What is Cued Speech
Cued Speech defined
Cued Speech is a visual communication system — mouth movements of speech combine with “cues” to make all the sounds (phonemes) of spoken language look different.
What are the “cues”?
When cueing English, eight handshapes distinguish consonant phonemes and four locations near the mouth distinguish vowel phonemes. A handshape and a location together cue a syllable.
Can I use Cued Speech with other communication systems?
Yes! Cued Speech complements all the various auditory and signed language approaches. The typical deaf cuer is flexible, able to communicate with speech, speechreading, Cued Speech, and signed language.
Why should I use Cued Speech?
Literacy is the original and primary goal of Cued Speech, by providing the appropriate phonemic language base for learning to read. Cued Speech also supports the development of lipreading, auditory discrimination, and speech. Can I use Cued Speech with other languages? Cued Speech has been adapted to more than 55 languages and dialects! Cued Speech associations and centers are located around the world.
Who uses Cued Speech?
- Persons who are concerned for those with speech, hearing, language, and literacy needs: Family members, friends, educators, speech-language pathologists, transliterators, audiologists, babysitters,…
- Children and adults with communication, language and literacy needs Whether an individual is able to hear or is unable to process auditory information effectively, Cued Speech presents spoken sounds visually, integrating the senses, to avoid confusion and frustration.
- Cued Speech can accelerate learning the phonics of any language, articulation therapy and remediation of learning disabilities.
- For individuals unable to speak, Nu-Vue-Cue adapts Cued Speech into a grid.
- Children who are deaf or hard of hearing
- With Cued Speech, deaf children see and absorb the same phonemic language that hearing children hear.
- For children whose parents are deaf and whose native language is a signed language, Cued Speech can be used with other cuers and at school to facilitate the child’s acquisition of a second language, such as English.
- Adults who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
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Adults with progressive or sudden hearing
loss find that Cued Speech helps
- overcome the frustration of lip-reading, and
- maintain functional speech.
What does research and experience tell us about Cued Speech?
Hearing
Cued Speech assists in processing auditory
information by breaking through the confusion of incomplete and distorted
sound. Continued use of Cued Speech can lead to significant improvement
in speech discrimination. Cochlear implants and Cued Speech are powerful
partners.
For many, Cued Speech accelerates the recognition of sounds received via
the implant. Implant users of all ages appreciate the use of Cued Speech
in difficult listening situations.
Speech
If development of speech is desired, Cued Speech can support speech and articulation skills by:
- focusing attention on the mouth
- reinforcing the pattern of phonemes within a word or phrase
- identifying the speech sound(s) and syllables being targeted
- being a motoric reminder and trigger of speech production
- integrating sound, sight, and motor aspects to make learning more fun!
Speechreading
Cued Speech clarifies speechreading in cued situations and often improves speechreading in non-cued situations.
Language
- Without additional disabilities, deaf children with four or more years of consistent use of Cued Speech master the syntax and grammar of spoken language.
- Deaf students reach their full language and literacy potential if their family members and educators continue to communicate consistently with Cued Speech.
- Deaf cuers often learn two or more languages.
Reading
Having access to and understanding the phonemic base of spoken languages is key to learning to read for ALL children. Cued Speech:
- cues every phoneme
- ocuses attention on the sequence of sounds (phonemes) and syllables of language
- provides visual access to rhyming
- enables the child to develop a complete phonemic model of language