how to lip read

When we talk about lipreading, we think of spies and how we can uncover information that we weren't really privy to. However, lipreading is more than that. For those that lose their hearing, lipreading is about quality of life. It's about still being in the loop of normal conversation and communication. During normal conversation, we all look at the speaker's lips - that is, when the speaker is facing us and, for those who have been losing their hearing for some time, they might have already started a process of reading lips unknowingly. But just how easy is it to read lips? For those born deaf, reading lips will be very difficult, as they will have never heard the spoken word and so don't necessarily understand lip patterns. For those who lose their hearing later in life, it may therefore seem logical that reading lips is easier. But just how easy is it? This hub will let you into those secrets .... .

There is a big difference between lipreading for pleasure and lipreading as a method of communication.

If you want to be able to lipread simply as a skill to be proud of, just how far do you need to go? Is showing that you can ‘do it’ enough? The skill of lipreading can be sought by the police, so I should imagine that knowing how to lipread can be e very lucrative. However, what if lipreading is needed for the purpose of keeping you in the loop of life? All of a sudden, it’s become essential, hasn’t it and the degree of understanding has increased as well. After all, when lipreading is needed to support communication, half measures are going to be felt, as being on the edge of a conversation rather than contributing to it are worlds apart.

Looking at what hinders lipreading is a very good place to start.

We've already said that reading lips is not easy but there are certain things that make it a lot more difficult:-

Background noise, as not everyone who is trying to read lips is totally deaf. Loud music or a television playing can affect one's concentration and make reading those all-important words much more difficult to read.

Single words without any supporting sentence or context will be difficult to read, as there are no telltale clues.

The speaker turning away for a moment, as the context of the communication will be lost.

The speaker eating food or chewing on a pencil will distort the lip patterns and make the words less precise for lipreading.

Bad light, or the light shining in the lipreader's eyes, will make seeing the speaker's lips difficult.

The speaker shouting or speaking more slowly will make lip reading very difficult. This is because it is easier to read a whole sentence spoken at a fairly correct speed, than to concentrate on stretched words that are shouted, both points affecting the true lip shape of the words being spoken.

Reading lips when a person's head is moving a lot (like when scanning the room to talk to more than one person at the same time), as it becomes difficult to fix one's eyes on the speaker's lips.

Trying to follow a different accent or a foreign speaker will mean that the lip shapes are different to what the lipreader is use to.

These are probably the main points that make reading lips very difficult but I am sure there will be more.

So, if you want someone to read your lips, you need to address the difficulties to support successful lipreading. A good starting point, don't you think?

It’s a fact that only thirty to forty percent of words are lipreadable and that’s in the best of circumstances, when the lipreader is free from any hindrances.

Though some words are easy to read (e.g. hospital, fireworks and toffee), some words are very difficult to read, as the first letter is not easily recognizable. This is because certain letters cannot be seen on the lips, or look the same as others. For example, b, m and p look exactly the same, so words like beat, meat and peat will be very difficult to differentiate as single words. Try mouthing them silently in the mirror. In context, these words might be easier to guess, as ,understanding the communication may make it obvious which of the three words is being said.

The letters c, g and h cannot be seen on the lips and it is the context of the communication that will help you decide which word is being used. Is it could, good or hood?

If you want someone with a hearing loss to read your lips, speak at a normal speed and give the whole sentence. If the receiver doesn’t understand first time, say the sentence again and, if the person is still struggling to get the message, try changing some of the words, to use others that may be easier to lipread. Patience really is the key.

Don't presume that it is eaier to read ips by looking at the speaker's face full on, becuase this isn't necessarily so. This is because, when someone speaks, their lip pattern does change with every word but, for some words, the speaker's mouth pouts. For example, words like work, prompt and quiet need the lips to go forward to shape the words. Ask a friend to silently mouth these words for you to guess which one is being spoken.

See what I mean?

It's true - only thirty to forty percent of words are lipreadable. It's also true that only twenty percent of communication comes from words. The other eighty percent come from what you see:-

Eyes give a lot of information:-

Are they looking directly at you or at something else?

Have the arched eyebrows given your eyes a questioning stance?

Have your dropped eyebrows given you a frown?

Are your eyes staring, meaning dismay or disbelief or something other?

Are your closed eyes saying that you're not happy with what you're hearing?

Are your heightened up top lids showing contempt?

What about your mouth?

The very shape can tell you delight ('ooh'), sadness ('ahh') and many other manner of emotions.

