise it is. Context and clarity help a lot, but even in a completely silent situation, it would be difficult to lipread every word accurately. If you add extra noise that the brain is still registering or trying to filter out, it makes it even harder. Add to that, not everyone shapes the same word in the same way depending on accent; reading lips on people with facial hair can add challenges; lots of words sound similar and the brain uses other clues to understand the meaning based on context and tonal shift. I say to my friends that trying to lipread in a noisy environment would be like them trying to concentrate on speech while someone was constantly poking them. :joy:

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In addition to all the things mentioned here, noisy environments can also be visually challenging as well - poor lighting, lots of activity going on, etc. - this can make it hard to see and focus on what is being said around you.

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I agree that outside noise can be very distracting to lipreading. The other issue is that while I may “hear” the sound, my ability to discriminate the actual words spoken is negatively impacted, especially in a noisy environment.

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Lipreading is difficult and greatly relies on knowing the context.

“In the silent film Three Weeks (1924) there’s a scene in which Conrad Nagel lovingly scoops up Aileen Pringle and carries her to the bedroom. If you read her lips you’ll notice that the actress seems to be telling her co-star, ‘If you drop me you bastard I’ll break your neck.’”

The Most Interesting Book in the World, by Edward Brooke-Hitching

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