How a person understand and interpret speech is an extremely complex process involving the synaptic responses to the physics of sound, neural activity in the nervous system and brain, and ultimately the processing of those neural impulses in various regions of our brain.

Scientists have started mapping those regions of our brains by watching what happens inside the brain through MRI, PET or other means of scanning technology. Also, people who have had damage to their brains have helped us gaining more understanding about which parts of our brains does what.

Speech and language, meaning the vocal transfer of meanings, feelings, ideas, ideologies, experiences and everything else human beings exchange and communicate, are processed through various parts of our brain.

Some of the components of speech and language processing in our brains are about (I’m sure there are many, many more, each specializing in it’s own incredible way!)
1. acoustic processing
2. visual processing for lip reading
3. phonology
4. semantic processing (vocabulary)
5. short- and long term memory (previous context, experience, reference)
6. visuoauditory, meaning that the brain both processes and somehow merges each individual sensory input (bisensory – vision and hearing); keep in mind, we don’t fully understand everything about our brains functions yet.
7. contextual processing
8. “alternative contextual qualified guessing” (you might also call it fantasy   ) when all other understanding strategies fails, it’s the last attempt of understanding, and results in either a question, embarrassment or success

OK, that was the crash course in what we know about how our brains processes speech in a oversimplified manner.

Taking that info into account, think about what happens if the signals changes radically? What happens when a hearing-aid user, de facto deaf (unable to comprehend speech without the sensory aid of hearing aids, or contextual aid of sign language, lip reading or written text), is fitted with a CI or two?

In my case: what happens when I have suffered from “recruitment” while using my hearing aids for many years, and then suddenly both the recruitment is gone, AND the perceived frequencies have shifted totally out of it’s previously normal neural pathways starting with the hair cells in my cochlea.

My implant feeds electronic impulses to the part of my cochlea array of left-for-dead, broken hair-cells, while the previously still somewhat functional part now is left abandoned, not receiving any kind of stimuli anymore. (it’s like playing a piano on the octaves situated on the far left side for your whole life, and suddenly someone moves the entire piano so that you now sit on the far right!)

Well, obviously my brain has some work to do! The rewiring of the neural pathways are one thing, and the brains processing are another. I believe we can agree that the neural rewiring both in our nervous system, and in our brains (which I agree, is in fact part of our nervous system) is about new synaptic paths forming, adjusting our nervous system to the new sensory reality.

But what about the brains’ processing of these sensory inputs? The part of my brain that performs acoustic processing adjusts to the change in frequencies, the new auditory virtual reality slowly becomes THE reality, due to the lack of, and loss of the old auditory reality.

The phonology of all words have changed, how does my brain cope with that? Rewiring, relearning.

The short-term memory function now has to deal with input data that are totally new in appearance. It doesn’t sound like before. A streetcar doesn’t sound like a streetcar. A woman in high heels sound like a carpenter hammering down a nail. A kid laughing sounds like an animal dying. A kid crying sadly sounds like a anger fit.

Do you see where I’m getting at? The change in the quality of the sound perceived, also changes the contextual package, ie. what my brain interpret that specific sound to be, also decides my initial contextual and sometimes emotional processing. So now my contextual database also has to be reprogrammed.

The long term memory databank contains data that are now invalid. My mothers voice doesn’t match her voiceprint in my brain. All the people I have learned to identify by their speech patterns (how they pause, how they etc) now needs to be reprogrammed. It’s like having to change your entire music collection of vinyl to low quality compressed digital music (like computerized music in the MP3 format).

I will forget the old information, and fill it up with the new. All as the “Borgs” in Star Trek says: “You will be assimilated.”

If the part of my brain that does the acoustic processing changes it’s algorithms, I assume it’s fair to expect a change in the output from that process, consequently leading to the fact that the part of my brain that is the recipient of of the processed audio, now being “re-digitalized”, also have to change THEIR algorithms!

In that way, my entire language system is presently under a complete and heavy and thorough modification.

I have noticed this in the following ways:

I can “hear” better, but I have problems remembering the first part of the sentence that I hear, OR I only perceive the first part, my brain skips the last part of a sentence. I deduct from this “brain rewiring hypothesis”, that my short-term memory is having trouble storing the strange sounding words in it’s flash memory. The input data kind of doesn’t fit properly.

The other parts of my language system also sometimes suffer from overload or fault, causing a crash. Like when ambient noise occurs, and the voice I listen to drowns in that noise, my contextual and visual processing brain part needs to take over, but since I have been so focused on the auditory processing (due to the new and strange sounding quality), the take-over comes just a little bit too slow to be able to follow the person talking…

Think of this last paragraph like trying to follow an intricate discussion about a complex issue while having two or three kids climbing all over you, demanding attention. Sometimes they DO get your attention, and what happens then with the discussion you were following?

That’s when my “alternative contextual qualified guessing” kicks into gear

And this time I won’t even get into the emotional and psychological aspect of this brain-rewiring process that I’m currently undergoing…   I think each and every one of you who reads this can imagine the psychological and emotional implications for yourself.

Some things are best left unsaid?

