Speech Therapy

Mental Mapping of Sounds.
The brain knows what a tap running, a bus, or the phone ringing sounds like. Now it is getting beeps and hums instead. My rehab is to focus on the stimuli so the brain starts mapping these together. I have a check list of around 100 everyday sounds. First check I can "hear" something, next check if / when I recognise it (seeing a dog bark is different to a dog barking behind you, and knowing its a dog).

Lip Reading or Speech Reading.
A CI can not hear certain sounds. Lip reading can not differentiate certain lip movements. They work well together.

Lip reading focusses on three properties of sound:-
1. Manner - how it is made. e.g.
-Explosive "p,b,t,d,k,g",
-Friction "s,z,f,v,sh" or
-Nasal "m,n,ing"
2. Place of Production. e.g. lips together "p,b,m,w", or tongue and teeth e.g. "th".
3. Voiced or Not. e.g "b vs p"

CI Hearing Class.
Learning to hear with the CI - no lip reading clues.
First identify which sound groups you have difficulties and work on these. For me examples of sound groups are "pea vs key, pick vs tick, tear vs care; pill vs bill ; tart vs dart, ought vs sought, sue vs zoo; day vs nay"

Lip Reading Class
Easiest to lip read
P,B,M; W,Wh; F,V; Sh, Ch; Th; L
Hardest to lip read
K,G; S,Z; T,D,N; R.

Therapist reads out lines from a story. I repeat back. We have just finished "The Emperor's New Clothes".


Pretty humbling but there is only upside.