What about your shoulders - do they talk?

Yes, they do! High shoulders may mean 'I don't know' amongst other things and dropped shoulders can point to disappointment or shame.

Now think about what the following tell you:-

Using your fingers to play and tap at the table, as if it was a piano.

Legs crossed and the upper leg is swinging or you are twisting your foot left and right.

Folded arms placed high on your chest.

Hands on your hips with shoulders held high.

So, while only thirty to forty percent of words may be lipreadable, a lot of information is coming from the speaker's face and body, enhancing understanding and placing the words in a physical context. So, when you're trying to lipread, make sure you're taking all of these points into account.

The thing that makes lipreading difficult is that a lot of words look the same .e.g. sit and seat, cable and gable and, another example, park and bark. As I have already stated, it is the context of the conversation and also the body language and gesture that make the word readable. Supporting that first letter (like for bark and park or cable and gable) will go a long way to clarify what the word was but what about bit and beat or sit and seat? They both start with the same letter but the context of the conversation, or the words wrapping round the one difficult to read, may make the choice of word obvious.

Examples:-

‘Give me a bit of that chocolate, please.’

‘I like the words of the song but I don’t like the beat.’

These sentences offer a different context, so it’s easier to read the difficult word.

‘I’m very tired. Is there a seat anywhere?’

‘You look very tired. Why don’t you sit down?’

These sentences are in the same context but the words wrapping around sit or seat make the choice easy.

Remember that if someone can’t read your word, maybe another word might be easier to read. It’s all about communication and getting your message across, isn’t it? If knowing how to lipread is for your own benefit, remember to read sentences and not single words. You'll be amazed how much easier this makes it.

Hubby and I sat and watched an old film that we have watched many times before but, this time, something bothered me about it.

The film was 'How Green Was My Valley', a film about a mining community is Wales and the scene in question was where Walter Pidgeon, who was playing the community vicar, went down in the pit cage to help find Mr. Morgan, played by Donald Crisp. As the cage descended, Maureen O'Hara said something to the vicar and, yes, I replayed it three times, to see if she had said 'I love you' for all to see (if you know the film, you'll know why I wondered this). On the third attempt, I decided that she seemed to have said 'God speed'.

Being able to read lips sometimes comes in handy but I'm still not sure if I'm right about Maureen O'Hara said. Nevertheless, I enjoyed trying to guess. Other times when it definitely comes in handy is:-

• If you fancy the person on the other side of the room. That person is looking directly at you, while he or she is saying something to the friend alongside. Oh, if only you knew what they were saying!
• Trying to get an important message from someone who is close enough for you to hear what they have so say but the noise nearby makes it difficutl to understand what they are saying e.g. a train with its engine going, in a nightclub when the music is playing, in a factory when you are standing next to loud machinery, or when lots of people are speaking at the same time and you are doing your best to concentrate on one voice.
• You're trying to pass on an important but private point, simply by mouthing the words.
• You're hard of hearing or deaf.

I'm sure that you can add more to the list, as it's safe to say that we all need to be able to read lips and some stage or other.

If only it were easy .... .

This tip helps you lipread those difficult words but, it is only a useful tip if you are trying to help a hard-of-hearing or deaf person understand what you have been saying. If it's simply for you to improve your personal though not essential skill, it's not going to happen for you, unless you work alongside some other interested person and you use this as a development technique.

I've already discussed that some letters look the same on the lips - b, m and p, as well as c and g and then there's letters like h that can't be seen on the lips, unless they are teamed up with another letter, as in chop or shop (where the challenge is now on the ch or sh!)

I am a qualified lipspeaker, for hard-of-hearing and deaf people who need to read lips as their method of being in the loop of important conversation. That training told me that, when the first letter of a word is going to be confusing or hard to see, I should support it by drawing its capital form with my index finger, just in front of my own body and therefore easy for the lipreader to pick up on, at the same time as reading my lips. So words like beat, meat and peat will be supported by their first letter, cable and gable the same, and the h for hour (so not our) or hate (so not ate), would also be drawn to distinguish which word is currently being spoken. This letter should be drawn at the exact moment that your lips are forming that same letter but it doesn't have to be drawn every time a word starts with one of those letters I have mentioned because, quite often, the context explains the word. Words like hospital, birthday, stupid and horrible will be easy to read on the lips and even easier, when read in the context of a sentence and conversation.

Every little helps.