Conversation with Hearing Loss, & the Power of Lip Reading
Spoken conversation is not our sole means of communication.
Facial expressions, mouth shapes, hand gestures, and body language are all examples of important ancillary sensory cues for us as social beings. And we come to rely on these cues more as our hearing deteriorates over time.
Speaking with someone who has hearing loss can, at times, be frustrating for everyone involved. Here are a few ways to improve conversational ease and mutual understanding in this scenario:
· Be sure to get the listener's attention before you begin talking, for example, by saying their name or touching the listener's shoulder lightly. This simple gesture will prepare the individual to listen.
· Speak distinctly, but you do not need to shout. Shouting can distort the words and can hinder effective communication. If you are inclined to speak quickly, try taking more time over your words at a relaxed pace. Use pauses, rather than slowed speech.
· A very useful tool to remember is REPHRASE rather than REPEAT. If the listener has difficulty understanding something you said initially, find a different way of saying it. For example, if the person did not understand when you said, “what time is it?” change it to “could you tell me what the time is?” instead.
· Reduce background noise where possible. Turn off the radio or television. Move to a quieter space away from noise. When going to a restaurant or making dinner reservations, ask for a table away from the kitchen, server stations, or large parties. And in a restaurant, crucially, sit where there is good lighting so that you can SEE more easily.
Why is lip-reading an important skill?
Communication is vital to life in a fast-moving world, where even the best hearing aids can provide only so much information that needs to be interpreted by our brains. Visual awareness enables discrimination between words that may sound alike, and you can learn to lip-read in classes around the UK.
How many people usually attend a class?
Since key elements of successful lip-reading include being reasonably close to the person speaking and seeing their face in a good light, most classes have no more than 12 members who sit in a horseshoe shape facing the teacher.
What happens during a class?
There is no hard and fast curriculum for the teaching of lip-reading. Most classes last for two hours (with a break for tea/coffee) and are held in an empathetic environment with relaxed chatting. Specific phonetic lip shapes are studied. In other words, you practice seeing normal speech whilst recognising particular mouth shapes. This is important because we can learn how to visually distinguish words that sound alike – such as pat, bat, or mat.
What benefits do people with hearing loss get from attending?
Understanding how best to listen, improved conversational comprehension in the presence of background noise, and the ability to look for cues to get the gist of a conversation (even at a distance, depending on your eyesight!). By having a grasp of good communication tactics, one’s confidence is boosted - which helps to significantly reduce social anxiety and prevent isolation.
Classes are typically run either by Association of Teachers of Lipreading to Adults (ATLA)-trained tutors, or by people not formally qualified but with a great deal of valuable lip-reading and teaching experience.
To find a lip-reading class near you visit the website of the Association of Teachers of Lipreading to Adults (ATLA).
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https://atlalipreading.org.uk/directory-classes/
