Speechreading
Speechreading involves teaching children to use visual information to help them understand what is being said to them. Many will commonly label speechreading as lip-reading. However, “speechreading is a more accurate term than lip-reading because the goal is to teach students to attend to a variety of stimuli in addition to specific movements of the lips (Hallahan, Kaufmann, & Pullen, 2015). This strategy involves using facial expressions, gestures, and even paying attention to the how the tongue, jaw, and lips move.
This strategy would best benefit students who are hard of hearing or even deaf. It is important to remember this strategy is not easy to learn. “It takes time and effort to become proficient. It is best taught with communication strategies such as manipulating the environment and learning effective conversation repair skills (HLA-WA, 2013). There are several factors to consider in the classroom with this strategy. These factors include the lighting, and making sure there is good light on the speaker or teacher’s face. Another factor is whether or not there is other movement or sound in the classroom, which may interfere with the speechreading.
To begin implementing this strategy it works best to explain to the student one-on-one the idea behind it. You must let the student know what to look for when it comes to visual cues. Keep in mind that some students will be better at speechreading than other students, and some will pick it up quicker than others. “A person’s ability to understand what is being spoken through speechreading is influenced by the context of the conversation. If the person knows what the topic is, and is familiar with the language used, it will be easier to speechread” (e-Michigan Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 2002).
This strategy would best benefit students who are hard of hearing or even deaf. It is important to remember this strategy is not easy to learn. “It takes time and effort to become proficient. It is best taught with communication strategies such as manipulating the environment and learning effective conversation repair skills (HLA-WA, 2013). There are several factors to consider in the classroom with this strategy. These factors include the lighting, and making sure there is good light on the speaker or teacher’s face. Another factor is whether or not there is other movement or sound in the classroom, which may interfere with the speechreading.
To begin implementing this strategy it works best to explain to the student one-on-one the idea behind it. You must let the student know what to look for when it comes to visual cues. Keep in mind that some students will be better at speechreading than other students, and some will pick it up quicker than others. “A person’s ability to understand what is being spoken through speechreading is influenced by the context of the conversation. If the person knows what the topic is, and is familiar with the language used, it will be easier to speechread” (e-Michigan Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 2002).
One content area this strategy could be specifically adapted for would be in math. The reason it would be easiest to implement this strategy in math is because the amount of hand motions and visuals that are used in math. This could include holding up signs, pictures, or your fingers when speaking. Math is many times more of a hands on subject in comparison to literacy. As a result, students don’t need to do a lot of speechreading because there isn’t a lot of verbal instruction from the teacher. There may be some academic vocabulary used in math lessons, but the words can always be written on the board or on a sheet of paper given to the students. Math is a great content area to start with, and build on it with other content areas afterward.
Reading is going to be of the biggest content areas that this strategy can be used in. When teaching phonemic awareness and speech sounds, noticing the movement of the jaw, lips, and tongue is a huge aspect of it. That is exactly what speech-reading is, so it can be easy for student who need a strategy like speech-reading to learn literacy skills. Even students who don’t need the strategy for other subjects will use this when learning speech sounds and phonemic awareness.
Reading is going to be of the biggest content areas that this strategy can be used in. When teaching phonemic awareness and speech sounds, noticing the movement of the jaw, lips, and tongue is a huge aspect of it. That is exactly what speech-reading is, so it can be easy for student who need a strategy like speech-reading to learn literacy skills. Even students who don’t need the strategy for other subjects will use this when learning speech sounds and phonemic awareness.