Sussex Community Lipreading Videos

This week is Lipreading Awareness Week. I am often asked whether learning to lipread is like learning a foreign language. The simple answer is no. When learning a foreign language, French for example, you learn the French word for the English word. You learn the French vocabulary in sets, i.e. the names for animals, the manes for the rooms in your house, the days of the week etc. In lipreading, we don't learn whole words - we focus on that the sound of the English language look like on the lips. We teach the 12 consonant lip shapes and the 20 vowel lip shapes. As a lipreader, you would then use these 32 "puzzle pieces" to work out what is being said. The reason we don't look at individual words is because we all use different words depending on who we are talking to and what we are talking about. The average person speaks 7,000 words a day - what would be a lot of words to learn and remember and what if you haven't learnt the right words???

4 things you can do when talking to a deaf person or a person with an acquired hearing loss. 1) Get their attention before you start talking. Face the person that you want to talk to and give them eye contact so they know you want to speak to them. Call their name, a touch of the arm or a wave can get their attention 2) Speak naturally and don’t shout Speaking naturally allows a deaf person to pick up on non-verbal clues such as gesture and body language. If-you-start-breaking-up-your-speech the emotion in what you are saying is lost and its actually harder to understand what’s being said. Please don’t raise your voice. Adding volume doesn’t add clarity to what is being said. For some people, the added volume can be painful and cause discomfort 3) Please repeat what you’ve said – or better still rephrase it Lots of words look alike on the lips when sound is taken away. If you are asked to repeat yourself, please be patient. Try rephrasing what you want to say – it can give more clues as to what you are saying 4) There are many different types and levels of hearing loss. Not all people with hearing loss use BSL or lipread. There are many different types, causes and levels of hearing loss. There is no “one way” to communicate If you want to know what you can do to help someone, ASK them. Don’t assume that you know what they need you to do. Each deaf person has different needs. Thanks for watching/reading! Sarah

Introduction to P, B and M
Ever wondered what happens in a lipreading class? Each week I introduce a specific lipshape and we practice spotting it. To start with, we look at the lipshape on its own. Then we practice spotting the lipshape in a word. We then move on to spotting it in a short sentence. Then we progress to spotting the lipshape in running speech and longer paragraphs. The video below is a snippet from my online course and it shows how I introduce the p/b/m lipshape.