How people with hearing loss can benefit from speech-reading

It may be easy for some people to distinguish the words pan, ban and man, but it can be confusing for anyone who is deaf or partly deaf.

"The face doesn't change shape when you're saying those sounds," said Annie Lee MacDonald, the president of the PEI Chapter of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association. "With speech-reading, you learn to pick up on the visual cues that may help determine what's being said."

In April, the association is offering courses in speech-reading.

"Fifty per cent of people over 50 have some degree of hearing loss, so you may be meeting several people in a day," MacDonald told CBCMainstreet's Angela Walker..

'They don't tell others'

Nancy MacPhee, a certified speech-readinginstructor, said speech-reading "not only gives people practice with how you form speech, it also givesskillsto deal with being hard of hearing."

"People need to self identify as hard of hearing," she said. "Theyfeel insecure so they don't tell others andend upgetting things wrong."

Speech-reading helps give them confidence in public, MacDonald said.

"It's a huge positive step."

The 10-week speech-readingcourses startApril 2 and April 3. To register, email macphee202@gmail.com.

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