You teach lip reading and speechreading — to students who are deaf or hard of hearing — covering visual speech recognition, contextual cues, and the strategies that turn the visible parts of speech into useful information for the reader.
Most days tend to involve a blend of individual lessons, small-group sessions, and supervised practice — walking students through the patterns of visible speech, working with auditory training where applicable, and supporting students as they apply lip reading in real conversations. You'll often spend part of the time on the curriculum and equipment fabric of running an instructional program.
The harder part is often the slow arc of skill development combined with the variability of how much information lip reading can actually carry — visible speech is inherently ambiguous, and patient development matters. You'll typically work with students at very different levels of language exposure and prior training.
People who tend to thrive here are deeply grounded in deaf education, patient with development curves, and skilled at the relational side of teaching a difficult skill. The trade-off is the small specialty within deaf education and the chronic resource pressure. If you find satisfaction in giving students a strategy that adds to their access, the work can carry quiet, meaningful impact.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
You teach lip reading and speechreading — to students who are deaf or hard of hearing — covering visual speech recognition, contextual cues, and the strategies that turn the visible parts of speech into useful information for the reader.
Median pay for a Lip Reading Teacher is about $66K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $39K to $133K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Speaking, Instructing, Active Listening, Learning Strategies, and Social Perceptiveness.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 0.7% through 2034, with roughly 286,310 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include SPED Associate (Special Education Associate), Resource Teacher, and Elementary Teacher.
Truest gives you tools to understand your strengths, explore roles that fit, and plan your next move.
Explore Truest career tools