Lip reading

Lip reading is a technique of understanding spoken language without hearing its sounds. Practitioners learn the phonemes associated with the shape and attitude of the mouth and infer words from what they view.

Related Topics:
Language - Sound - Phoneme - Mouth

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Although lip reading is commonly taught, it does not lead to perfect understanding. For instance the phrase "Island view" would be lip read as "I love you." Critics claim that 50% understanding of language by lip reading is about the maximum achievable. This would presumably vary from language to language.

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Quote from the Listening Eye, Dorothy Clegg,1953, "When you are deaf you live inside a well-corked glass bottle. You see the entrancing outside world, but it does not reach you. After learning to lip read, you are still inside the bottle, but the cork has come out and the outside world slowly but surely comes in to you."

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What is lipreading? Lipreading is the skill used by a deaf or hard of hearing person to understand a speaker's meaning. It is a combination of watching the movements of the lips, face and body and using information provided by the situation, language and any useful hearing which remains (with or without the help of a hearing aid). Exaggerated 'mouthing' does not help the lipreader; in fact it distorts the lips and destroys the natural rhythm of speech.

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