Visual Perception of Speech by Deaf Children: Recent Developments and Continuing Needs

Abstract

Two main groups of children attend schools for the deaf: the “severely hearing-impaired,” who can learn to use low-frequency cues in a nearly normal way; and the “profoundly deaf,” who seem to perceive only gross patterns of amplified speech through vibrotactile receptors in their ears. Improvements in early oral-aural education now allow many severely hearing-impaired and some profoundly deaf children to enter schools for the normally hearing before about age 10. Most children who remain in oral schools for the deaf beyond this age are profoundly deaf—those who rely primarily on lipreading for speech comprehension. Although hearing aids and auditory training are valuable, communication through lipreading remains an important factor in the successful oral education of profoundly deaf children. Recent studies have described several variables which limit the visual intelligibility of speech, but also have suggested some ways in which speech and language learning through lipreading may be enhanced. This paper reviews lipreading research from the point of view of educating deaf children and provides a rationale for continued stuay of visual perception of speech.