Speech Reading Suggestions for the Person with a Hearing Loss

Learn to use both your sight and hearing, do not try to make your eyes or ears do the whole job.

Form the habit of watching the speaker.

Try to grasp the complete thought rather than concentrating on individual words.

Rather than bluffing, ask for repetition when you don't understand what was said. Ask for specific information to be repeated. Do not just say "huh". Instead, ask " What time did you say you were going ? " or " How much did you say it cost ?" .

Try to seat yourself away from competing noise. Mute the television when someone is saying something to you. At a restaurant, seat yourself in a quiet area away from the kitchen and along the side of the room.

Try to seat yourself so that the light is not in your eyes but on the speaker's face.

If you cannot understand a certain spoken word, ask them to say it a different way.

Ask the speaker to slow down their rate of speech if you cannot understand them.

Jeffrey D. Russell, Au.D., CCC/A, Audiologist Hearing Aid Evaluation and Dispensing Audiological Evaluations (850)584-3277