Product Details

• Actors: Ph.D. Robert L. Russell
• Directors: Ph.D. Robert L. Russell
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 6
• Studio: Not Known
• DVD Release Date: April 1, 1987
• Run Time: 345 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000CNEENE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,190 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

This videotape lipreading practice set is designed to train your eyes to recognize the subtle movements of the lips, face, and body (speechreading) helping those with hearing difficulty listen with the ears AND the eyes. Studying at your own pace, this complete practice set starts easy and gets more difficult as you move through the series, from speechreading basic words to complex phrases and sentences. 1,280 presentations in over 120 subjects using 38 different actors of all ages (and facial features) provide real life variety, so what you study is similar to what you’ll encounter in everyday life.

Shot in many locations, the only difference between our series and real life is, we give you the answers (after a short pause as a subtitle – no decoder required). An actor will make a presentation and pause for a moment while you decide what was said. After a short pause, the correct response is printed on the screen as a subtitle. If you have trouble with a particular presentation, rewind the tape and review it until you recognize those word(s), then move on. Practice for 15-20 minutes at a time, then take a break. Come back and review, then move on to more difficult material.

Those who use a hearing aid are all too familiar with the fact that a hearing aid does not restore normal hearing. Use of speechreading will enhance the effectiveness of a hearing aid, providing the ability to hear and understand in a way that neither can do alone. The series is appropriate for those with slight, moderate, or severe hearing loss, ages 12 and up.

Also included are scorecards to map your progress, and an instructional handbook. VHS 5:45 Hours

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok for practice, but..., June 28, 2010

By 

Michael Delugg "geek photographer" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Read My Lips! Lipreading Video Lessons (Boxed Set 1-6) Learn to Listen with your Eyes! (DVD)

I'm losing my hearing to an unusual inner-ear disease, and I'm taking a course on SPEECH READING (what used to be called lip reading). One of my biggest needs, and fortunately the only thing I need from this DVD, is practice. This set of 6 DVDs does offer that.

Now for a couple of "howevers."

Personally, I don't think this is a good "starting point" for a beginner to learn speech reading. Why? Because there are a few different methods, it's a very subjective skill to learn and I feel nothing replaces a qualified teacher to get you going. While some people seem to have a wonderful, natural talent for it, most of us do not. Having our language "dissected" and explained by an instructor who is monitoring your progress is definitely the way to get started.

Because there is movement that is not part of the word (deep mouth breaths before some words -- unnecessary smiles after), and occasional dropped or rushed syllables, and head movement, I would rather have had the option to turn off and on the voices simply by using my volume control. When I'm having a problem with, say, the name "Jennifer," I would have dearly loved to have heard what actual sounds were recorded. My hearing is not totally gone (just bad and getting worse). I certainly don't need the distracting music track (which I have muted) that has replaced the voices. No cheating, now.. eh?

PLEASE, we're fairly grown-up. We do understand that if you cheat at solitaire, you're only cheating yourself. The same applies to this series. Give users the option to listen or not. I would have loved to hear what kind of accents might have affected the pronunciations.

Finally, this series of DVDs looks like it's about 3 or 4 generations away from the original production, which looks like it was shot with a home video camera.

Really, this would be a bargain at $49 or even at $89... But to pay $200 for this... Unless you really need a practice "partner" to be available on your schedule, you might want to think twice at this price.