Speechreading Suggestions - Part 2

by Steve Silverman, M.A. (Communicative Disorders)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Speechreading suggestions for the speechreader:

* You know more about lipreading and your needs than the other person, so you are actually doing him or her a favor and educating by making communication more accessible.

* Maximize your residual hearing by manipulating the circumstances to minimize or eliminate competing sound, making sure the better hearing ear (if you have one) is oriented toward the speaker, and by using assistive devices (loop systems, closed FM systems, or others). Combining your residual hearing, amplification, and lipreading in efficient ways provides the greatest amount of information.

* Assert your needs. You want to understand as much as the speaker wants you to, so show that. Request what you need politely, such as, "Will you please take your hand off your chin?" or "Face me," or "Throw out your gum because it will make it easier to understand you," or ask that restaurant manager to lower the sound of the music, raise the lights, or place you at a well-lit table.

* ASK for the topic so you know what it is. "What are you (we) talking about here?" works a whole lot better than taking time to figure it out.

* Choose where you sit or stand in anticipation of your communication needs, facing where the waiter will be, where there is little movement or light behind the speaker you will be attending to most, and where you can use your residual hearing best. Sometimes it's necessary to prioritize these things (a personal bias, if I must choose, I prefer to face the person I wish to hear most and not where the waiter will stand). And again, ask if a small change will help your visual access, "Please move a little to the right."

* Assume that you have a right to understand. If people are saying it, obviously, they think it's important for you to know it. A personal pet peeve: being told, "It's not important," or "Never mind." Anything important enough to say to me once is important enough to repeat or rephrase.

* Bluffing is exposed sooner or later, sometimes with very embarrassing results, such as finding you've "uh-huh"-ed yourself into a commitment when you were just trying to appear understanding or saying something totally inappropriate, such as, "That's nice," immediately after someone passed along very distressing information. (Been there, done that.) That's why I try to never bluff, although honesty directs me to admit that I do have some rare moments of it.

* Ask for repetitions when you need it. When asking for a repetition, use cloze techniques. Instead of "Huh?" or "What?" or "I didn't understand that," ask the speaker to fill in the blanks by letting them know what you DO understand "I know you're talking about a family member, but don't know if you're saying Gary or Karen." (Yes, non-lipreaders, those look identical.)

* Assert and choose your listening position. Make sure your back is to the light so that it falls on the speaker's face ("Can you please move a little to the right so I can see you better?") and that the speaker is at the same relative height as you ("Won't you please take a seat, too?") Move to make sure you are between three and six feet from the speaker if possible.

* Let the speaker know you're lipreading ("Please face toward me so I can read your lips.") If your request begins, "I'm sorry, I'm deaf," implicit is that you're sorry for yourself. You have no reason to be, so there's no need to begin that way. The opposite side of that is how you handle when a person responds to that opening by saying, "I'm sorry." I tend to smile and reply, "I'm not," which normally gets a smile in return and seems to calm a lot of tension during communication. (Note: a well-respected deaf peer disagrees and says this is merely social convention. I hold this position and retain it as personal philosophy.)

* To the greatest extent possible, make conversations one on one, not in big groups where the topic is hard to follow, the speaker harder still, especially if people talk at the same time.

* Use reflective listening techniques to show understanding, "Ah, you're going to the big ALDA party next weekend, too," so the speaker knows you're understanding. A bluff "Uh-huh" doesn't help you or the person who wants you to understand.

* Anticipate context. At the bank, they'll ask about whether you want to make a deposit or withdrawal, the waiter will want to know what kind of salad dressing you want or what you want to drink, and your mother...(I think I should leave that one to you!)

* Remember, you don't have to 'get' every word, just the meaning of the whole. It's not worth the aggravation trying to get every article or preposition.

* Read and teach the suggestions for the speaker below.

* If you're going to be attending a movie or play without access beyond sound, read the book or the play or a summary of it.

* Be aware of hearing people's reactions to the environment. Did someone just come into the room? The hearing person will look toward the door if they did.

* Be prepared that the conversation's topics will change. Like usual, ask for clarification of the topic by telling what you know "We were just talking about Debbie's wedding, but now we're not. What are we talking about now?"

* Keep abreast of the news and world events. These will help when people are talking by providing you with more and better context.

* Relax! Straining to lipread is counterproductive. Lipreading is harder if you TRY. Relaxing helps lipreading more than getting anxious does. Too much deliberate concentration tends to interfere with my understanding, not help it.

* Speechreading takes MUCH more energy than listening with ears. Take what I think of as "eyeball breaks" (in a group setting, that sometimes means a false bathroom run for me). Turn to another activity or rest when your eyes let you know they need a break. It's fair and reasonable to say, "I'm going to tune out for a couple of minutes. Who will fill me in on what I miss?" Realize that lipreading is more difficult if your eyes are stressed or you're tired. Being sick or tired makes lipreading harder because it makes any kind of concentration harder.

* Familiarity with the speaker tends to make lipreading easier. Even if initial contact proves frustrating and only minimally successful, time will normally make the new person's speech patterns more familiar and easier to read.

* That's not to say that even the very best speechreaders will be able to understand everybody and everything. They won't. The attitude that works best for me is that all I can do is all I can do. If that comes up short, I am more than willing to explore other ways to get the speaker's message, including asking them to verbally spell the word I missed or writing it down.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three