For many individuals who are hearing impaired, developing the ability to lip read (or speech read) can help.
Lip reading seems to come naturally for some individuals, while others need to be trained - still most people who are hard of hearing will find guidance from a speech therapist helpful to develop the skill.
When it comes to improving your lip reading abilities, it takes serious practice, patience and perseverance.
Improving your lip reading Good lip readers don't just know how to read the shape of mouths for individual words.
Many additional cues from the speaker can help with lip reading: - Tongue positioning - "lip" reading is in fact a bit of a misnomer as lip readers need to examine the movement of the tongue as much as they do the lips - so distance does matter.
As a result, the actual practice is more accurately described as "speech reading".
Ensure the speaker is facing you directly so you can get a better read.
- Body language and expressions - we speak with our physical selves as much as we do with our mouths, so take a hint from body language and facial expressions.
It helps to smile and make the speaker as comfortable as possible - they'll tend to be more expressive with their body language.
- Contextual cues - in typical speech comprehension, only about 30 to 40 percent of the actual words spoken are processed and retained - so there really is no need to "lip read" every word.
Take contextual cues as often as you can.
Meanwhile, don't be afraid to ask a speaker to repeat or re-phrase their sentences and give them tips on how to make the communication process easier for you.
Even if you wear a hearing aid, speech reading can make communication easier in situations with loud background noise and in groups.
Meanwhile, those who are experiencing gradual hearing loss can start to develop their speech reading now.
It's easy to become frustrated with the process but developing this skill can really assist with your every day communications in the long term.