Well I've been
The teacher, Maggie, is very nice and friendly, as are the rest of the group. Mainly older ladies, but a few a bit younger and 4 men.
Maggie says that a group of 8 is about ideal (there were about 12), but so many counties don't have any lip reading teachers that we get people from quite far away. We are very lucky to have a teacher and another one in training.
I won't bore you with too much, but it was very interesting and it is all about learning phonetically. We worked on the b, p and m sounds. Lip reading is only about 30% the rest is reading body language, facial expressions, context and using common sense to understand what is being said. It is hard work and quite tiring because you have to concentrate all the time. Coffee break was also where a lot of the work is done, because we then chat and obviously have to cope with the noise level as we do in everyday life.
It was nice not to have to apologise all the time and so nice that people touched my arm to get my attention, then stand in front of me to speak. Such a relief. Everyone had different levels of hearing loss, but we shared the same frustrations and issues. The feeling of isolation in a group situation was felt by everyone. The sadness at not being able to follow a conversation any more, the frustration with hearing aids, families and friends forgetting how difficult it is etc etc.
So all in all it was good and has given me lots to think about and practise. We are off next week as it is half term, but back in 2 weeks.
If anyone is interested or thinks lip reading could help them then look here http://www.lipreading.org.uk/index.php
xxxx
