Speechreading Suggestions - Part 3

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

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Speechreading suggestions for the speaker:

* Speak modestly more slowly, but not too slowly to keep meaning since all languages have comparable rates of processing.

* Separate your words when you speak. In English, people naturally get a bit lazy. "Some monkeys" looks like "somonkeys" most of the time. Separating greatly eases the lipreading challenge of knowing when one word ends and the next begins. Beware of that childhood bit of nonsense in which one child asks another, "Is that water coming out of your nose?" To which the other child answers, "No, itsnot."

* Speak with normal, not exaggerated mouth movement.

* If the listener uses residual hearing, make your voice a little bit louder, but not a lot.

* Face the listener, with nothing obstructing your face or mouth.

* Use natural, again, not exaggerated, facial expression or gestures, but do use them. They convey important information and are somewhat subdued by normal hearing folks' convention.

* Keep your face well lit and three to six feet from the listener.

* Make sure that the listener knows you're talking! Tap, wave, flash lights, stomp, or whatever, but make sure the listener is looking at you.

* If you know which ear hears better, stand toward that side. If not, ask.

* When the listener doesn't understand something, rephrase it. "Begin" is easier to lipread than "Start." And be very careful of look-alike words. I am reminded of the story told by a hearing sister of a deaf one, who, when riled, looked directly at the deaf sister and mouthed, "Vacuum!"

* Provide context; summarize the topic at hand "We're talking about..."

* Know that the lipreader will do best one to one; the more in the speaking group, the harder lipreading task is. By the time a lipreader figures out who's talking next, they are a half sentence or more (and loss of context or transition) behind, a hole that's very difficult to get out of.

* If you hear something you must respond to, remember the person you're speaking with may not, and let them know before you just light out for the phone or door or whatever.

* Read and teach the suggestions for the listener above.

* Presumably you speak because you want the listener to know what you're saying. If something is worth saying in the first place, it's worth repeating or rephrasing or, if need be, writing so that the listener gets what you want him or her to understand.

Look-alike words are particularly challenging in English. I mentioned a few above, but to get the idea across to someone who doesn't understand the difficulty and complexity of speechreading, I often provide the list below, note they are all easy to understand, common English words, and ask the person (usually a hearing one) to mouth the words to someone else and ask them to identify which of this closed set of words is being said:

pat
man
bad
pan
ban
mat
pal
bat
mad
pad

After the person is frustrated, I explain that these words are an example of what makes lipreading so very hard. All ten look exactly the same. With no context, they are virtually indistinguishable. (Note that to a very good lipreader, some may be distinguishable since, in reality, most people 'hold' a nasal 'm' or 'n' infinitesimally longer than the look-alike 'p' or 't'.)

In closing, I repeat. Speechreading English is not easy to do. I hope these suggestions help you in a conversation when lipreading is being done (attempted?) as they help me in my daily interactions.

Copyright 2002, 2003 Steven A. Silverman, M.A.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three