How much speech do you understand by reading lips?

D

deafdude1

New Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2009
Messages
1,268
Reaction score
0
I am wondering now. Some say lipreading is difficult and inefficient, others say it's as easy as the hearing that listen. I understand over 80% speech by reading lips, it comes to me naturally. My parents say I taught myself to read lips since I was a tot. I seem to get the impression that lipreading is inferior to listening with your ears. I see it as just another language and method of communication similar to sign language.

Lipreading has it's advantages and disadvantages. I can't read lips if its dark out or if the person's being rude and not facing me when talking. If someone calls for me, I must first hear them calling me then read lips to engage in a converstation. I don't understand 100% speech even with lipreading, I wonder if anyone can understand 100%? Ive been told that only 20% of speech is visible on the lips but it's 100 times easier to read lips than to listen in my case. In areas of lots of background noise, even hearing people start missing speech but I understand the same 80% in any setting.

Ok, with sound I score over 80%. Without sounds a few percent less. I often don't wear HAs when speaking to my parents and I understand almost everything they say just by reading their lips.
 
lip-reading alone with no sound? nearly useless for me. I'd say it's about 30% for me.
 
It all depends on the circumstances such as adequate lighting, number of people in a group, the person or persons I am speaking too, whether I have my HA on or not, and my alertness.

For me to get score over 50%, it would have to be during an one-on-one situation with someone who moves his/her mouth clearly in good lighting.

I can hear speech without lipreading but just can't understand the words. I hear mostly vowels and a few consonants.
 
I understand very VERY little when lipreading alone. I need sound input when lipreading to make the connection, and I need visual support when listening to make sense of what I'm hearing. I can't do 1 alone without the other, so I'm screwed.
 
!00 percent with the aid of what I can hear and a person willing to repeat themselves six or seven times.
 
deafdude1 said:
I am wondering now. Some say lipreading is difficult and inefficient, others say it's as easy as the hearing that listen. I understand over 80% speech by reading lips, it comes to me naturally. My parents say I taught myself to read lips since I was a tot. I seem to get the impression that lipreading is inferior to listening with your ears. I see it as just another language and method of communication similar to sign language.
Click to expand...

I can't say it is inferior if one can't do without it. It is just another tool to assist with communicating those who speak. I don't think of it as another language but just a tool. Heck, you have to understand the spoken language first before one can lipread at all.

When I had a HA prior to my CI, I found it very useful and helpful to catch stuff one's hearing couldn't. I have no clue how well I did with it as I could understand speech decently with my HA. I guess it allowed me to catch most of what a person was saying. I will say that when I used lipreading a lot, I would find it tiring after a while because I had to concentrate more on it. After a hour or two, I was done with it. The more people the worst it was as there was so much to keep up with.

After getting my CI, I found it so liberating to not have to rely on it very much. I was getting the clarity in speech that I was missing with my HA. I could focus on what I was hearing to the point that my lipreading skills went south and I don't depend on it too much anymore. My wife won't "talk" to me if I don't have my processor on.

deafdude1 said:
Lipreading has it's advantages and disadvantages. I can't read lips if its dark out or if the person's being rude and not facing me when talking. If someone calls for me, I must first hear them calling me then read lips to engage in a converstation. I don't understand 100% speech even with lipreading, I wonder if anyone can understand 100%? Ive been told that only 20% of speech is visible on the lips but it's 100 times easier to read lips than to listen in my case. In areas of lots of background noise, even hearing people start missing speech but I understand the same 80% in any setting.
Click to expand...

I don't think anybody gets 100% of speech with lipreading. It is too hard to do.

I'm sure you are aware that the "hearing" culture doesn't rely on lipreading and people don't always look at each other when talking. They don't realize when talking to a HOH/deaf person that they need the face to communicate better. I bring that up as unless the person is aware of that fact, I wouldn't call them rude. Ignorant yes but not rude and they will eventually catch on at some point.
 
i rely mostly on speech reading. i do better than anyone ive ever met. however the reason i do so well is not because i understand all the words but because im so proficiant at putting it all together. ya know? if i catch only the words ... did feed dog.... than i would know depending on facial expression of speaker that im being asked if i feed the dog today.
or... (speaker) ... i went .... house.... noone.... then i would assume that they went to my house but noone was home. then i repeat what i think they said to clarify.
ive always been good at putting the pieces together. my life is nothing but a huge puzzle! people often think i can hear or can lipread every word until i explain how i am able to follow spoken conversation. its very tiring though. echh...
 
I couldn't even lipread my parents well without sound.

40% pre implant lipreading with voice.

86% at 6 month post implant lipreading with voice
 
I don't even bother talking about lip-reading anymore since I am dumb enough to be honest or not hold back details.. When people ask if I lipread, I say "yes, but it's only work maybe 10% to 30% of the time." That somehow got translated to "I only understand 10%."

Even if I say yes to the lipreading question while holding back that fact, people still assume that I am a perfect lip-reader. :\

Edit: Just realized someone just got the same answer as me.

shel90 said:
It all depends on the circumstances such as adequate lighting, number of people in a group, the person or persons I am speaking too, whether I have my HA on or not, and my alertness.

For me to get score over 50%, it would have to be during an one-on-one situation with someone who moves his/her mouth clearly in good lighting.

I can hear speech without lipreading but just can't understand the words. I hear mostly vowels and a few consonants.
Click to expand...

Shel nailed it. LOL...
 
Depends!!! I am deaf... I can some understand read lip.. :)
 
Back
Top