Lipreading & Oralism
Lipreading
What is Lipreading?
Lipreading (now often called speechreading) is the ability to perceive speech by: (1) watching the movements of a speaker's mouth, (2) by observing all other visible clues including facial expressions and gestures, and (3) using the context of the message and the situation. Used to some extent by everyone, speechreading enhances communication in noisy situations--such as a noisy airplane, subways, rock concerts, under a hair dryer--when a message cannot be understood without seeing the speaker's face. For individuals with hearing loss, however slight, the development of speechreading skills can augment communication received through diminished hearing. A hearing aid does not eliminate the need to speechread, but rather requires the user to combine hearing and seeing. Listening and speechreading work together.
Does lipreading comes naturally to a person with a hearing loss?
Many people assume that lipreading is a natural skill that people develop to compensate for hearing loss. In reality lipreading is very difficult and does not happen easily. Many words look alike on the mouth. The difference occurs in the placement of the tongue or in the back of the throat, where they cannot be seen. Because of this, a person who lipreads relies heavily on sentence context and residual hearing.
If you are speaking with a hard of hearing individual and he/she does not understand what you have said try rephrasing. Often using a synonymous word will clarify the confusion because the new word is easier to lipread.
If I speak slowly and loudly, won't I be easier to lipread?
Lipreading is made even more difficult if a person exaggerates their mouth movements, which occurs when one tries to speak too slowly. An increase in volume level is also distracting. Having a hearing loss can be like listening to a radio station which is not coming in well. If you turn up the volume the static doesn't get better it only gets louder.
Please understand that if a person claims they cannot or do not lipread, respect that. Everyone can “lipread” basic every day sentences (“How are you?” etc.) That is not an indication that a person can lipread. Also, if a deaf or hard of hearing individual has a clear voice, that is no indication that they have usable residual hearing or that they can lipread well. Many late-deafened adults have voices that sound no different than hearing people, but have no residual hearing and cannot lipread.
Tips for Helping Someone Lipread
1. Do not shout. This distorts your voice. Face the hearing impaired person and talk in a normal voice at close range.
2. Do not exaggerate sounds when speaking. This distorts the message.
3. Avoid chewing, eating or covering your mouth with your hand when speaking to a hard-of hearing person.
4. Facial expressions, gestures, lip and body movements all give cues.
5. Good lighting on the face of the speaker is important.
6. Make sure he sees you before you start speaking.
7. It is more difficult to hear when there is a great deal of environmental noise.
8. Never speak directly into a person’s ear. This distorts your message and hides the visual clues.
9. Whenever possible, give a clue to the topic of conversation.
10. Give the hard-of -hearing person enough time to answer a question.
11. If he cannot judge the volume of his own voice, tell him tactfully when he speaks too loudly or too softly.
12. Don’t yell to get his attention. Instead, come close to him and say his name or touch him.
13. Remember that some rooms have better acoustics than others. A living room with carpets and drapes absorb sound and make hearing more difficult. Many hard-of hearing people have difficulty in hearing out-of-doors.
Cued Speech
What is Cued Speech?
When reading the following, bear in mind that Cued Speech requires that BOTH the lip-shapes and the hand cues be observed. Cued speech is quite simple in method.
Dr. Orin Cornett defined a phonetic alphabet of 41 sounds. He called that 'fonetik spelling'. Then he divided twenty-five consonant sounds into seven groups of three sounds and one group with four sounds. (total eight groups).
All the sounds in each group are visually distinct from the other sounds in each group. Thus, 'B' 'P' and 'M' which look similar on the lips are placed in three different groups so that the hand sign for each group immediately identifies the proper sound that goes with the visual appearance of 'closed lips in a straight line'
The vowel sounds are classified grouped with four hand LOCATIONS, one at the throat, one at the chin, one beside the mouth and one at the side of the jaw.
Dipthongs are defined as a simple movement from one vowel position to another.
This describes the ENTIRE system! The problem often lies in the fact that it isn’t a popular communication method and it may be difficult to find other people or interpreters who are familiar with this system.
This method was not developed as "a tool that might help facilitate lipreading and speech therapy". It was developed as a means of making spoken English fully accessible to a deaf child. It was also not developed, nor is it intended, as a replacement for ASL. Those who know about Cued Speech know that the developer and the driving forces in Cued Speech are very much in favor of deaf children being brought up bilingual.
