Hard of Hearing Lipreading & Communication Support.

 Lipreading Groups.

Lipreading Groups.

A Hard of Hearing Support Group will help people who to some degree, have some form of hearing loss.
A Hard of Hearing Support Group will help rebuild your confidence again, form new and lasting friendships with others who have similar problems and helps you back into society again.

A Hard of Hearing Support Group is built around the hearing impaired person, to help them rebuild whatever they may have lost, i.e. confidence, conversation, friendships, or you just may be feeling lonely or rejected because of your hearing loss.

Your hearing loss may only be very slight or on the other hand it may be severe or profound. Whatever your loss, you lose the ability to hear speech as it is spoken, and you will need to compensate for this loss in other ways.

Through the Hard of Hearing Support Group you will acquire and develop skills to combine, Looking, Listening ( with any hearing you may still have) and Thinking.

Looking.

This means looking at the whole person, not just the person's lips to try and see what they are saying, but their facial expressions and their body language as well as speech movements.

An awful lot is said and can be seen from the way a person looks and acts.

Listening.

This means listening with your eyes as well as your ears for sounds that may seem distorted or imcomplete, and making the most of any hearing you may still have, whether you have a hearing aid or not.

Thinking.

This is learning to try to anticipate and follow the gist of a conversation.

A Hard of Hearing Support Group is a very warm, informal, friendly and welcoming group of people with similar problems to yourself. People with a hearing loss can get a great deal from joining a group like this.

You will learn how to cope in different and occasionally difficult situations.
You will learn the different speech movements and how they are formed on a person's lips. People speak in many differents ways, just as there are many different dialects. No one person will ever speak in the same way as the person who may be stood next to them.
You will learn different communication tactics and how to use them to your best ability.

There is so much to learn in a Hard of Hearing Support Group for a person with a hearing loss. Why not try one and see. You would be very welcome, you would be with people who at one time felt just as you may be feeling right now. If you feel that you need to bring a friend or someone in your famly with you, please do, they to would be very welcome.

What we do.

In the group we do several things. A story is made up of short sentences that can be anything from fourteen to twenty five lines long.
The story is told line by line.
Each line is said at least three times round the group this is to give to a side view as well as a facial view without voice, so you can try and see what has been said. The line is then said with voice, so you can fill in what you may have missed.
The whole sentence is then written up on the board, just in case you missed something.
It is then said again without voice so as to give you lipreading practise.
The more you practise, the better you will become.

We do short quizzes on the story we have just done.

We do participations round the group, for those members who feel confident enough in doing so.

This is to help with short term memory. It really does not matter if you get all or none of the answers correct, as no one sees your paper but you. But on saying this, everyone helps everyone else with a few laughs along the way.

Lessons also include.

Learning how to hear with your eyes as well as your ears.
How to make situations better for yourself.
Good and bad speakers.
Problem solving.
Fingerspelling.
Speech movements.
Good and bad communication.
And many more.

WHY DON'T YOU!

Join a Hard of Hearing Support Group, it's never too late to improve you communication skills.