Each Friday, Lesley Wolfson and her husband drive an hour and a half from Jacksonville to Gainesville so she can learn to read lips.
Wolfson suffers from hearing loss caused by chemotherapy treatment.
At 3 p.m. on Fridays at the United Way of North Central Florida, 6031 NW First Place, she joins six other classmates, also affected by hearing loss, to practice lip-reading, share advice and exchange stories.
The lip-reading class, led by Pat Kricos, a professor in UF's College of Public Health and Health Professions, is part of a series of classes about dealing with hearing loss.
Kricos's seven students range in age from the mid-50s to early 80s. They've all experienced hearing loss in different ways - some from birth, some from aging, and some, like Wolfson, as a result of medical issues.
"Lip reading is tough," Kricos said. "But I'm so impressed by all of them. They're here almost every week, and they always do their homework."
Kricos's first class of the day begins at 1 p.m. - an educational course on dealing with hearing loss.
Here, Kricos and her two assistants, doctoral students studying to be audiologists, discuss topics like communication strategies, how to deal with difficult listening situations and technologies like hearing aids.
They also discuss how to teach friends and family members about speaking clearly.
Clearly does not mean louder or more exaggerated, Kricos said. People should speak normally but with better articulation and slight pauses in between phrases. Facing each other while in conversation can help, too, she said.
Kricos said she often finds the group leads itself.
"I like the audiologists to talk 30 percent of the time or less," she said. "When folks find out they're not the only ones with hearing loss, they just get talking."
These classes offer participants more than a tool; they also provide a place of community.
The students, often accompanied by their spouses, meet other people suffering from similar conditions. They exchange advice, like who are the best audiologists in town, how to ask for accommodating rooms in a hotel or how to get a volume-amplified phone.
They share their stories and frustrations.
Lynn Rousseau once slept through a fire alarm while staying in a hotel in Washington, D.C. Sue Spencer, a bright-blue-eyed mother of five, said she has trouble hearing her son talk about his day at school when she's cooking dinner or running the dishwasher. Tom Donaldson has trouble hearing high-pitched sounds.
"They learn that they're not the only one in the world going through something like this," Kricos said. "And that realization can be really empowering."
The lip-reading class starts just after 3 p.m. Doctoral students Nicole Brakovich and Laura Davidson assist Kricos in a warm-up exercise. "Norman, last week I ate at The Swamp," Brakovich mouths silently.
It takes a couple of silent repetitions before Norman Griggs understands and replies out loud, "Well, why would you want to eat there?"
The class continues, focusing on sounds that look alike, such as the letters P, B and M, or T and D.
Kricos said it's the people she meets who make her job worthwhile.
"The greatest thing about my job is that people go out of here and really feel empowered," she said. "They are just incredible people with indomitable spirits."
The classes are free and open to the public.
To register for either class, call 352-294-5151 or email mmccaghren@phhp.ufl.edu.
Sue Spencer, 59, practices her lip-reading skills at the Living with Hearing Loss clinic Friday at the United Way of North Central Florida. Spencer was diagnosed with hearing loss last month.
