Help for Hearing Impairment

BigMummaF

Guardsman wrote: »

As a ex Guardsman I have been on duty during a few Royal weddings but this one today was special.

Ooh..do tell; I'm keen to hear things from 'an insiders' point of view! I was pleased the poor uniformed personel were not stood for hours on end in the unbelievable heat of the past few days
Part of me is wishing the Couple well--& it looks to be a totally different situation from his father's wedding, when he hardly looked at his bride!--but a larger part thinks of the expense for all the security & things.

Back on topic :whistle: The hospital called Thursday & we've an appointment for mum on Tuesday. I'm hoping it's to collect her aids as, with a bit of a cold, her hearing has become 'difficult' for those trying to speak with her

naf123

Lip-reading problems: (where the speaker might…)
• Talk too softly
• Talk too slowly
• Talk too loudly
• Talk with exaggeration
• Talk too fast
• Talk while turning face away
• Talk with mustache/facial hair
• Talk with a hand over the mouth or on the side of the face
• Talk and move back and forth at the same time
• Talk in long sentences
• Use big or unusual words
• Talk with braces on
• Talk with deformed mouth or lips
• Talk with an accent
• Talk with head down or looking away
• Talk with buck teeth


can anyone add to the list!! I am a lifelong lipreader but still not good enough....

Savvy_Sue

naf123 wrote: »

can anyone add to the list!! I am a lifelong lipreader but still not good enough....

don't despair, you know only about 1/3 of speech is unambiguous when lipread, don't you? so 2/3 is dependent on context / guesswork ...

We had a moment of hilarity at lipreading tonight when one of our members tried reading his card without his glasses on, then delved in his pocket and put them on quickly, but left the cord for hanging them round his neck dangling in front of his mouth. :rotfl:

A subset of several of your identified problems is

talk too quietly with long hair falling in front of face while looking down and / or away

This was DS3's particular favourite ...

On the other hand, we're encouraged to fingerspell the first letter of 'difficult' or 'key' words, and I found myself doing this with my siblings, even though none of them go to lipreading or use finger spelling regularly. I think it helped: the shapes are pretty easy to work out!

naf123

Yes, I am profoundly deaf, highly qualified, highly educated (masters degree, respectable profession etc) but yet the same typical subject of lipreading lets me down time and time again that throws me into despair on more than one occasion

Yes, I probably lipread about 40% of whats being said with the rest being guesswork and simply, that is not acceptable. I am still young, (26) but I cannot be bothered to spend the rest of my life struggling with communications problems in the workplace.

Hm, maybe change of a career awaits me despite doing all my qualifications.

A few confusing things for you all to think about

"Elephant shoes" and "I love you" look exactly the same!

"Daughter" and "tortoise" look EXACTLY the same!

"Drink" and "Read" look almost the same except that in "read" is about less than a milisecond longer to say than "drink" and thats the dintinguishing feature!

GlasweJen

I really struggle to lip read, I go to a lip reading group and the OT who takes it says that part of my problem is the autism, I just don't pick up on non-verbal cues. I do practice but I managed to make "exceptional circumstances" become "sexual practices" last night at the class which caused loads of hilarity but it is getting me down.

I've given up completely on the NHS and I've contacted an audiologist to get a private assessment and hearing aid (hopefully) because I'm really struggling to hear men now, seems to be a problem with low tones, if there's any background noise at all I don't hear it and my flatmate is about to strangle me if I ask him to repeat himself again.

Savvy_Sue

GlasweJen wrote: »

and my flatmate is about to strangle me if I ask him to repeat himself again.

Ask him if he would use a finger spelling for the first letter of the crucial words, it's not fool proof but it does help!

You can get a tea towel with them on! I'm not sure who it's from, will try to find the link later unless anyone else knows!

naf123

GlasweJen wrote: »

I'm really struggling to hear men now, seems to be a problem with low tones,

I really struggle lipreading men - thankfully I am a man, so at least I get to chat with all the women!!

Why do men's enunciation tend to be worse? An answer I came up with is that women tend to be more emotional than men so they tend to "emit" more "body language" during speech which helps the lipreading process.

sunnyone

naf123 wrote: »

I really struggle lipreading men - thankfully I am a man, so at least I get to chat with all the women!!

Why do men's enunciation tend to be worse? An answer I came up with is that women tend to be more emotional than men so they tend to "emit" more "body language" during speech which helps the lipreading process.

The latest newsreader on our Regional news program has speach impedicments and she is impossible to lip read, the irony is no one noticed it till I pointed it out, when I mentioned it they all looked at me and asked how I knew!

Guardsman

An old man was wondering if his wife had a hearing problem.
So one night, he stood behind her while she was sitting in her lounge chair.
He spoke softly to her, "Honey, can you hear me?"
There was no response.
He moved a little closer and said again, "Honey, can you hear me?"
Still, there was no response.
Finally he moved right behind her and said, "Honey, can you hear me?"
She replied, "For the third time, Yes!"

Savvy_Sue

naf123 wrote: »

Yes, I am profoundly deaf, highly qualified, highly educated (masters degree, respectable profession etc) but yet the same typical subject of lipreading lets me down time and time again that throws me into despair on more than one occasion

Yes, I probably lipread about 40% of whats being said with the rest being guesswork and simply, that is not acceptable. I am still young, (26) but I cannot be bothered to spend the rest of my life struggling with communications problems in the workplace.

Hm, maybe change of a career awaits me despite doing all my qualifications.

naf, I've continued to think about what you said, and I am wondering if you should look into getting some communication support at work. I don't know if it would be available through Access to Work, and if it is it would probably take a while to set up, but if your employer values you then making 'reasonable adjustments' to keep you would be worthwhile, IMO.

Without knowing what your job involves, it's hard to know what might help, but some examples:

• if you have to make / receive phone calls, then providing a text phone (I've received calls at work from a professional using the Text Relay service)
• if you have to attend meetings and find them hard to follow, a dedicated note taker at your side to ensure you 'get' what is said
• if using a loop system helps you, then installing one in meeting rooms and ensuring that it's properly set up and switched on, and that those attending know how to use it
• providing a lipspeaker when necessary

FWIW, I have two siblings who are much older than you with very little hearing. One has been that way since school days, but that hasn't stopped them doing a highly responsible job. The other lost their hearing more recently, and again was working at a very senior level. That one decided to retire early rather than continue to struggle through meetings (there were a LOT of meetings!) but you're far too young for that!