Wish she’d said that quieter

Hearing loss, lipreading and voice volume

Lip reading is a difficult, but rewarding (what an understatement) skill to master.

Sue spent three years at lip reading classes with me joining her for the last – not because I couldn’t be bothered for the first three, but to allow Sue to gain confidence through achieving something so important on her own. Anyway, So I know how different words can look similar ‘on the mouth’ (confusion groups).

I make a supreme effort to always pronounce carefully with finger spelling to back up problem words. Some signing, our own not BSL, plays a part as well. This system works fairly well, although Sue does occasionally eavesdrop – visual nosiness is not unknown with lip readers.

Despite best efforts words can get lost between my lips and Sue’s brain, normally without problem. Yesterday, in a very busy supermarket, I reminded Sue that we had to stop at a country supply shop to get something to control the rats that had moved into my work shed.

I hate killing anything, but the rats are causing damage. “We need to get rat poison” I said with care. Sue looked puzzled, thought for a while and said loudly and clearly “we need to get a rent boy?” Naturally we attracted quite a few looks, mostly odd looks. When Sue asked, the store was experiencing a quiet spell. When I corrected her, the store went loud. Never mind, we may have some new friends next time we go shopping! When talking with a lip reader, take care.