I can't hear in the dark.... but I see stars

I thought I'd do another entry on lipreading. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember it's such a foreign concept to a world that revolves around sound. While lip reading is an attempt to fill in the pieces not heard, the more accurate term of my "listening" experience would be


"Speechreading: a term coined and used by professionals working with deaf and hard of hearing individuals, is a much broader activity, in which individuals utilize all available clues to understand what a person is saying. Speechreading does include lipreading, but also capitalizes on gestures and body language, facial expressions, situational clues, linguistic factors and any auditory input that is available to the individual." - Kaplan, H. 1996.

I would love to see an MRI of my brain someday. I already know I have huge gaps when it comes to hearing, and other functions, including my balance and sense of smell. However, I am overly sensitive to touch and actually have overall 20/10 vision (only 1 bad eye, go figure!). When looking at the definition of speechreading, this would make sense. I use these 2 senses much more acutely and more deliberately compared to others. They are the primary way I give my world meaning.

In the same vein, I am a really good guesser. I have to be! Much of speech conversation is contextual. I urge you to make a list of a scenario, say eating at a restaurant. Now make a list of any of the common spoken interactions you might have with your waiter over the hour that you're in the restaurant. There are some you expect to come at the beginning, such as drink orders. You'd expect a dessert order or a "are you ready for the check" at the end of the meal.
You may be surprised how quickly that list of normal interactions may grow.

Now imagine that a waiter comes along and says something completely out of the ordinary to the table, like "I won the lottery!" I can pretty much guarantee that I'd have no clue what the person said the first time I "heard" it. That sentence does not compute into my memory bank of typical restaurant interactions. Once the confusion registered, I would probably need to ask for a repeat/or clarification now that my computation did not register a logical auditory match.

This is just one example, but there is a memory bank for virtually any set of experienced spoken interactions. I freely admit that I do horribly in situations like the grocery store, at noisy restaurants by myself, and airplanes/airports.