LIBERTY Hearing & Health

The Art of Lip Reading and Tips for Success

Shanna Groves, the Lip Reading Mom, developed hearing loss upon the birth of her children.  The following is an excerpt from her site along with tips on how to further develop your lip reading skills.

As a hard of hearing (HOH) mother of three, I can become frustrated with not hearing my children’s voices well. And I am not alone. According to the Deafness Research Foundation, 17 percent of American adults report some degree of hearing loss. Many are parents or grandparents.

Among them is Mary Butler of Tennessee, a hard of hearing mother of a 9 month-old child. Because of the challenges of understanding a child’s delicate voice, Butler said she would think twice before watching other people’s children.

“It is very difficult, if next to impossible, to discern what they are saying,” Butler said. “I’ve met children who became very frustrated with me because they thought I wasn’t paying attention to them. Let’s just say I am happy to baby sit a newborn, but once they reach the age where they start talking, I’ll pass.”

In a perfect world, all children would come with captioning devices attached to them so hard of hearing folks could understand their words. Until that day, these communication and technology strategies may help.

• Make Eye Contact
• Consider Technology and Hearing Dogs
• Have Fun with Communication
• Turn Noises Off
• Educate Your Child

Other helpful tips for parents and grandparents with hearing loss:

• Encourage your children to speak clearly by teaching them proper word pronunciation. Emphasize each vowel and consonant sound, particularly the “softer” consonant sounds of “t,” “s” “f” and “v.”
• Ask the child to turn off any toys or music before speaking, since both create background noise.
• When your kids are in the backseat while you are driving a car, ask them to wait until you are at a stoplight to communicate with you, if at all possible. Try not to respond to comments from children unless the car is stopped. The FM hearing device (mentioned above) may help with hearing their voices.
• In other situations, respond to a child’s question or comment only if he or she is facing you. Eventually, the child will understand the importance of eye contact in communicating with a HOH person.
• If you don’t understand what a child said, resist the urge to pretend you did. Instead say, “My ears didn’t hear you. Please tell me again.”