(playful music) – [Narrator] Hallux’s Hearing Helpdesk. (phone ringing) – Aha, I’ve got a call! Ahem, Hallux’s Hearing Helpdesk! – [Kid] Hi Professor Hallux. How do people with
hearing loss communicate when they can’t hear words? – Good question. Being able to hear is a huge
part of how we communicate. Imagine trying to understand
what someone is saying without being able to hear their words! There are lots of ways that
people with hearing loss can understand what someone says. One of the most common
ways is called lip reading. Our mouths make different shapes depending on what sounds,
letters, and words we say. It’s possible to understand
what someone says by learning these shapes
and looking closely at a person’s lips as they speak. Looking at hand gestures
and facial expressions, like smiles or frowns, can also help. (laughter) Some sounds look the
same when you say them, making lip reading hard. A person can make life easier
for people with hearing loss by using something called Sign Language which is a set of hand shapes,
positions, and movements that show meaning, like
words and sentences. You may have seen a sign
language interpreter on the television. Another way to communicate
without speaking is called cued speech. Cued speech helps people read lips better by using hand signs to show
what letter a word begins with. For example, the sounds ‘b’
and ‘p’ look very similar and can be hard to tell by
looking at your lips alone. However, cued speech lets
a person with hearing loss know what the first letter of the word by making a ‘b’ or ‘p’ with their hand. This makes lip reading
much easier to understand. ♪ Bear and pea, bat and pat ♪ – And what about speech on the TV? Technology can transform
what the actors say into words displayed on the TV screen! So everyone can join in on the action! – [Narrator] Hallux’s Hearing Helpdesk. with support from Phonak. Find out more at funkidslive.com/hallux.