If you find yourself turning up the volume on the television, asking people to repeat themselves, or saying ‘pardon’ a lot, then Central Beds Council’s new lipreading classes could be for you.
Taught by qualified Association of Teachers of Lipreading to Adults tutor Molly Berry, the classes are held at Kingsland Skills & Enterprise Centre on Thursdays between 10am-12pm from September 27.
Hearing aids can be helpful – much like spectacles for those with sight problems – but it can still be very difficult to hear in loud places.
We all lipread a little, sometimes without realising or trying – such as noticing when football players swear on camera.
However, lipreading classes are few and far between.
But now the council’s Adult Education division are providing the opportunity to hone this skill and allow you to enable your eyes to help your ears.
Molly told the Gazette: “I started to lose my hearing in my 30s. It can be very difficult – even things such as family gatherings can become a nightmare.
My classes are about getting you back in touch with your own language.
I like to keep it amusing, fun and interesting. We learn more when we’re interested.
The classes are a place you can gain confidence and meet other people with the same difficulties.
Molly – who is profoundly deaf but hears with the help of special surgical implants – said: “Sign language was not useful to me as all my family and friends are ‘hearing’ people who do not know sign language
“Hearing aids can be brilliant – they’ve certainly got better over the years – but it’s still extremely different.
“The lipreading classes I went to helped me stay in the hearing world.”
Molly teaches – using groups and pairs – the ‘visual alphabet’, particularly consonants, and similar lip shapes to alleviate confusion – ‘b’ looks like ‘m’, for example.
Molly added: “Context is also very important when lipreading, so without knowing what people are talking about it’s difficult to look across a room and ‘eyewig’ someone’s conversation.”
For more information, email adult.learning@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk, or visit www.myfuturetoday.org.uk.