Re: reading levels of deaf and HOH

March 15, 2004

I too was uneasy about whether to post my comments or not, but decided to do

so because I'm not saying that people should use this methodology, but that

they should do themselves the favor and investigate it and make an informed

decision after that. If anyone is truly interested, there are cued speech

camps nationally and internationally that are loads of fun and teach the

system Most are a week or less which is all it takes to learn it.

With cued speech, the other person needs to be able to cue in order for the

system to work, just as with ASL, there needs to be sign to be understood.

ASL is a visual representation of a word/concept. Cued speech is a visual

representation of a phoneme of speech (a sound of speech) For example, if I

sign the word tree, I rest my elbow on my other palm, hold my hand in the

air and shake it to symbolize the word tree. It tells me nothing about the

sound of the word, but I know that it means tree...now, what about oak tree,

maple tree...as far as I know, there's no sign for those, so you finger

spell...o-a-k, m-a-p-l-e. Again, nothing tells you how these are

phonetically pronounced. Now, with cued speech, to cue the word tree, I say

the word and as I'm saying it, I cue the sounds of the word...tuh...reee.

Maple tree becomes...may....puh...ul..... tuh...ree. Oak tree is oh...kuh

tuh..ree What happens is that the person uses the mouth movement and

correlates it with the cue to visually " hear " the sounds. All cueing is is a

stringing of the sounds of speech that one hears together. That's why even

accents can be cued...for example, take the word Boston. Now, there is

probably a sign for Boston...let's assume there is. You know the word is

Boston that you're talking about. Now, for cueing, there is no one cue for

Boston...I, for example, say Bawstun. That would be cued

Baw...s...t....uhn. Now, another person says, Bahstin. That would be cued,

Bah..s...t....in So, you see, the person actually " hears " the difference in

accents, just as we do, yet knows the word is Boston, just like we do. That

is why learning to read is easier. You are actually, learning visual

phonics so you can teach phonetic reading.

Just like signing, a child would need a cued speech transliterator

(interpretor) if the person talking to them doesn't know how to cue and/or

sign language interpreter if they use sign as well. They are not mutally

exclusive. However, to me, the significant piece is the speed at which a

family can communicate their entire conversation to their child without

having to learn a " foreign " language such as ASL. In one week, they can

slowly cue anything, and within a year, cue at a slow conversational speed.

After that, it's just the amount of practice that determines speed. Because

the family can cue every word, the child develops a vocabulary that is not

limited by the amount of sign that a parent/sibling knows. They also will

learn every word in the english language that is used and its context. To

me, the literacy and the ability to acquire more language from the family

are two benefits that result whether the rest of the world cues or not. It

also helped my son tremendously with lipreading and using his residual

hearing because he learned to visually understand what his ears were

hearing. When he heard an ah sound and we cued AH...it reinforced that this

was an ah sound...etc.

Another tool that I personally wish more people would investigate is the

Fast Forward program which is used to remediate central auditory processing

disorder. It is an incredible program that compresses years of speech

therapy into a 6-10 week intensive computer based remediation. I believe in

it so much that i bought stock in the company and have held it through the

tech stock crash. Some CI facilities use it for post implant auditory

training and I don't understand why they all don't. It's expensive, so

maybe that's why.

Hope this info helps.

Re: reading levels of deaf and HOH

> >> " I'm so sad that so many parents still haven't taken the time to go to a

> >>cued

> speech seminar/camp and truly learn the power of such a system. "

>

> -

> I get uneasy when topics turn to advocating for specific methodologies and

> communication modes, but to tell you the truth, the reason I never looked

> into cued speech is because NO ONE in my area uses it. I am not aware of

any

> locations anywere near me that teach cued speech. There are no current

> professionals in the schools here that know cued speech. Why use a

> communication system when there are no others around that use it as well?

>

> I am curious about a few things regarding cued speech. My very basic

> understanding is that it is some facial and hand movements, coordinated

with

> speech, that offer additional clues to what the words may be. How does

this

> translate to an actual situation for the HI person when the person they

are

> communicating with does not use cued speech? Is a translator still needed?

> I'm not going to take a position on this because honestly, I don't know

> enough about it

> Colin

>

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March 16, 2004

,

I'm delighted that you posted. I also know nothing about cued speech. As far

as I know there is nothing near me either.-- locally we've encountered mostly

ASL use and some SEE.

I like reading about the different modalities, but sometimes it is

overwhelming to read the websites and try to understand the application and

theory. They

all blend into a confusing mass in my brain. Reading your post, written from

you perspective and experience helps a lot!

Thank you -- Jill

March 16, 2004

,

We started using cued speech with my daughter at the age of three - we had done

pidgeon sign as best we could before that. If cued speech is used all the time

the child gets ALL the same pheonemic information as a hearing child and their

brain just starts making sense out of it - kind of like spoken language with a

baby - they don't just immediately understand what you are saying - it is a

process. You would want to do it all the time - not just for clarification -

the child's brain will start to understand the English language and develop

vocabulary at a normal pace - assuming everything else is ok. Although cued

speech may no be for everyone - it has allowed my daughter to keep up with her

peers at school - be in honor classes - basically, no delays language wise at

all.

Amy

<tt>

I also think that advocating one particular style of communication is somewhat

dangerous here, however I did see that you were merely saying that people

should at least look into it and not saying it is right for everyone. I would

like to make a side note that I personally think people should look into every

communication style thoroughly (sp?) before deciding on one.

Now I would really like to know what the general age that kids start responding

well to cued speech is. It is a phonetic system so they have to be able to

understand that. I would like to try using a modified system with my 5 year

old using the alphabet rather than the actual cues so he knows which letter to

pronounce, but it is more for articulation reasons.

For my son that may be a good alternative to AV since he has very little

functional hearing (we used to think he had none but recently he has been

repeating vowel sounds and that is a huge step for him). Anyway from what I

understand about cued speech it utilizes what hearing is there as well as cues

to help them pick up on sounds they wouldn't ordinarily hear, and I think that

would really help as far as being able to understand spoken language better. I

also think there are many ways to modify the system. If the child is able to

understand some but has a hard time you could probably cue to them but if they

are unable to speak or even with cues are not understood they could use some

form of sign in return. I know this could get really complicated but I think

cueing could be used to help teach a child how to hear, and could be mixed in

with other forms of communication. Anyway I would like to try this at some

point with , but I'm sure Andy will be at the point where we could use it

faster, he is not hearing impaired as far as we know, but I do want to get him

tested because recently he has been saying what a lot, although I assume it is

just his age, but also in the car he tells me he can't hear the radio, but he

may just like it loud, either way we need to get it checked out. My point is

that when he is ready for phonics I would really like to try this method. He

is just now learning his letters so it wouldn't help a whole lot, but I am

working a lot on letter sounds and recognition so that maybe we could start

using cueing soon. We can even use cueing only when he is hard to understand.

Anyway I would love info on cueing and what age is best to start, even what age

is best to introduce it and how to introduce it. How do you introduce the

basics of reading such as the alphabet in a child who is Deaf? Feel free to e-

mail me off the list at enriquez16@.... Make sure to put somewhere in

the title cued speech or something that

tells me you aren't junk mail, because I will often just erase things, if it

looks like it could be solicitation.

Re: reading levels of deaf and HOH

March 16, 2004