Understanding Hearing Loss with Sarah

Sarah realized she had a problem with her hearing when she couldn’t properly hear when in a crowd. As a result, she began to withdraw from social events to cope with her hearing loss. For Sarah, lip reading practice helped her hear better in groups.

It was hard for Sarah when her friends and family had difficulty understanding what she was going through.

“The worst I find is your family because sometimes they just don’t understand. ‘Mom, what is wrong with you? Why don’t you hear me?’ “

Sarah connected with the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association-Newfoundland and Labrador (CHHA-NL) and it made a big difference in her life. Speech reading classes enabled her to improve her communication with others. When visiting family they were happy to see that she was able to understand better.

“It certainly did make me feel different to understand that there was more people like me that were having the same problems.”

Lipreading Practice – Learn & Practice From Anywhere

Speech (lip) reading classes at CHHA-NL allowed Sarah to comprehend speech more clearly and to connect to more conversations. Lipreading is a tool that can help you fill in the blanks and pick up more words and make it easier to process what someone is saying.

Watch Sarah’s story below.

The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association — Newfoundland and Labrador offers lipreading and speechreading courses both online and in-person.

In-person classes:

• Class size is limited to 12 people.

• Taught in a fully hearing accessible building.

• Family members are encouraged to register and attend.

In-person classes take 8 weeks, with a 2 hour class each week. Classes are taught by a trained speechreading instructor at the CHHA-NL provincial office. Classes are offered in the Spring and the Fall each year. Visit the CHHA-NL website to sign up for in-person lipreading classes.

Online classes:

• Self-paced (practice on your own schedule.)

• Available through any device with high-speed internet (smartphone, tablet, and computer.)

• Captioning for hearing accessibility.

Online ‘Read Our Lips‘ classes offer a 6 month course length. Classes feature fun, interactive lessons that are available to everyone, no matter where you live in the world. Visit the Read Our Lips website to sign up for the online lipreading course.