Factors in Learning Speechreading

The term "speechreading" denotes the skill to understand the discourse of a fellow man by watching the movements of his lips, jaws, teeth, and tongue, and his gestures and facial expressions. It implies that when none of the words are heard the 30% of the speech sounds which are visible, plus the situational, facial, and bodily cues, enable the brain to fill in the invisible parts of speech to render the discourse intelligible. "To listen with the eyes" has become a mainstay in the education of the deaf, and the lipreading teacher has attained distinctive professional eminence. However, lipreading instruction meets with variable success. The skill is mastered readily by some deaf persons, while others learn it to a limited degree or not at all. From the observation of Utley¹and Keaster,²there is no high correlation between the lipreading ability and the general intelligence. It may well