Lockdowns have taught us many things, one of which is that we need our eyes as well as our
ears to understand what is being said - and having a conversation through a mask can be
difficult because we cannot lipread.
Hopefully we will soon be able to dispense
with masks and see full faces again, so, now is
a good time to learn to lipread. Learning this
skill can make communication so much easier if
your hearing is impaired, and the good news is
that lip reading courses, which are usually held
face-to-face in Loughborough, are being held
on Zoom, so you can learn to lipread in your
own home.
Courses are run by the Leslie Edwards Trust,
a Loughborough-based charity for the
promotion of lip reading, for those suffering
from hearing loss.
An enthusiastic advocate of lipreading is
former Barrow resident Angela Yates, who did
a course herself, was so impressed with it,
and the work of the Trust, that she offered
her services to the committee to help with
publicity.
“I wear hearing aids which help a lot, but there
are times when you also need to lipread,” says
Angela. “Being in a noisy environment, having
distracting background noise, even something
as small as people walking on wooden floors,
can make it difficult to hear. I found the
lipreading course very useful.”
Lipreading is a technique to aid speech
understanding by watching the movement of
lips, face and tongue when the sound is not
sufficiently loud and clear. Understanding
context can further clarify what the speaker
may be saying and students are taught this too.
Apart from the obvious benefits such as
learning and practising vital lipreading skills,
the classes are informative, and provide the
opportunity to share experiences and useful
tips. Angela said she enjoyed meeting people
who had similar problems with hearing.
It is important to manage hearing loss because
it can lead to communication problems in a
hearing world. People with hearing loss can
become isolated within families, socially and
at work, which can lead to low self-esteem,
depression and other health problems.
Frequently, people avoid and withdraw from
social situations and this increases a person’s
feeling of being cut off from everyday life.
Technology has brought us useful aids, like
subtitles on TV - but it can be frustrating
when the words lag behind the picture or
don’t match the context, and this is when lip
reading comes into its own. Another aid is
sign language, which
enables deaf people to communicate with each
other. However, most hearing-impaired people
live in the hearing community and need to
be able to communicate with hearing people.
Lipreading trains your eyes to help your ears by
watching the movements of the mouth teeth
and tongue, and by reading the expressions of
the face.
Lindsay Ord
Lip reading classes can be joined using anything from a smartphone, to a tablet, laptop or computer. There is usually an introductory class which will help you if you’ve never used Zoom before. Classes start on 23 April and will be held once a week for 10 weeks. The cost is £20 for the 10-week term. For more information or to join a class, contact Jane Futcher on www.lets-lipread. org.uk · There is also a Lets Lipread Facebook group.