The University of Washington is conducting a Quality of Life Study for Children who are deaf and hard of hearing.  They are looking for deaf and hard of hearing children and youth ages 5 to 18 and their parents for participation in the study (US residents only). Your involvement would be as simple as helping us get the word out about the study or to be part of the study.  

The SayWhatClub is a strong support group for late deafened and adults with hearing loss.  We believe strongly in helping one another through our support groups and through Education.  The University of Washington needs everyones help, especially parents who have children with hearing loss or deafness.   You can learn more about the study here https://depts.washington.edu/projhql/  The University also has a facebook page about the study.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quality-of-Life-of-Children-and-Youth-who-are-Deaf-or-Hard-of-Hearing/121377458983

This past weekend was the 234th Marine Corps Birthday Ball.  I had been looking forward to the Ball, but also had been dreading placing myself in the kind of situation I struggle with–a noisy crowd of strangers, numerous introductions, low lighting, music–the general roaring mix of 250 people in an enclosed space, and not a clue as to what everyone is talking about. I did okay, but the evening wasn’t without it’s challenges.

Initially, when I found out we were to be seated at an elevated table (it ran the entire length from the podium to the far wall, seating the Commanding Officer, both 1st Sgts., the Guest of Honor, and their guests), to the immediate left of the podium, I was not elated, but after thinking on it I decided that my seat location was more of a savings grace than the curse it proved to be, as having the seat closest to the podium, on the end, I wasn’t in a position for anyone else at the table to talk to me, other than my husband, seated next to me.  Not that I am anti-social, I love talking to people, but in such a noisy environment I often find myself thankful that I am not in a position to be spoken to from across a distance.  I really hate having to be thankful for that.  Sigh…

Also, I thought being the closest to the speaker would mean I had the best seat for lip/speech reading, but in reality it wasn’t so, as I had a hard time reading lips in profile, which caused me to zoom my attention in on whomever was speaking, with an intensity beyond what is normal. And, as we who cannot hear know, normal, for us, is already pretty intense.

Add to all of that the fact my husband, a participant in the ceremony, was not seated next to me until just before the meal was served. And, as an additional consideration, because of my seat placement there was no one between me and the speaker to take cues from.

Drum roll please…  the good news, I rose and sat at the appropriate times during the prayer and the National Anthem. However, as the Guest of Honor spoke, an eighty-four year old Marine recounting his experiences in WWII, I was watching so diligently that I failed to notice the entire banquet hall rising to their feet in applause, as the speaker paused.

Relaxing a bit while clapping, I looked away from the podium for the first time, realizing I was the only person seated. Not so noticeable when you are part of the crowd, but very noticeable when you are sitting at the front of a banquet hall, at an elevated table, within three feet of the podium, from which a speaker is commanding the attention of the entire hall of 250 people.

I’m sure many wondered why I did not join them in standing ovation, a few possibly thought I was simply being rude (the only person I knew was my husband, and save the few I was introduced to, most didn’t know I couldn’t hear), but I remained seated, as rising at this point would have brought even more attention to the fact that I was the only one who was not standing. If I’ve learned anything at all from years of attending my children’s piano recitals, if you hit a wrong note don’t bring attention to it by making a big deal of it. Just play on as if it was the right note all along. I remained seated.

I later apologized to the Guest of Honor and his two daughters, and they were very gracious and understanding, as the Guest of Honor himself struggles with hearing loss.

Just a few short years ago I would have been mortified in a similar situation, but thankfully I’ve learned to cut myself some slack, though I still would sometimes like to announce to the crowd, at the beginning of a banquet, sporting event, conference, etc., “Hello, my name is Michele and I cannot hear. If at any point during our time together, I appear confused, fail to rise or be seated at the appropriate time, speak out when I should be silent, remain silent when I should respond, or display any other behavior that might seem out of the ordinary, please do not think of me as rude, ignorant, unpatriotic, disrespectful, irreverent, or any of the other wrong assumptions I’ve encountered from people over the years. I cannot hear, which often causes me to react inappropriately. Thank you.”

And to all of those family members and friends who step in to cue and clue us in when something is happening that we have missed because we can’t hear, THANK YOU!!!!  We often don’t realize how much we need an assistant until we are without one.

Just because I can zero in and concentrate, doesn't mean I'll always get it right!

Having a hearing assistance dog has its advantages when I do not hear “surround sound”. I have trouble with directionality as I only have one cochlear implant (and due to my balance problems very likely will not ever have a second). I have learned to pay attention to where Chloe is looking in order to figure out from what direction a sound is coming. The only problem is… sometimes I don’t pay attention.

Today our sweet cat, Kiki, found herself stuck due to my inability to hear and failure to take note of WHY Chloe was parked on the stairs instead of next to me. Kiki decided to squeeze between the door and the glass storm door in order to better partake of the sunlight and “view”. I did not know she was there, and closed the door because of the draft as I walked by. Thankfully, my husband came home about 10 minutes later and saw “cat on glass” as Kiki was smushed like a sardine between the storm door and metal door. We retrieved her amongst a chorus of “poor kitty”, and “I can’t believe I did that” while Kiki just purred and basked in all the attention. Having a hearing assistance dog is not an exact science when it comes to utilizing her amazing ears if I don’t pay attention to where she is fixated! I really have to pay attention to why she is parked and pointedly looking in one direction!

