Cued Speech experiences and general information

What has been said about Cued Speech?

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“Without Cued Speech I would not have been able to get as far as I am now and would have faced many more barriers in the ‘hearing world’.”

Quote from Rachel, profoundly deaf, BSc (Hons). Graduate Member of the Institute of Physics, presently employed as a microwaves engineer. UK

“The moment I was exposed to Cued Speech was the beginning of my linguistic and academic success.  During the course of my fifth grade school year my reading performance jumped from C’s in below-grade level classes to B’s and A’s in on-grade level courses. Although I am fluent in American Sign Language.... and am capable of having a sign language interpreter, I still prefer to have certified Cued Speech transliterators in academic settings. There is only one reason for this - the ability of Cued Speech to give me unmitigated and unequivocal access to English.  Spoken English that has not been able to reach my ears has now found a new channel into my head. It is through Cued Speech that I am able to see spoken language clearly, without any doubt in ambiguous passages that could be misread through lipreading alone.”

An Extract taken from Volta Voices, by Daniel Koo, profoundly deaf.  USA

Cued Speech can help deaf children to reach their potential and facilitates:

• Enhanced communication from an early age
• Improved literacy
• Early and rapid acquisition of language
• Acquisition of internal spoken language
• Improved ability to use residual hearing
• Improved ability to benefit from cochlear implantation
• Improved lipreading skills
• Access to spoken language within a sign bilingual philosophy
• Direct access to foreign spoken languages
• Improved speech
• Full access to the curriculum

Reading with Cued Speech
“Our son was born profoundly deaf and we started to learn Cued Speech before he was one year old. It took a few months before I could cue fast enough to cue everything that I said. However, because Cued Speech is a sound-based system once you have learnt the system you can say anything. By the time he was two years old he understood a lot of simple sentences and by three years old he was talking, using long sentences. He was also starting to read. As he began to read I started to show him that some of the letters represented sounds and he very quickly made the association between the sounds that he could not hear, but knew existed because of the cues, and the letters. When he started school aged four and a half he was reading fluently.” 
Names available on application. UK

Research into Cued Speech shows:

1. Lipreading. “Actually Cued Speech is different from the other systems and results of work with Cued Speech have shown that it far surpasses any other system as an efficient speech-reading aid for profoundly or totally deaf children.” Scores were reached of 96.1% for accuracy in lipreading in this research. (Nicholls 1979)

2. Reading. Profoundly deaf children with whom Cued Speech is used can achieve reading scores equivalent to hearing children of the same age. (Wandel 1989)

3. Internalising Language. Research has shown that profoundly deaf children with whom Cued Speech is used can internalise the spoken language of hearing society. (J Alegria et al 1989)

4. Audition. Cued Speech improved the use of audition and did not divert the auditory attention of deaf children. (B L Charlier & D Paullissen 1986)

5. Cochlear Implantation. Children’s use of Cued Speech prior to cochlear implantation has a significant positive effect on their ability to benefit from the implant. (M J Osberger 1997)

6. There is practical evidence from the performance of the many deaf children with whom Cued Speech is used of rapid vocabulary and language growth. (Cornett 1989)

Short extracts from written work by deaf children who have been helped by Cued Speech
The extracts have been reproduced exactly as written, including the punctuation.  In most cases the original piece of work was longer. These children are unable to hear any sounds of speech, even with a hearing aid.

“Woooooooo” went a noise.
Polly woke up. “Who made that noise?” It was a ghost.
Polly saw him and she got frightened and she put the covers over her head “Soooooooo”. Polly woke up. “Who did that?”  It was an owl.
Daniel: aged 5                                                                                

Tommorow is pussy’s birthday. He will be seven. Pussy will have a birthday cake. I will give Pussy a present. It is a mouse and a ball.  Rachel and I will blow the candles out for pussy. Pussy will drink a milk. I will drink blackcurrant juice.
David: aged 6

On June 6th we will go to Hengrove Road street party. I will eat sausages on sticks, cakes, jelly, cheese and pineapple on sticks and bread. I will drink orange juice. I will wear my long dress. My dress is white. Lorraine, Haley and Steven will play games. I will play statues. Lorraine has a flag.  It is white and red and blue.
Yvonne: aged 6