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THIS PAGEA Parent's Guide to Hearing Loss
Produced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program
Speech Reading
Speech reading (or lip reading) is a building block that helps a child with hearing loss understand speech. The child watches the movements of a speaker's mouth and face, and understands what the speaker is saying. About 40% of the sounds in the English language can be seen on the lips of a speaker in good conditions — such as a well-lit room where the child can see the speaker's face. But some words can't be read. For example: "bop", "mop", and "pop" look exactly alike when spoken. (You can see this for yourself in a mirror). A good speech reader might be able to see only 4 to 5 words in a 12-word sentence.
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To help your child learn speech reading, you should look directly at your child's face when you are speaking. |
Children and adults often use speech reading in combination with other building blocks — such as auditory training (listening), cued speech, and others. But it can't be successful alone. Babies will naturally begin using this building block if they can see the speaker's mouth and face. But as a child gets older, he or she will still need some training to use this building block.
Sometimes, when talking with a person who is deaf or hard-of-hearing, people will exaggerate their mouth movements or talk very loudly. Exaggerated mouth movements and a loud voice can make speech reading very hard. It is important to talk in a normal way and look directly at your child's face and make sure he or she is watching you.
Glossary
Building Block(s): "Building Blocks" refers to the different skills that parents can use to help their child learn language. There are many types of building blocks, and a family can pick and choose the building block (or blocks) that work best for their child and family. The following is a list of many commonly used building blocks.
Speech: Speech is a skill that many people don't think about. But speech is a building block. It helps build language. Parents can choose to have their children use this building block for communicating — that is, expressing themselves.
Auditory Training / Listening: Many children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing may still have some amount of hearing. This is called residual hearing. Some parents of a child with residual hearing may choose to use a building block called listening (auditory training). This building block is often used together with assistive devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.
Cued Speech (Building Block): Cued speech (sometimes called "cueing") is a building block that helps children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing better understand spoken languages. Many speech sounds look the same on the face even though the sounds are different. For instance, the words "mat", "bat", and "pat" look the same on the lips and mouth. When "cueing" English, the person communicating uses eight hand shapes and four places near the mouth to help the person looking tell the difference between speech sounds.
For more information or to order additional copies of "A Parent's Guide to Hearing Loss" visit CDC's website at www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/ehdi.