How to Become Better at Reading Lips: Speechreading Tip #2

As promised, I'm posting speechreading tips, starting last week and for the next few weeks. Here's speechreading tip number 2:

2.  Make ambient lighting work for you and not against you. For example, if you are sitting at an outdoor coffee shop, choose a chair at the table where you are not looking into the morning sun. Direct sunlight in your eyes will compromise your speechreading performance. Moreover, the sunlight streaming around your partner’s head will cast shadows on the person’s face and further hamper your speechreading. At restaurants, sit by a window in the day and near a light source in the evening. (continues) If you have a hearing loss and like to eat out at restaurants.

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How to become better at reading lips: Speechreading tip #1

This post is for those of you who have hearing loss and rely on lipreading to understand speech.

This week, I'm going to share with my blog the first of five "speechreading tips".  I wrote them for my textbook that is coming out in December from Plural Press ("Foundations of Aural Rehabilitation, 5th Ed").  I will post a speechreading tip each week until all five appear.  By spacing them out, you'll be able to focus on one at a time.  Try to be mindful of implementing this first one over the course of the coming week.

Speechreading Tip #1: Watch the face. This seems obvious, but you can be distracted by other events in the room or by a handheld device. If you feel a little self-conscious and think that your conversational partner wonders why you never look away (e.g., Do I have jam on my cheek?), explain your speechreading strategy in a concise way (e.g., It helps me to look at your face because I rely on reading lips to understand words). By saying this, you also provide implicit and subtle instruction: You are saying without actually saying, "Make sure I can see you when you speak."
clEAR Auditory Brain Training for easier conversations
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How many hours a day should I wear my hearing aids?

“How many hours should I wear my hearing aids every day?”

As one of clEAR’s in-house audiologists, this is one of the most frequent questions I receive from users who receive auditory brain training. Here are some of my responses:

• If your spouse or partner is saying that you need to put on your hearing aids, you probably need to wear them more often than you do. Your spouse probably recognizes that you engage in small talk much more easily and successfully when you wear your aids. 

• If you feel exhausted in the late afternoon or early evening, you might need to take a “time-out” from wearing your hearing aids and give your ears and your brain a rest. Find a quiet place, take a few deep breaths, and relax. Listening with hearing loss is sometimes a lot of work.

• If you need more motivation to wear your hearing aids, think of your brain health. Research shows that if the auditory region of your brain is not stimulated, it begins to lose “gray matter” and that its functionality begins to fade. This decline in turn can adversely affect other parts of your brain. Just like the muscles in your body need exercise, so too does your brain need auditory stimulation.

EARS train the brain: www.clearworks4ears.com

Learn about Aural Rehabilitation and Hearing Healthcare

Coming soon: Foundations of Aural Rehabilitation: Children, Adults, and Their Family Members (5^th Ed)

Publisher:  Plural Publishing

When: December, 2018

Pre-order: 20% off discount with free shipping if they use promotion code online: PLURAL20

Key Features (from the publsher):

The best-selling textbook, Foundations of Aural Rehabilitation: Adults, Children, and their Families, Fifth Edition, introduces the fundamentals of audiologic rehabilitation and hearing-related speech-language pathology in an easy-to-read, concise resource for the field of communication sciences and disorders. The text offers concrete coverage of theory, clinical practice, and research-based approaches for identifying, diagnosing, and treating hearing and communication-based disorders.

• Text is written by a nationally and internationally recognized expert in aural rehabilitation, who is an active researcher in the areas of auditory training, speechreading, and communication strategies, and who writes in an engaging and clear style
• Chapters begin with Chapter Outlines and end with Key Chapter Points and Terms and Concepts to Remember
• Numerous case studies, sidebars, and boxes
• Bolded key terms in text with definitions in margins, and a comprehensive end-of-book glossary
• Access to a PluralPlus companion website with supplementary resources for instructors and students, including case studies, supplemental learning activities and teaching tips for each chapter, and exam review sheets.

http://pluralpublishing.com/publication_far5e.htm

Why hearing healthcare matters

Ears Train the Brain: clEAR Auditory Brain Training

Hot off the press (Wei et al., 2017), this meta-analysis of cohort studies suggests that the link between hearing loss and age-related cognitive decline is not due to a shared, common neurodegenerative process.  Because hearing loss typically precedes cognitive decline, the authors suggest the following  ways that a decline in hearing ability might cause a decline in cognition:

·      1.   “Auditory deprivation may cause decreased socialization and increased depression, as well as a decline in cognitive function, which can result in mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

·        2.  Hearing impairment [may] cause cognitive resources to be diverted from memory function into auditory processing, which creates an excessive cognitive load on higher cortical functions, leading to cognitive decline.

·         3. Hearing impairment may modify the auditory pathway and the brain.” (pg. 449)

·         The use of amplification and follow-up clEAR auditory brain training may be critical elements in staving off cognitive decline. Now more than ever, older adults need to be counselled about the importance of hearing healthcare.

EARS Train the Brain:  www.clearworks4ears.com

clEAR Auditory Brain Training Games Have a New Look!

clEAR (customized learning: Exercises for Aural Rehabilitation) is pleased to announce that our auditory brain training games have a new look and new routines.  Exercise your ability to recognize speech, despite your hearing loss, while having fun at the same time by playing clEAR's computerized games.  You can play on your IPad or laptop computer.  Be proactive and take command of your listening challenges today:
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clEAR Auditory Brain Training

If you have hearing loss and like to eat out....

• If you are at a restaurant or bar, sit in a place where you cannot see a television monitor because the visual distraction will decrease your abilities to speechread (i.e., read lips) and to pay attention to conversation that is occurring at your table. 

•  If you have a “better ear”, that is, one which has more hearing than the other, select seating or positioning that will allow you to have your dining partner on your better side.

• At a restaurant, choose a padded booth because the padding will provide a buffer to other noise in the restaurant. Sit with your back to the rest of the room, especially if your hearing aids have directional microphones so that your hearing aids will not amplify noise that is coming from behind.
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