Reading Lips/Speech Reading

Some people believe that everyone with hearing loss read lips well. Actually, they call it speech reading now, as really you are trying to discern what someone says solely by what you see on their mouth as they speak. Speech reading is not an exact science. As a matter of fact, mistakes are often made by even the best of speech readers. Now that I hear as well as I do with my cochlear implant, I have lost the ability to speech read to some degree as I may once again rely on what I am hearing to understand in many situations. I do still rely on speech reading in noisy environments, and I will always be a big fan of closed captions. Several friends (God bless ‘em) have started posting video links in Facebook that have the lyrics attached as well. This only enables me to hear BEST, so I am always thankful for what I see in addition to what I hear.

A couple of nights ago, my daughter was talking to her boyfriend on Skype. They go to separate colleges and during the school year have a “long-distance” relationship. My husband and I graduated from different colleges as well, but our only hope of contact was through a weekly letter (through good ol’ fashioned snail mail) and the occasional phone call. I was still able to use the phone well at the time, and waited by the pay phone at the end of the hall every Friday night. Technology has changed “long distance relationships”. My daughter actually has “candlelight dinner dates” with her boyfriend via Skype. They talk almost daily either “face-to-face” with Skype and webcam, or a minimum of numerous texts sent immediately through the easy access of cell phones. I popped my head in the other night and found them “talking”. My daughter “muted” the long-distance boyfriend so that she could ask me what I wanted. (Another interpretation, “Can’t you see I’m busy? Hurry up!”) Her boyfriend was still talking, so I told her what he was saying. She quickly typed (as you can both speak and type thru Skype) and asked him if what I said he asked was what was actually said. I was right on the button! She unmuted BK (the boyfriend) and both were amazed at my ability. I immediately chalked it up to “luck” and reminded them both that it isn’t a cheap parlor trick! It takes work and concentration to really be good at speech reading. I simply got lucky!

Think About What Looks Alike

I picked up a good HoH (hard of hearing) habit from a friend in California in 2006. She coached me to learn to repeat to people what I thought I heard even if I knew it could not be right. By doing so it did several positive things:

1. It allowed the person with normal hearing to only have to repeat what I got wrong, saving them the time and possible exasperration of repeating everything verbatim.

2. It allows the person with normal hearing to begin to understand what things sound like to ME… a person who hears with a cochlear implant. They learn to be experts at rephrasing things and finding synonyms to explain the same comment.

3. It allows both parties to see the “funny” in trying to make sense of what I hear. I both SEE in speech reading and hear with a cochlear implant.

4. It allows the HoH person to learn to extend grace and to accept that mistakes are made and most people are eager to help clear up the confusion. It creates a positive communication environment.

Stop for a moment and think about what looks the same on the mouth when words are enunciated. Some mistakes I’ve made:

1. I thought someone walked towards me with an admiring glance and said… “Sweeeeet…. heart”!

Really they were looking beyond me and saw a red corvette… they were saying “Sweeeeet Car!“

2. The words six and set look the same as SEX. (yikes!)

3. Mom I’m knitting hard!

Which was really, “Mom, I need the car!”

4. Mrs. Portis, I forgot my paper. Canons get formica? (I was really scratching my head in confusion on this one)

Mrs. Portis I forgot my paper, can I run get it from my car?

Learning to speech read more accurately, can however, help a HoH person communicate better. My local chapter of HLAA has plans to do a 2 hour “speech reading tips” class in the next couple of months. Some great resources that we will be utilizing, come from CHHA (Canadian Hard of Hearing Association), and include:

“Sound Ideas: Managing your Hearing Loss” manual and video

“Lip Reading Naturally” by Frances Mezei and Shirlee Smith

Think It Looks Easy?

I have a challenge for you. Mute your television and see if you can figure out what is being said. You might be surprised at how well… or how poorly you do!

Some additional resources:

1. http://www.agbell.org/docs/speechreading.pdf

2. http://www.lipread.com.au/Products.html

3. http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Lip-Reading-Self-Instruction-Edward-Nitchie/dp/1428638008

4. http://www.lipreading.com/

Denise Portis

© 2009 Hearing Loss Journal

I have a bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.  We hear those words often but they mean different things to each individual.  I am only aided on my right ear because my left ear is totally unfriendly to any speech discrimination.  Or should I say, speech discrimination is unfriendly to my ear?

I once tried an aid on my left ear, many moons ago, with no affects.  I wear my aid on my “good” ear from the minute I wake up in the morning until I go to bed.  The only time I usually remove it during the day, is when I get jock itch in my ear.  Since last Thursday, I’ve developed extreme pain in my ear and on the crest of the helix.  You know, that part of the ear that has nada to do with hearing.  It’s where u would stick the earmold under that little sucker.

Today is the first day I could not wear my hearing aid due to extreme pain and let me tell you, it was a real eye opener for me and the people around me.  I have never gone this many waking hours out of the house without my aid.  First off, I found the people I work with not able to deal with me.  WOW! Now for the surprise, these are my teammates and we work with the hearing impaired and deaf population and their families.

