Seminar | Gesture, Hearing Impairment, and Conversation

Adults with acquired hearing impairment commonly experience speech perception difficulties despite the use of hearing technology, particularly in the presence of background noise. It is well recognised that the addition of visual information provided by the articulators (lipreading) tends to improve speech perception. However, less is known about other sources of visual information, including the patterns of gesture, arising in conversations involving adults with hearing impairment. The aim of the current research was to explore the influence of acquired hearing impairment on the co-speech gesture during dyadic conversational interactions in a series of case studies. Findings showed considerable variation across cases. However, trends in the data suggested that some normally hearing individuals may modify their gesture when interacting with a frequent communication partner with hearing impairment.The successful methods of gesture elicitation and analysis implemented in this study together with the findings present an opportunity for ongoing investigation of gesture and their use in everyday conversation to inform and enhance approaches to hearing rehabilitation and communication partner training.