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Have you ever wondered about...
HOW DEAF PEOPLE COMMUNICATE (Series 2)
Page 2
What would happen if you couldn't hear sounds? What's it like to live
everyday and not hear your teacher talking, your baby brother's voice,
your favorite TV show? How would you communicate with other people?
Deaf people know that words—spoken sounds—don't always work
for communication. Since they can not hear what you say, they must see
what you say. For deaf people, your gestures and facial expression are
important. They can see them. The words you speak are much harder to
see.
SPEECHREADING
Prove it. Put on the television, but turn down the volume so you can't
hear it. How much can you understand of what the speakers say? Not very
much. Understanding words and meanings by watching a speaker's lips
and face is called speechreading (lipreading). Deaf people speechread
everyday. Some speechread better than others. But even the very best
speechreader gets only a partial message. Many of the sounds of English
are not visible on the lips. Some people think that only about 30 percent
of English sounds are visible on the lips.
Try these exercises:
Sit down in front of a mirror so you can s.ee your own face clearly.
Say these words without using your voice and watch your lips closely:
"kite ... .. height, 'night."
You can feel your tongue in a different place for each word. But wasn't
it hard to see the difference among the words?
Now try these words and a phrase, without using your voice: "baby
... .. maybe ... .. pay me. " Can you see a difference? No. And
you can't even feel the difference this time. Each of these words is
formed the same way. It is the sounds we make that help us tell one
of these words from the other.
Even though speechreading is hard, all deaf people do speechread everyday.
By helping a deaf person see what you say, you are enabling that person
to speechread more easily.
If you were talking with a deaf friend, how would you show the difference
among these words? Yes, you'd probably use gestures. You'd also make
sure that the deaf person could see your face and lips at all times.
Some deaf children learn a system called Cued Speech to help them
speechread better. This system uses handshapes and positions near the
face to signal a possible difference between sounds. There are eight
handshapes and four positions in Cued Speech. A cue means nothing by
itself. It simply tells the speechreader to watch for one of three sounds
that look very different on the lips.
Here are some examples.
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This cue signals the three different sounds /m/,
/t/, /f/. |
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This cue signals the three different sounds /b/, /n/, /wh/.
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If the handshape were made near the lips, the speechreader would
have an additional cue. This position indicates the sound /ee/
as in "see."
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You would never confuse the words "bee" and & I me"
if you saw them cued because the handshape would tell you the difference
between the two identical shapes on the lips.
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