Is it like a rough inference of what’s being said based on mouth movements, or is it more precise somehow? Would it be a mistake to think you knew exactly what was said by reading lips (even if you were good at it)?
Is it like a rough inference of what’s being said based on mouth movements, or is it more precise somehow? Would it be a mistake to think you knew exactly what was said by reading lips (even if you were good at it)?
No hearing loss here, but I’m semi-alright at reading lips. It’s somewhat of a guesswork, but you can make out a decent amount of info, depending on how clearly the other person enunciates their words.
I suspect most or all people already do lip reading to some extent, but you can definitely “train” yourself to read lips better.
I mainly look for consonants since those are the easiest to identify (the shape you make when you make an m sound looks super different from when you make a t sound, for instance). There’s a slight bit of guessing involved, since several consonants have the same mouth shape (m and b, for instance). Sometimes, vowels can throw you a bone and be really easy to read (the a in apple, for instance, has you open your mouth very wide), but I generally struggle to read most vowels. The rest is just piecing together what was said based on context clues.