I guess it’s true when we say, you don’t know what it feels like till you’ve been in my shoes.  Hearing people really do not understand deafness, let alone a hearing loss. Maybe it’s their fear of the unthinkable.  It immobilizes people when we discuss our unability to hear.  The very idea of not being able to hear a discussion, a disagreement or the hearing persons fear to communicate with us because WE cannot hear them.  So afraid to initiate a strategy to communicate with us for fear of catching what we have. 

Then, I encountered the people in the stores, on the streets and the dangers of walking in between cars to cross streets. Naturally, I can’t use my phone, which means, I can’t communicate and others can’t communicate with me, which means I’m going to be one pissed woman by the end of this week.  I’m very social and love to communicate.   The I’m in your face type of person I guess.

Lastly, there’s my family.  Everyones has their mouths wide open to over emphasize what they want to say to me.  It’s so weird and it’s also pretty scary to actually not hear the voices of the people I love.  I guess I’ve taken the assistance I get from my aid for granted.  And friends, co-workers and family around me, have taken my hearing loss and wearing an aid for granted.  I guess now they realize I am not hearing anything and that I am truly hearing impaired though one cannot officially call me deaf.

Don’t you just love when a hearing person says, wow, you have such great speech for a person with hearing loss?  It blows my mind.

Oh by the way, my Doctor really impressed me today. The man actually took out paper and wrote the questions he had for me and had me answer them (verbally of course).  He did not want me to put my hearing aid on because of the pain.  Oh and by the way, this was my Internist not my ENT. 

Here’s one of the reasons I dislike ENT Doctors.  Many years ago, during a phase where I refused to be aided, I went to an ENT Doctor because I was having terrible sinus problems.  As soon as I tell him I have a hearing loss he calls in his audiologist to do a hearing test.   I showed him my audiogram which was taken several months ago by my audiologist. But no, he wants one from his office.  I refused.

This ENT Doctor proceeds to look in my ears after I tell him about my hearing loss, show him my audiogram and explain that I have no speech discrim in my left ear.  The man looks into my ears, looks very seriously at me and says, I don’t see why u can’t hear out of that left ear, it looks perfectly fine.  With that remark said, I stood up, said thank you for your time and left (as fast as I could).  I decided from that moment on, that people, even many well meaning and not so well meaning professionals in the field, do not understand us.  It’s as if they have deafaphobia, the unimaginable! the unthinkable! 

So what is my point?  I raise my glass to all of us for holding our heads up high, for not allowing this to drag us to the grave and for continuing to educate those who hear.

(Crain’s) — Sears Roebuck & Co. has agreed to pay $6.2 million to settle a federal lawsuit that claimed the retailer violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by firing disabled employees inste…

Sears settles $6.2M discrimination suit
(author unknown)
Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:02:10 GMT

Computers are now better at lip reading than humans, according to a new study out of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. A machine-based lip reading system significantly outperformed more than a dozen human lip readers during tests. The recognition rate was only 32% for the human lip readers. But the computers figured out what was being said about 80% of the time. Unlike the

Lip-Reading Study
Deaf News Today
Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:02:00 GMT

I’m totally baffled and perturbed by the hearing aid industry and audiologists.  I’ve just about had it.  I recently interviewed two hearing aid companies:  Oticon and Sonova Holding HG.  You can read the interviews yourself at http://www.saywhatclub.com/newsletter/june09/interviewgw.html and the Sonova interview at: http://www.saywhatclub.com/newsletter/june09/interviewgf.html

In case you were not aware, Phonak and Unitron are under Sonova AG Holding.  In anycase, I find it interesting that each company believes their product is number 1. What I find interesting are the questions that went unanswered and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. 

Why can’t hearing aid companies tell us how much it costs them to make a hearing aid?  Afterall, we have a pretty good idea how much it costs to make a car, how much it costs to make a movie, a video, clothing, etc. Yet no one wants to be honest about the manufacturers cost.

The manufacturer claims the audiologist makes a big profit and the audiologist claims the company does.  I now know the restocking fee is the audiologists, not the manufacturers fee, and in all honesty, the audiologist deserves that fee.  Afterall, they are spending time with us for the fitting and the programming.

However, I don’t know how any company or audiologist can think that a $3000 hearing aid is worthy of its cost.  We get a 45 day trial period, yet I am told that it can take up to 6 or 7 months to adjust to the sound.  Duh! I am $3000 down if I hate the sound after 6 months.  I wonder how many audiologists have stuck earplugs in their ears for 24 hours?  How many manufacturers make their Executive Boards wear the earplugs just to get the sense of a 35 db loss?

I recently went to see a new audiologist and though I liked her alot, she was totally unsavvy concerning assistive technology.  This is really not a good thing.  Why aren’t the audiologists being trained to understand the clients who need this technology to function?  Simple things like bluetooth technology and loop systems.   I don’t know about you, but I am so frustrated, I want to just get the software to program my own hearing aid and purchase an aid online.

My original idea was to create an interactive experience for a museum space, making the experience individual to each person. After a long development process, I decided to create a space which is about awareness of lip reading and the importance of making sure people can see your lips.

Within the space the participant is trying to listen to a story, but the speaker keeps turning away; which in turn means the audio cuts out. Then the participant has to move position to recover the sound. This is to show the frustration people with hearing difficulties have to endure when trying to lip read.

