Lip reading

[anja]

Does anyone share this behaviour? I have to read people's lips as they talk to fully take in their words and make sense of what they are saying to me ?

 

[Beverly]

I don't HAVE to do it to understand what people say but, lip reading does make it easier for me to process the words faster. I learned to lip read well long before I figured out I was likely an Aspie.

In the rock branch of the music business, you spend a great deal of time in very loud environments and, even more time with earpieces or headphones on so, about 70% of your life you can't hear anything except what comes through the headphones or earpieces and the music that's so loud it literally vibrates your bones.

Most of us (those that are on or very near the stage during concerts) eventually suffer some sort of hearing damage. We naturally learn to read lips just to communicate but, even after we leave the stage for good reading lips serves us well. We at least have tinnitus and, possibly more severe hearing damage by that point. ( concert volumes are 100 to 105 dB in the third to fourth row of the audience seating, on stage the volume can peak at 150 dB. The loudest sound that can occur is 194 dB. Pain is felt at 125dB, and at 140dB even short term exposure with hearing protection can cause damage - we routinely endure painful volumes for hours on end, without hearing protection.)

So yes we read lips quite well out of necessity. Off stage and out of the studio, assuming I'm not jamming, I can hear fine (well almost, I do have tinnitus but, I have had it since I was 28 so, I'm used to that ringing always being there.)

Reading lips does make it easier and faster for me to process spoken words so, I prefer to do so, if possible and, I'm not fazed if a person only lips the words without sound, I "hear" them just fine.

 

[Ylva]

As long as I leave it to my subconscious, I can read lips just fine.

 

[Datura]

I can decipher a few common phrases by lip reading, but I do not believe my skill is that advanced. And yes, looking at somebody's lips does help to clarify what is being said. Then again, so do other cues, such as hand gestures.

I believe that many of us rely at least partially on lip reading to discern what people are saying, otherwise the McGurk effect probably wouldn't work.

Here is a video explaining the McGurk Effect, along with a couple of other audio illusions.

 

[Beverly]

Here is a video explaining the McGurk Effect, along with a couple of other audio illusions.

I always love McGurk demonstrations. Watch it once with your eyes open, then again with your eyes closed, hear the difference? Try a third time and just focus on non verbal sounds, ignore the speaker as much as possible - it seems to change again.

 

[Nitro]

 

[AsheSkyler]

I generally struggle with disembodied verbal communication (phones) and prefer to talk to people in person so I can watch both their mouth and whole body when they talk. Feet are full of data!

 

[flowers]

During conversation to appear polite I will look at people's mouths/lip area but my lip reading ability is truly atrocious! My brain has a hard time translating auditory information as well so the words "huh?" and "What?" are frequently used.

People in school used to get annoyed because I could never "get the message" whenever someone tried to communicate this way across the classroom. I can't remember the term. Lip talking? Mouthing words?

 

[Progster]

I agree with flowers . I'm not a very good lip reader. When someone is speaking to me I concentrate on what they are saying, and if I try to read their lips it distracts me from what they are saying. It's often hard to hear people over background noise, so I often cock my head to one side, or even close my eyes to hear them better. I suppose different people find different solutions to what is essentially the same problem.

 

[Sharpy]

New here. I agree with flowers as well. Lip reading has always been something that goes over my head. In loud social areas I just see mouths moving and have never been able to decipher what their saying properly unless i can hear some sort of sound coming with their voice. If I can hear small parts of it I do use the information from their mouth as well to try and figure out what they are saying.

 

[tlc]

I'm terrible at it. Only sometimes I can tell when there's a really good context of what's going on and there's only a small selection of things they would be saying. Usually a profanity.

 

[Civil4life]

Same as flowers...I actually have moderate hearing loss and tinnitus. I am able to hear/understand people better if I am looking directly at them.