Lip reading is a communication technique used by the deaf and hard of hearing to understand speech through visual cues. It is not perfect and requires intense concentration, but can be useful for those studying speech therapy or law enforcement. Sign language is another form of communication used by the deaf community.
Lip reading is a communication technique that allows a person to understand speech only through visual cues. Vocal speech involves certain mouth shapes specific to each sound; a lip reader learns to recognize and interpret these shapes. It is mainly practiced by the deaf and hard of hearing, although anyone can learn and practice the technique. The phrase lip reading is a misnomer, as practitioners also get clues from observing the teeth and tongue as well as facial cues and body language. For this reason, it is sometimes called spoken reading instead.
Deaf and hard of hearing people have developed numerous techniques for understanding and communicating with members of the hearing world. The most famous is sign language, which is actually a family of languages communicated silently through hand and face gestures. Sign language has multiple variations, including versions used by military and law enforcement agencies for silent communication and a tactile version used to communicate with those who are both deaf and blind. Understanding sign language involves not only gestures, but also facial expressions, body language, and the context and intent of the person communicating. Likewise, lip reading is only one part of a process that allows for communication without the use of sound.
Lip reading is not a perfect form of communication. Reading someone’s lips requires intense concentration, and even the most experienced of lip readers can only pick up 30 to 40 percent of a speaker’s meaning by looking at lip movements. Many sounds form in the throat or back of the mouth where they cannot be read, and the visual indicators for many sounds look similar. It is also useless if a person’s mouth is obscured or facing the lip reader. This is why sign language and writing are more convenient and comprehensive methods of communication for many deaf and hard of hearing people.
In deaf communication, lip reading is most effectively taught to those who once had hearing. People who are born deaf may find it difficult or impossible to understand and process the visual cues of spoken speech. Hearing people may learn the technique for reasons that have nothing to do with hearing loss. For example, law enforcement personnel can learn it as a surveillance technique. It can also be useful for those studying speech therapy and related fields.
The expression read my lips is often used by speakers to emphasize the importance or truthfulness of what they are saying. President George HW Bush famously used the phrase, “Read my lips: No new taxes,” during the 1988 US presidential election. The line came back to haunt him in the 1992 election, as the new taxes he had imposed during his tenure they made him seem unreliable. In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sinister HAL 9000 computer uses lip-reading to discover its fellow humans’ plans to shut it down. Ironically, in the 21st century, software designers are teaching computers to lip read as a means of improving speech recognition software.
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