lip reading

[Guest guest]

I have actually been thinking about this issue of lip reading quite a bit

recently. Our older (severe/profoundly deaf) son,

, is an amazing lip reader. He has always been able to do this. Maybe this

is because he wasn't diagnosed until 2.5

months but I talked to him all the time before that? I know that many deaf kids

aren't natural lip readers, though. I think it

might really depend on the child.

Anyhow, it means I don't ever need to shout at to get him to hear me if he

is on the other side of the room! I use this

quite a bit in synagogue services to remind him to be quiet. In fact I have got

so used to just mouthng the words to

and actually sometimes get irritated that I actually have to speak out loud to

his younger (hearing) brother.

A few funny/interesting things that have made me think about all of this in the

past couple of weeks.

(1) has been taking swimming lessons this past week. I always put his

waterproof hearing aid on him before when we

went swimming. (He only has one, as the aids done come powerful enough for his

profoundly deaf ear, only the severly

deaf one.) However, the waterproof aids cut out whenever they get more than just

a splashing. So this time I left the aids

off altogether. He has had no problem at all in communicating with his teacher -

except when he had water in his eyes. I

was relieved to see this.

(2) went to a party this weekend where there was a kids entertainer. I

actually didn't say anything to the entertainer

about being deaf, and just made sure that was sitting opposite him in

the circle. I was really surprised and

delighted to see that was compeltely responsive to all the questions the

entertainer asked the kids, and was

responding without any delays and laughing at all the jokes. However, at a

couple of points, the entertainer used a hand

held microphone. Don't know why he did it, as the room was pretty small.

Interestingly, he held the mic right in front of his

mouth. immediately stopped responding and just looked confused. I had

thought that was just hearing the guy,

but he must have been using the lip reading to assist (or maybe he was just

lip-reading altogether). (I later had a word with

the entertainer and asked him if he could lay off the mic, or maybe just hold it

below his mouth. Funnily he hadn't noticed

that was wearing hearing aids/was deaf! He was very apologetic.)

(3) At the same party, when we were leaving, I was standing next to the birthday

girl's parents. I asked " what do you

say " ? He looked confused so I mouthed " Thank you for having me " . He immediately

repeated it. I then had to stand there

while the parents said how nice it was to have a kid who was so naturally polite

and didn't need to be reminded what to say.

I didn't quite have the guts to say that had lip-read the reminder!!! Made

me laugh about the advantages of having a

deaf kid!

(4) When is talking to people and they don't immediately respond to him, he

moves around and repeats himself so that

they can see his face when he is talking. He hasn't quite worked out that

hearing people don't need to lip read so much! In

fact I have seen him take Ben's face and hold it still to make that his younger

brother concentrate while is

talking...Luckily he doesn't do that to any of his friends! I don't think they

would like it very much.

(5) Ben (hearing), was playing with one of his toy animals. I tuned into the

conversation and he was saying " Look at me

when I am talking to you. Don't just look around all over the place. If you

don't look at me you can't hear what I am saying! "

I guess his brother has been successful in teaching him lip-reading skills.

Felicity (Mom to almost 4, severe/profound HA wearer, and Ben, 2, and NEVER

listening)