The space was not specifically aimed at a particular audience, but hopefully the engagement is simple enough for a large audience of people to understand and use easily. 

I HATE when people just don’t get it.  Hearing people that is.  I use to hate when people with hearing loss are in denial that they are losing their hearing and these are bright intelligent people, who rather suffer and pretend than look into wearing a hearing aid.

I don’t want to hate hearing people who don’t understand or people with hearing loss who are too vain.  I want to yell at the top of my voice,  do u have any idea what its like to hear you all muffled? or people who think its funny to open their mouths wide and exaggerate their words.  I have a guy at work who thinks its so funny to refer to me as being deaf.  I’ve pulled him aside on several occassions to have a talking to.  He still doesn’t get it.

I started doing staff developments at work and have received a very positive responses.  I made them all wear ear plugs that gave them only a 35 decibel loss while I spoke.  Several pulled them out after a few minutes and you could just see the disbelief on their faces screaming, “thats a 35 db loss?”   It certainly scared them enough to ask alot of questions.  I did a whole power point on how many children and adults have hearing loss in the U.S. alone.  How many parents admitted to not aiding their children and how many children were failing school due to a lack of access to communication and hearing properly.

Sometimes I just want to yell from the top of the Empire State building,  PEOPLE WAKE UP…..WHY ARE U ALIENATING US, WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF US? Are you afraid you might become one of us?  Well, the truth is, you just might one day, but it wont be because you caught it from us.  However, what goes around, comes around.  Treat me badly and that will come back to haunt you.

There are approximately 1 out of every 6 people walking the streets in the U.S. with a hearing loss. I suspect those numbers are going to change very quickly over the next decade to something like one out of three.  We are a techno smart society but most just can’t understand hearing loss. Lets hope the baby boomers will drop the vanity, refuse to pay $3000 for the best hearing aid on the market and advocate for understanding rights to hearing that doesn’t cost us our life savings.  Lets hope people can stop thinking old age when they start losing their hearing, and stop stigmatizing their own children who have hearing loss and refuse to aid them….that is definitely and should be illegal.

It all started nearly 14 years ago.  I was one of New Zealand’s first cochlear Implantee’s back in 1993.  In fact there was very little information about Cochlear implants on the web back then.  As editor of New Zealand’s cochlear implant newsletter I was always looking for articles, and searching on the internet for them.  

So it only goes to show that eventually my searches found the Say What? Club by way of one of the founders – Bobdeafie.  He invited me to join the group, so I did.  Next thing I knew I was getting lots of emails from people from all over the world who were like me – hearing impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, cochlear implant would be’s etc… 

Over the years, I’ve made many friends through this group – some lifelong.  I’ve headbutted with a few, cried along with them, and had many many laughs.  It’s the laughter that keeps this group together, the sheer joy of laughing about things that happen to people, and knowing because of your hearing loss, it’s either happened to you too, or could quite likely happen.  It’s a group that puts our hearing loss into perspective, helps us when things get bad and you’re down because of it, opens your eyes to the many devices that are out there to help us, and simply gives us a sense of belonging.  Coming home. 

It must be pretty good as 14 years later the SWC is still a huge part of my life.  

One of the most exciting things about the SWC is the people I’ve met.  First came Bob and Ling who came and stayed with me any years ago, then Joanie from New York, then Steven from San Francisco.  I met up with Rick in Australia, and Emily from New Jersey has been out here several times now. And just yesterday, Jeff  and his daughter was in Auckland for the day so I was able to show them around. 

Last year I won the SWC Scholarship which enabled me to travel out to meet up with so many at the Philadelphia Convention.  It was a really special time putting faces to the names I’ve been corresponding with via email for 15 years.  One of the most exciting things to happen to me in my life.   I came home to New Zealand, with some great memories, ones that I’ll keep forever. 

The SWC opens up the world as well.  Not only do we have people in America, but also Australia, New Zealand, England, Finland, India, Canada, and South Africa.  We learn about different countries and cultures, and we know if we’re ever travelling in those parts of the world, there is a friendly face waiting for us to meet them.  

I would recommend SWC to anyone who is wanting to find out about  hearing loss, or just wants to ‘hang out’ with people who you know will understand the frustrations that we come across in our every day lives when one’s hearing isn’t 100% perfect.

For more details… Head to… http://www.saywhatclub.com/ 

I look forward to getting to know you !

 Cheers

Robyn

Could be telling an interesting gossip story but turn away at the interesting moments. I have to figure out what the viewer has to do to get the interesting moments.

• I want to show the frustration of trying to lip read
• also the embarrassment, it could be that if you move to the left once you get the next bit of the story, but if you move to the left again and don’t swap sides and go to the right, this means the person says ‘i already said?!?’ and you don’t get any new info. You slowly work out that you have to move from side to side- can’t just use one side-this makes it more exhausting and difficult.
• Could make it so you have to go quite far from side to side and sometimes you really don’t have time so you quite often miss what the persons saying.
• want to check out games that use constant movement, maybe some like twister or a dance-mat.

Could be telling an interesting gossip story but turn away at the interesting moments. I have to figure out what the viewer has to do to get the interesting moments.

