Can you read people's emotions?

[Ben Kenobi]

You can have more than one ****ing diagnosis of mental illness. And if you set foot in this country I'll make damned sure you get as many as possible.

Wow, so this is wholly about politics then - labelling people you hate as crazy. And here I thought psychiatry was a science.

In any case you've also failed to actually diagnose the one that I do have. Which renders you 'quack' status. Mind if I ask what they think about diagnosing someone over the internet? I'm pretty sure that's against your code of conduct.

[Tuberski]

What the **** does being hearing impaired have to do with seeing eyes?

If you're going to blame one of your disabilities, start with your mental one.

I don't really want to defend him, but he's a lip reader. He will stare you dead in the mouth when you talk to him. So yes reading eyes would be harder for him to do.

ACK!

[Ben Kenobi]

I don't really want to defend him, but he's a lip reader. He will stare you dead in the mouth when you talk to him. So yes reading eyes would be harder for him to do.

Thanks Tuberski.

[Asher]

I don't really want to defend him, but he's a lip reader. He will stare you dead in the mouth when you talk to him. So yes reading eyes would be harder for him to do.

ACK!

He would also have to suffer from some syndrome where he has no capability to see anything except for the 5% of his vision at the very focal point.

This is possible, but unlikely.

[regexcellent]

Asher, give it up here...I've spent more time around hearing impaired people than anyone else here I suspect and if what Tuberski says is true then it's quite likely Ben's being truthful. Your visual acuity is greatest in the very center of your vision; just off center it's not all that good. From experience dealing with deaf people I find the claim very reasonable.

[Ben Kenobi]

He would also have to suffer from some syndrome where he has no capability to see anything except for the 5% of his vision at the very focal point.

Again, there's two things going on here. One - children with a substantial hearing loss prior to learning a language have deficiencies across the board when it comes to hearing people and understanding them. We aren't born with a lipreading ability. We have to learn to connect the lip movements with sounds (that we don't hear correctly). Same with facial expressions. we have to learn how to read them, how to read body language. Same with this here with the eyes. It helps deaf children to connect their emotions with your facial expression when you exaggerate your facial expressions, but, if you're a hearing parent, you have no idea about this.

I had a fantastic teacher in French who actually took the time and asked the question, "what's the best way to teach a deaf person a foreign language?" Was there an answer for him? No. Was there literature available for him? No. What was extremely helpful for him and for me was getting a tape that simulated my hearing. He realized to what degree I relied upon non-verbal communication and lip reading to just survive in English. He did a few things...

He eliminated all tape assignments. I had to make tapes of my own reading into a microphone, and recording all the french sounds - reading through a book. It was tremendously helpful and he came and worked with me over the sounds that I couldn't get right until I did. He worked with recitation, all that sort of old fashioned things -things I learned to actually take and use to work on my English. He figured that since I understood how the language worked that he should take advantage of that through the actual writing as much as possible. French is a beautiful language, it is so much easier to work with than English in many ways. I never got to the point where I could speechread French, but I remember how happy he was when I got one A on an exam that he considered tough. I was still, by far, the worst of his students, but it really made my day when he said, "see! you *can* keep up with these fantastic French students!"

People who can hear simply don't realize how many things that are going on with communication, both verbal and non-verbal and how the verbal component cues them in. For me to get it right - I have to speechread. That means concentrating on the lips to the exclusion of everything else. This is one of the things they taught me about focus - so that I can actually hear and follow along with the conversation. And of course it doesn't stop there. I have to keep practicing and working on stuff to get better. Stuff that you take for granted everyday.

So yes, eyes, for the most part, matter very little. I'm too busy trying to keep up with the lips.

[Docfeelgood]

36/36

Have to go with your first choice by instinct, don't think, just answer.

[-Jrabbit]

Interesting. (Well, except for the part where everyone seemed to assume that the effect of Ben's hearing impairment was an either/or proposition. That's a bit facile imho. It's entirely possible that he is both non-empathic and also laser-focused on the mouth.)

I always figured a holistic look at the face, especially facial expressions, was a critical part of lip-reading. I know I see a lot of emotive effort being put into ASL interpretation, and I assumed that was why - conveying more context with the content.

[Ben Kenobi]

I always figured a holistic look at the face, especially facial expressions, was a critical part of lip-reading. I know I see a lot of emotive effort being put into ASL interpretation, and I assumed that was why - conveying more context with the content.

Yes, exactly this. I don't use ASL - but the gesticulations attempt to convey the tenor of the words. Happy, sad, etc. That sort of thing. They over accentuate the facial expressions to make it easy - the same reason why road signs are brightly lit.

[Sava]

and also laser-focused on the mouth.

So he has an oral fixation as well?

[Berzerker]

30

5 men 1 woman

[SlowwHand]

36/36

Have to go with your first choice by instinct, don't think, just answer.

True. The same as any test.

[Asher]

Asher, give it up here...I've spent more time around hearing impaired people than anyone else here I suspect and if what Tuberski says is true then it's quite likely Ben's being truthful. Your visual acuity is greatest in the very center of your vision; just off center it's not all that good. From experience dealing with deaf people I find the claim very reasonable.

It's bull**** unless you have the same visual issues as Ben apparently has.

We're not talking about reading fine print here.

Do you look at both eyes when you talk to somebody? If you're normal you probably find that difficult and you focus on one eye, whether you notice or not. But you can tell if the other one is winking.

Ben's issue is lack of empathy, which he's demonstrated for years on this site. People who lack empathy have issues in telling other people's emotions.

He's playing his 'look at me, I'm crippled' card again and you're lapping it up. As others have also said, if you can't hear the tone of people's voice if anything you should be more conditioned to being able to recognize facial indicators of emotional state. If anything he should be better than others at this.

[Ben Kenobi]

Do you look at both eyes when you talk to somebody?

If you're a hearing person, yes, yes you do. I don't, and it's harder for me to do so to focus on eyes and not lips. What's so hard to understand about this, Asher?

Ben's issue is lack of empathy

"empathy" = "approves of sodomy".

which he's demonstrated for years on this site. People who lack empathy have issues in telling other people's emotions.

Nah, it's just you trying to promote the same bull**** agenda you always have.

As others have also said, if you can't hear the tone of people's voice if anything you should be more conditioned to being able to recognize facial indicators of emotional state.

Regexcellence and Tuberski have already explained why that's not the case. You just don't seem to be getting it, Asher. Perhaps because it runs contrary to your prejudices.

If anything he should be better than others at this.

At lipreading? Absolutely. I was just tested and scored 95 percent without the aids facing the speaker. 19/20 missing one word.

[Asher]

You're an idiot and so is anyone who buys your bull****.

You're not the only deaf person I know. You're definitely the dumbest.

For all of the hearing people -- if you watch a TV show or movie, can you notice when the lips are out of sync with the audio? I can notice this, even if it's something like 20-30ms and it bugs the hell out of me. And I assure you I don't look directly at the lips when I see this.

But OMFG, you're not lip reading so how could you see anything other than the eyes? Especially subtle cues such as the mouth formation that produces specific sounds.