Relationship of speechreading performance and facial hair

• Main Author: Goluba, Ronald
• Other Authors: Mullin, Thomas
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: Florida Technological University 1975
• Subjects: Lipreading
• Online Access: http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/RTD/id/5613

Florida Technological University College of Social Sciences Thesis === An individual suffering from a hearing impairment has at least partially lost the ability to communicate, depending upon the degree of hearing impairment. In normal oral communication the articulators, the tongue, lips, palate, and teeth, serve as modulators of the air stream. The resulting output takes form as consonants and vowels which are detected by the ear of a listener and passed on for interpretation in the higher brain centers. For the individuals with moderate to severe hearing loss, the visual shape and movement of the speaker's articulators become the important communicative elements (O'Neill and Oyer, 1961). Hearing impaired children often depend on visual perception in the communication process to a greater extent than do hearing children, due to decreased auditory sensitivity (Harris, 1971; Oyer and Frankman, 1975). Speechreading is the process through which an individual, regardless of the state of his hearing understands speech by carefully watching the speaker (Silverman, 1948). Professional individuals Involved in aural rehabilitation prefer to use the term speechreading while the public uses the term lipreading more frequently (Berger, 1972). In speechreading there are several variables, one of which is facial exposure of the speaker (Stone, 1957). The speechreading ability related to facial exposure is a variable to be considered in this study. === M.A. === Masters; === Graduate Studies Program === Graduate Studies Program === Social Sciences === 45 p. === viii, 38 l. illus. 29 cm.