• I want to show the frustration of trying to lip read
• also the embarrassment, it could be that if you move to the left once you get the next bit of the story, but if you move to the left again and don’t swap sides and go to the right, this means the person says ‘i already said?!?’ and you don’t get any new info. You slowly work out that you have to move from side to side- can’t just use one side-this makes it more exhausting and difficult.
• Could make it so you have to go quite far from side to side and sometimes you really don’t have time so you quite often miss what the persons saying.
• want to check out games that use constant movement, maybe some like twister or a dance-mat.

Continuing with the sound/image idea I was trying to decide how to display the different view of a Deaf person trying to lip read. Was thinking it would be interesting to have different videos of a person talking; one would be without any sound, one would have sound but it would cut-out or muffle when the person turns away or puts there hand over there mouth etc. I could also have a video with subtitles maybe, could have words missing when the person turns away etc but maybe not!?

I could use sensor pads on the floor. So when you enter the room there is just a woman talking with no sound, then when you press the different sensors it adds elements of sound or subtitles.

I was researching lip reading and I found an advert that is a really good example of the type of thing I was thinking of doing. Although I wouldn’t use just lips, I was thinking of actually filming someone talking

This is an advert for New Zealand’s National Foundation for the Deaf. Through my research I have discovered that there are hardly any adverts for awareness of lip reading. The only other one I could really find is the link in the last lip reading post.

Continuing with the idea of two points of view, I have been looking at the different senses. I have become interested with the connection between sight and sound and have started to look at lip reading. I thought it might be interesting to do something on making people aware of the difficulties of having to try and lip-read. This means I can make it educational as well as interesting hopefully. 

I could split it into sections with the different things that make it hard to lip read such as mumbling, turning away or putting your hands over the mouth or shouting.

National Foundation for the Deaf Commercial

cnet

Most of us are aware that a Deaf culture exists. Simply visit a state school for the deaf, and observe students and teachers communicating mostly through American Sign Language (ASL). Or sit in on a coffee house “chat” with a local Deaf social group, and notice how quiet the room is while attendees use sign. The Deaf culture is something its participants are proud of, a culture with a shared ASL language and communication style that goes back many years.

Now observe a local meeting of a hearing loss support group. The keynote speaker communicates with both sign language and orally. A man sitting in the back relies on an ASL translator to understand the speaker. A row of people read real-time captions from an overhead screen as a person types what the speaker is saying. Two women sitting up front watch the speaker’s lips attentively to catch each word spoken. All of these people, except the sign interpreter and typist, are hard of hearing. Yet they all have different ways of communicating and understanding one another.

Without a shared communication style, can individuals with hearing loss really have their own sense of community or culture? Readers of this blog recently shared their opinions…

“I have total hearing loss in both ears. But because I was adult deafened and am oral and do not use sign language, I am not considered culturally Deaf, rather hard of hearing. Yet I am “deafer” than 95 percent of the students at the local state school for the deaf who have some residual hearing. I am in between cultures. I cannot participate in the hearing community, nor the Deaf community.” – Sherry Mason, Missouri

“My husband has hearing loss, and it is very difficult to hear in restaurants and other public places. I think people who don’t deal with hearing challenges are unaware of the obstacles they create. Is that cultural?” – Amy Hemingway Smith, Texas

“How about coming up with a definition of ‘culture?’ And with some parameters for what you mean by ‘hard of hearing’ people? Do you mean only people with partial hearing loss who use speech (and maybe speechreading) to communicate? I’ve been assuming you are distinguishing between Deaf people (who use sign language) and hard of hearing people who don’t, but not everyone will realize that. Also, I still think that only people who socialize with several oral hard of hearing people at the same time can really answer the question. People who have never done so aren’t in a position to know themselves whether or not there is a HOH culture–they won’t have seen it in action.” -Dana Mulvany, Washington, D.C. (has hearing loss)

The last comment raises a good question. How can a hard of hearing (HOH) culture be defined?

• A shared communication style. They prefer to speak orally, instead of only using sign language. Lip reading (also known as speechreading) is also a common way to understand one another.
• A strong reliance on technology. Hearing aids and assistive listening devices are available to help the HOH population understand speech and hear important sounds.
• A strong reliance on closed captioning. Captions assist with understanding television, movies, and (when available) live presentations. This could also fall under the technology category.
• Emotional connection. This would include not always feeling connected with the hearing world because of difficulty understanding speech. For those not comfortable with sign language, they may not feel part of the Deaf culture. Emotionally, individuals with hearing loss might feel somewhat isolated from the hearing and/or Deaf “worlds.”

Author Bio:

Shanna Groves is the author of Lip Reader (June 2009 release), a novel about an Oklahoma family’s hearing loss experiences during the early-1980s. Read the Lip Reader Blog at http://shannagroves.blogspot.com.

Mommy and I went to Indigo…because we like to.
Indigo, Andheri.

Looks so innocent, no?
I THINK NOT.

The problem with places like Indigo in places like Lokhandwala is that all the starlets, wannabes and the like come there to get noticed/discuss their miserable lives and torment the fuck out of common people who just go there to have a nice Sloppy Joe.

