Down Memory Lane: Lip Reading

I recently went to go see my family in Arizona. My family and I have so many memories. We mostly had sad memories, but some of our memories were happy ones. Some of them were funny (at least to me).

When I was a kid I often got asked questions I didn't understand. One question was "does your mom lipread?" Finally I asked someone what lip-reading meant. "It's when she can look at your lips and know what you're saying," I was told. I was fascinated. I thought it was something like telepathy. For several weeks I wanted to see this magic in action. I pointed to my lips and mouthed out the word or phrase I was trying to say whenever I came across a difficult concept to sign. My mom just blinked at me, wondering what was wrong with me. After several weeks of seeing no magic I stopped.

Later I finally understood about lipreading. It took me years to learn that hearing people tend to think that all Deaf people lipread (I think?) Even though I am hearing I did not understand other hearing people in my childhood, especially adults. In fact I really did not understand that I am supposed to be mentally and physically deficient and inferior to others until I was much older. I am glad that I was a naive child. I never even knew that there was a difference between Deaf and hearing, Black and white even though I had been told (but I didn't understand). I am not able to view myself as deficient, especially since my IQ tests and my academic tests show that I certainly possess the ability to comprehend things well. I understand, but I don't agree with this view of deficiency that people choose to cultivate.

I should note that my mom can indeed lipread. However, I never needed to invoke her lipreading. Lipreading was not a regular part of our lives. As a kid I had more important things to worry about, like defeating my older brother in our "karate sparring matches" (thanks Karate Kid) or making a parachute out of our bedsheets so that we could go on covert missions (Spy vs. Spy). I should also note that I am a firm believer that my family is no more deficient than I am.