Oralism
In general, Oralism is the avocation of deaf people to communicate by lipreading and speech alone--no sign language. Many people incorrectly believe that if a child is taught to sign, they will never develop speech skills. This is ridiculous and way too generalized. A deaf or hard of hearing person’s ability to speak clearly is directly related to the time of onset of deafness and how much residual hearing they have. In fact, most people who are raised strictly oral later go on to learn sign language and the doors of communication open.
The goal of the auditory methods is to teach a child how to use his residual hearing so that he may have access to spoken language. “Most (NOT ALL) deaf children have some residual (remaining) hearing. The brain, which develops rapidly in the first few years of life, needs rich language input during that time.” “The speech signal is redundant. Since it carries excess information, it is not necessary to hear every sound to understand a message.” Additionally, there is also a great emphasis on speech and speechreading. The ultimate educational goal is to place the child in a mainstream school environment.
No one method can unilaterally guarantee success for every individual.
Auditory Training:
There are two major types of auditory training. Auditory/oral training not only stresses auditory training, but also trains a child to use speechreading and contextual clues to receive information. Children that have auditory/oral training tend to pick up sign as a second language so that they can communicate with signing peers.
Auditory /oral training is the more traditional of the two approaches. The main focus of this type of training is to teach the child how to use his residual hearing. The earlier a child is given hearing aids, the better. In addition to training residual hearing, the child is also trained to speechread. Speechreading is challenging for several reasons. “Only about 30 percent of English sounds are visible on the lips, and 50 percent are homophonous, that is, they look like something else. Look in a mirror and ‘say’ without voice the words ‘kite’, ‘height,’ and ‘night.’ You’ll see almost no changes on your lips to distinguish among those three words. Then say the following three word: ‘maybe,’ ‘baby,’ ‘pay me.’ They look exactly alike on the lips.” In order to speechread well, the individual must use high level mental gymnastics. He must make an educated guess on much of what he sees, using situation and context. This almost always requires an excellent grasp of the target language. Many prelingually, late-diagnosed deaf simply do not have the exposure to English to pull these gymnastics off. Most deaf individuals do some speechreading. Some individuals truly have a knack for this skill. Many don’t. Since the goal in auditory/oral training is for the individual to both understand speech and communicate through speech, speech therapy is a necessary component in the training process.
Challenges:
Each method has its own type of challenges and the auditory/oral method is not different. The method is one that requires many, many years of hard work on the part of the child, his parents and his teachers. Often, there is little gain for many years. “For a deaf child to benefit from amplification (if this is, in fact, possible), it will take time and effort.” Hard work aside, there is also the issue of cost. Quality oral programs are not always available. Quality speech therapy and private schools may be required. “With few exceptions, the successful implementation of the Oral approach has been achieved in private school settings for an array of possible reasons.”
The auditory/verbal method (AV) is totally reliant on a child learning to use his residual hearing. No effort is expended on honing speechreading skills. As a matter of fact, if a child tries to speechread during therapy, the therapist covers her mouth to hide visual clues. Speech training is a part of AV therapy. AV Therapy requires one-on-one interaction. It is very intensive. The goal for these kids is to go straight into the mainstream. They usually do not go into any deaf education programs. AV Therapy is not widely available. This method is only for children that are aided young and, indeed, even capable of being aided to the point of using any residual hearing. In addition, these children must have some residual hearing when they are aided. Absence of cochleas contraindicates this method. Specialists, called auditory verbal therapists, train these children.
Alexander Graham Bell & the Eugenics of Deaf People
The word "eugenics" (from the Greek for "well-born") was coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, to refer to the study and use of selective breeding (of animals or humans) to improve a species over generations, specifically in regards to hereditary features.
Alexander Graham Bell was an active promoter of the eugenics movement in the United States. He was the honorary president of the Second International Congress of Eugenics held under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1921. His work with organizations such as this helped to pass laws in many states to sterilize people deemed to be a, "defective variety of the human race" which he described as the deaf, the criminally insane and the mentally defective. He advocated prohibiting deaf people from being allowed to teach in schools for the deaf and worked to pass laws that would not allow deaf people to marry others who were deaf. These efforts, combined with his lifelong campaign against sign language have given him a poor reputation with the many in the deaf community. His wife was deaf, too.
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