So, mum and I are sitting at our table, behind some famous people whose names I don’t know..one chick with very funky hair and tuttoos (tattoos), who is evidently married to some actor,(as my mom whispered to me), another man who is looking very intensely at nothing in particular, and an EXTREMELY irritating child, who kept going “MummyMummyMummyMummyMummyMummyMummy”……
You get my drift.

Now, just as we are getting over the droning of said pissing off infant, in comes this woman with VERY curly hair, VERY weird clothes and a pseudo-philanthropic air about her. I’m sure you know these people. Don’t you?
If you don’t..let me introduce you to one of them.

As the waiter made his way to her table, she screeeeeeched, “HELLOOOOO!!!!”
I grimaced.

“I would laike AN house tee.”
“Yes, ma’am. Anything else?”
“Nooo..thaaank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

Aaargh.

As the waiter(who must have lost his hearing by now), trudged away, Miss X must have made a call, because a few minutes later …
“Hello!!!! I am ___________, Miss Afghanistan!! (or Kazakhstan..or something!!!)”
After this very, VERY subtle introduction, she proceeds to tell the obviously very scarred party about how she has the “runnies” after eating some “Bad food”…

Mum and I now choose to block this part of the conversation out….

Sitting diagonally to the left, is tall-dark-and-ugly-looking-man-with intense-eyes-and-furrowed-brow, along with I-can-see-his-lips-moving-but-I-don’t-understand-the WOORRRDS blond bimbo.
Now, I am a really good lip-reader, when I choose to be.
And I chose to be. .. *evil laugh*

But NOTHING prepared me for what TDAULMWIEAFB was telling ICSHLMBIDUTWbb….

Stop reading if..Naah, who am I kidding? This was FUCKING hilarious!
[The following conversation has not been edited, exaggerated or fabricated]:

“Baby, you love me, na?”
“Ya jaanu!” *cringe*
“You know, I’ve been thinking about something”
*Leans forward and holds Bimbo’s hands*
*Since lip-reader couldn’t see Bimbo’s face properly, she shall assume that bimbo looked back with glazed eyes*
“What, baby?”
“I love you. You know that. You love me. I also know that…”*Lip-reader resists the urge to break into song/applaud their infinite depths of knowledge*
“…So I think it’s time for us to show that…..”*Lip reader loses track as the food is brought, presumes that the man says “We love each other”*
Bimbo nods.
“I think we should try anal sex.”
Bimbo is startled. How could TDAULMWIEAFB DO this to her????
“No baby,listen to me…This is the ultimate! I mean, what better way to show love?” *Lip reader thinks there are many better ways..better than sticking something into your girlfriend’s ass.*
“But, it hurts naa????”
“I’m there, na. I’ll take care of you….”
*Lip reader is chastised by her mother for gaping at TDAULMWIEAFB and companion’s lips. Lip reader hurriedly makes up something about politics. Mother forces Lip-reader to eat*
Getting back to this after a while…..
“But you stop, okay?”
“Okay”
…
…
…
…
Pause.

Bimbo: “Now?”
TDAULMWIEAFB: “Let’s ask for the cheque.”

Exit horny couple.

As I chomp on my salad (Yes,we ended up ordering a salad and a Sloppy Joe)..I notice the Miss Afghanistan is now surprisingly quiet. Unable to contain my curiosity, I turn around, only to be greeted by the sight of her looking like she just died: head thrown back, eyes rolled up, mouth open. The only thing that gave her away was the fact that she was digging in her ear at the time.

Enter 2 Mimbos.
For the uninitiated, these are male bimbos. Characterised by their perfectly tousled/spiked hair, shades on no matter what time of day it is, loud, LOUD voices and of course the outlandish clothes: Figure-hugging, muscle exposing tees with REALLY weird slogans, jeans which make you want to shake the Mimbo just to see him explode….*breathes*.

The mimbos proceed to sit at Miss Kazakhstan’s table and be regaled by her tales of extremely enthusiastic bowels, all the while making the entire restaurant reverberate with their deafening voices, complete with awful British accents.
Another way you can identify Mimbos is by the fact that they ALWAYS roam around in pairs. Out of the 2, one is the Dominant Mimbo (Henceforth: DM), and the other is Sidekick Mimbo (SM:I’m getting some sick pleasure out of this anagram).

So, DM was telling Kazakhstan that he was going to go and record dome ‘rak music’ in a studio later. Before we could say, “Nyeeeh crap”, he launched into a version of Bon Jovi’s, “It’s My Life”.
All the while, SM gazed at him adoringly.
The waiter then came to take their order, obviously looking scared shitless. (I’m sure Kazakhstan didn’t have that problem..Hahahaha…sorry.)
So, this is how the conversation goes:
“Ready to order, sir?”
*Brit accent, DM*: “Oh, yes! Hmm..let’s see.. I’d like a salad..”
*scans through menu*
HE SUDDENLY SWITCHES TO THE GHATI-EST MOST DIRTY INDIAN ACCENT EVER!!(Ask me in person/on the phone fr audio replay…)
“Haan, see I want this salaad, but you give it to me vidhout tomaytoes and anion(onion pronounced crappily)..”
And now, back to Ye Olde English Accente: “Thank you!”

