Breathe Easy Group
May 2013
Lipreading Presentation
Hello it’s good to be here to talk to you.
It’s a bit late but Happy New Year. Did you get that?
You were all brilliant at lip reading last time!!
Are you ready for some more? Very brave of you to have me back again.
Did you have a nice Christmas? Christmas is lovely for children but if you’re anything like me you will have eaten and drunk too much.
Did you make any New Year Resolutions? The New Year resolutions don’t usually last very long do they?
I was at quite an important talk the other week. It was all about keeping your heart healthy. The speaker had some interesting things to say but – I’ll have to get up to show you what happened .........
Every time the speaker was facing away from me I lost the plot!! Also the speaker ‘s voice often became very soft when a point was being made so again no chance there.
I’ll try not to do that to you today. Remember I can’t hear how loudly I’m speaking so let me know if I’m too loud or too soft.
Last time we explored what lip readers needed to do to be able to lip read and to join in conversations. This time I thought we’d look at what the person who is speaking can do to help the lip reader.
I have been trying to lip read more from the television with varied success. Some of the speakers speak so quickly that it sounds like gobbled gook to me.
Can you think of any ways to help someone like me to hear and lip read the conversation?
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You could Get Their Attention:
- Tap them on the shoulder; wave your hand; or say their name until you have their attention. Amazing how even very hard of hearing people often hear their name.
- Make sure you have their attention before beginning the conversation.
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Speak a little slower, a little Louder & Clearly No need to shout- keep the natural rhythm.
Here are some well known nursery rhymes; join in when you’ve got it.
| Try this one; |
Humpty dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again
|
Here’s another
join in when you’ve got it; |
Baa Baa Black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir three bags full.
One for the master and one for the dame
And one for the little boy who lives down the lane
|
- Use Gestures, Facial Expressions and other Body Language:
- nodding or shaking your head for yes or no, shrugging your shoulders for uncertainty, facial expressions e.g. smiling or looking sad.
- Face the Person: demonstration
- Everyone uses lip reading to fill in what they don't hear. Those who are HOH rely on it but need a clear view of your face and lips.
- it is difficult to lip read if the speaker has their face pointing down and try to keep still not wandering up and down so keep looking at the lip reader .
- Keep your hands away from your mouth.
- Don't speak whilst eating.
- Gestures Here’s an old rhyme that has actions too - join in when you know it.
There were 10 in the bed and the little one said roll over roll over
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I’m lonely!!
- Find a Quiet Place: we all know how difficult it is to hear in pubs or parties etc. It’s mission impossible for HOH.
- If poss no background noise - television or radio, fans or air
- HOH people are usually not able to filter those sounds out to hear your words clearly.
- When speaking in noisy situations try to speak with very clearly formed words.
- Have a pen & paper handy so that if necessary you can write some words down to help clarify what is being said.
- Don't Exaggerate your Lip Movements and Over Enunciate: (EEyore toy)
- Lip reading is difficult; only about 30-40 percent of the sounds are clearly recognisable. Remember Eeyore - he speaks so slowly and miserably – although it makes you laugh it can be quite difficult to follow what is said.
- Clear speech helps everybody to follow more accurately.
- Make the CONTEXT Clear:
- Knowing the CONTEXT is very important for a lip reader. It can help them to identify the words that they lip read.
- Make sure they know the subject at the start of the conversation and when you change subjects. Be a buddy!!
- Putting the sentence in a different way can help.
I’m going to buy some cherries/sherry.
Im having a drinks party and I’m going to buy some sherry.
I’ve got to wash/watch my figure/vicar. (ornament)
I’m going to a car boot sale so I’ve got to wash my figure. I want to sell it.
- Check they’ve Understood:
- If what you said is important, ask them to repeat it back to you. Check names, dates and times especially.
- Use apparatus where possible
- Loop systems or personal amplifiers (Demo).
- Be patient
- Most of all - Be patient - Lip readers can be very anxious about not hearing correctly and will need encouragement to ask for more help.
All these points help to make it much easier for lip readers. Thank you so much for your help to help us!!
Do you like games?
Here’s one for you - it helps with lipreading too.
It’s word association
If I say eggs you might immediately think of bacon.
If I say thunder you might immediately think of lightning.
So let’s try these -- They’ve all got blue with them.
| A very academic lady is a | bluestocking |
| A fruit | blueberry |
| A romantic song is called this | bluemoon |
| This is a children singing game | in and out the dusty bluebells |
| This was a film made about a lake | the blue lagoon |
| Elvis sang about these | blue suede shoes |
| This a large fly | blue bottle |
| Royalty are supposed to have this | blue blood |
| A children’s television programmes is called this | blue peter |
| We may all sail away out into this | the blue yonder |
Well done – was that easy??
Bassets jelly babies. Here’s something else for you to try.
Do you like Jelly babies? My son-in-law adores them.
Give them out - don’t eat them yet!!!
What do you know about them? They were first sold over 90 years ago.
Did you know that they were made by Bassetts and were put on the market to celebrate the end of the First World War.
They were originally known as victory babies then renamed as peace babies.
Peace babies were popular between the wars but production stopped during the Second World War because of a shortage of sugar etc.
They came back in 1953 renamed as Jelly Babies
In 1989 they were given a more streetwise look.
Did you know... Tests have shown that almost eight out of ten people bite the heads off first. When shown a box of Jelly Babies, most people will immediately dive for the blackcurrant-flavoured sweets.
More than a billion Bassett’s Jelly Babies are born every year.
Jelly babies were favourites of some of the Dr Who personalities, and appeared in the series in the late 1970’s. Tom Baker used the catchphrase ”Would you like a Jelly Baby”.
George Harrison was such a big Jelly Babies fan that fans would throw them at the Beatles during concerts!
Each of the six Jelly Babies was given a name & identity as well as a colour. _ their names were:
Bumper, Baby Bonny, Boofuls, Bubbles, Big Heart, Brilliant
Baby Bonny is pink and wears a nappy and frilly bonnet.
Boofuls is green and is always crying.
Bubbles is yellow and sporty with a ponytail.
Big Heart is grey and wears trainers.
Brilliant is red, the leader of the gang and wears green baseball boots.
Baby bumper is orange
Can you answer these questions? Just shout out the answers – its not a test!!!
Who wears a nappy and a frilly bonnet?
Who is the leader of the gang?
Who is very sporty?
What colour is big heart?
Who is always crying? What colour is he?
What colour is Bumper?
Can you pick up Boofuls? Sporty Big Heart baby bonny the red one
Well done everybody!! Lipreading is tiring and can be difficult but I try to making learning it as much fun as possible, it is such a useful skill for those of us with hearing loss.
Well my time is up – thank you very much for asking me back again and as before you were fantastic. Lets all have a lovely cuppa and some of those delicious cakes . Thank you again.
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