cued speech (explanation)

[Carolyn L. Ostrander]

On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, ingeborg wrote:

> Can somebody explain me what cued speech is, when it is used and what the
> general attitude towards the use of cued speech is by deaf people?
>

Yes, I can explain what cued speech is, and when it is used.
Cued Speech is a set of CV (consonant-vowel pairs) gestures that clarify
ambiguous lip movements of a spoken language. It was developed in the
1960's at Gallaudet as a tool to permit hearing parents of deaf children
to provide clear input for language acquisition, and to foster the
development of phonemic awareness for strong reading skills. Research
shows that CS can be successful for both of these goals, with "cuekids"
reading on grade level or above.

CS uses handshapes to represent groups of consonants and hand placements
to represent groups of vowels; the CV must always be accompanied by a
mouthshape as well.

CS has been adapted to over 50 languages and dialects. It has been used
extensively and with very good results in several countries, including the
United States, France, Belgium, Australia, Spain, and Thailand.

CS does not compete with signed languages, although political choices by
parents and educators dominate what languages children are exposed to. In
the USA, most "cuekids" are also exposed to ASL or a form of MCE and most
prefer to use ASL in social settings in adulthood. These young adults are
also fluent (including literacy) in spoken American English; hence,
they may still prefer a CS transliterator in English-speaking settings
such as university courses or business meetings.

CS is used by parents, teachers, and cued speech transliterators. It is
used primarily with children who are deaf, but also with children who are
autistic, who have auditory neuropathy and auditory processing problems
including learning disabilities, and with children with speech disorders
as well.

The attitude of the deaf community has been dismissive to openly hostile
in the past, but this is changing in some areas. Many "cuekids" are
becoming fluent signing adults, demonstrating that CS does not interfere
with ASL fluency. Some bi-bi programs are using CS to present English
while maintaining ASL as a primary language of instruction.

I will be happy to answer any further questions about
CS. Please send the email to me individually, since I don't want to take
up SLLing space if it is not interesting to the entire group.

Also, Tony Wright and I will be presenting a poster session on CS at the
ORAGE conference in Aix-en-Provence, France in June.

Carolyn Ostrander
clostran at syr.edu