5 minutes later, SM proceeds to do the EXACT same thing on the phone:

“Hello! Why, yes! We will be coming into the studio today! Haan, kal aayenge, saade gyarah baje ko. Theek hai, na?“
…
…
…
…
*click*
By this time, Mum and I looked like we’d just been to Hell and back.

Lessons learnt: NEVER sit behind Mimbos.
NEVER sit behind Miss Kazakhstan.
NEVER lip-read (At least, not for a little while)
DO NOT go to Indigo in the evenings. (maybe not at all, considering that I paid an arm and a leg later. I should probably be suing them for mental trauma instead).
And lastly, post this and try and make EVERYONE read it.

I hope you do not make the mistakes I made. Identify the weirdos and run for your lives, people. Or don’t, and then let everyone laugh at the convoluted fun you still managed to have.

This has been a public interest message.

ABSTRACT—Speech perception is inherently multimodal. Visual speech (lip-reading) information is used by all perceivers and readily integrates with auditory speech. Imaging research suggests that the brain treats auditory and visual speech similarly. These findings have led some researchers to consider that speech perception works by extracting amodal information that takes the same form across modalities. From this perspective, speech integration is a property of the input information itself. Amodal speech information could explain the reported automaticity, immediacy, and completeness of audiovisual speech integration. However, recent findings suggest that speech integration can be influenced by higher cognitive properties such as lexical status and semantic context. Proponents of amodal accounts will need to explain these results.

from Current Directions in Psychological Science
]]> http://ahearingloss.com/2008/11/23/a-new-eye-doctor-a-sight-for-sore-ears/ Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:32:43 +0000 iseewhatyousay http://ahearingloss.com/2008/11/23/a-new-eye-doctor-a-sight-for-sore-ears/

I went to the eye doctor last week in order to make one last effort at seeing better with contact lenses.  I have worn contact lenses to correct my vision since I was a young teenager, many moons ago, but as my mid forties passed before my eyes (pun intended) I began needing a little help seeing the written word–print on the pages could only be seen clearly at arms length and in good lighting situations.

A short-lived solution proved to be mono-vision contact lenses, wearing one contact to correct nearsightedness and one contact to correct farsightedness, and while I had initial success with mono-vision, I progressively began losing more vision than could be corrected by that means.  Most troubling was the loss of my mid-vision, a scary prospect for someone who relies on lip/speech reading in order to hear.  I found myself getting up in people’s faces, close enough that their lips were not blurry, which resulted in a backing away from me as I advanced closer.  I am sure there were those who thought it possible that I had a lip fetish, since it seemed I was only interested in their lips.  LOL  They would not have been too far off the mark, as my depleted vision made lips and speech the main focus of my sight.  I concentrated so hard at achieving the optimum distance and getting what the person was saying, I often lost the context and content of what they were saying.  This was not working anymore!!

In moving to a different state, two years ago, I was forced to find a new eye doctor.  I hoped I would find a doctor who could correct my multi-vision needs with contacts, but the bifocal lenses this new doctor prescribed still left me with unclear gaps in my vision.  The bifocal eyeglasses were a better solution, so I gave up on contact lenses after weeks of trial, as my eye doctor made weekly adjustments to hone in on a good prescription, without much luck.  It was a very similar experience to the unsuccessful hearing aid trials I have endured over my adult life.

I continued to miss wearing contact lenses (you can’t snorkel in eyeglasses) and the better vision they provide over eyeglasses, and decided to switch doctors, again, hoping a new perspective might yield better results.  I related my contact wearing history to this second, new doctor, explaining the problems I was having with my vision as it related to contact lenses, and stating what I hoped he could do for me.  Of course, as with most new meetings, the first thing I let the doctor know was that I needed to see him speak in order to hear him.

Through the course of the exam, my new doctor “got” how difficult it is for me to hear without my glasses.  I could almost physically see the realization of the “see to hear” concept sinking into his brain as he examined my eyes in the low light setting of his exam room.  Suddenly, he abruptly stopped his exam, turned the light on, handed me my glasses, and ask me to give him my hearing history.  As I spoke, he further “got” the fact that what I see affects what I hear and, in turn, what I understand.  Again, I could almost see the wheels turning in his brain, trying to apply my description of how I “see to hear” to all he knows about vision.  The feeling I had, at having someone genuinely interested in my hearing in order to best adjust my sight in relation to it, was one of euphoria.  I rarely have had an ENT or Audiologist show that much interest in my hearing, let alone an eye doctor.

It was decided we would try a specialized prescription.  One contact lens in my dominate eye for nearsightedness and a bifocal lens, with emphasis on the field of vision I need to read lips, for my less dominate eye.  Like hearing aids, this multi-vision solution most likely will take some trial and adjustment, but I am hoping it will be successful and allow me to wear contact lenses again.  If not, then I have had the positive experience of finding a doctor who is as interested in how I hear, as he is in how I see, because he “gets” that those two senses are more connected for someone who cannot hear.  Those rare people who make that connection on a simple level are priceless.  Those even rarer medical professionals who make that connection on a deeper level, as it applies to their science, are just as priceless, maybe even more so?  You can be assured I will make my appreciation known to this talented and smart man who took the time to understand my needs with regard to seeing speech in order to prescribe the best vision correction possible for me to hear better.  How cool is that?

Michele