Lip reading role in the hearing aid fitting process.
Lip reading (LR) is unconsciously practiced as we communicate and has currently been widely used in the assessment of hearing impaired people. The hearing challenged individual is able "to read" lip position and thus interpret the speech sounds of the speaker; however, it is very likely that the best lip reader can only catch 50% of the words uttered.


METHODS
30 individuals of both gender, with age ranging from 27 to 89 years, carriers of moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. The assessment encompassed speech recognition test of monosyllable words in four situations: without hearing aid (HA) and LR; without HA and with LR; with HA and without LR; and with HA and LR.


RESULTS
we noticed an improvement in the percentage of correct answers in 93.5% of the patients with HA and LR when compared to those patients in the other situations.


CONCLUSIONS
Lip reading is an important communication strategy for those with hearing impairment, and it can support the hearing aid fitting process.
Dell'Aringa
Ana Helena Bannwart
AH
Setor de Fonoaudiologia, Faculdade de Medicina de Marília. anahelenadell@yahoo.com.br
Adachi
Elisabeth Satico
ES
Dell'Aringa
Alfredo Rafael
AR
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008085:Lipreading; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged