What Is Cued Speech?
Cued speech is a way to make spoken language more easily understandable to the deaf. Unlike American Sign Language, it is not a unique language unto itself. It simply makes the cuer's home language, be it English, Spanish, French, or Japanese, more comprehensible by eliminating the confusion of trying to lipread such similar words as "bat" and "pat."

While speaking, the cuer makes specific hand shapes next to the mouth, cheek and chin to help the listener lip-read. Cues for sounds which look the same on the lips are very different, helping to take the ambiguity out of lipreading.

The entire cued speech system can fit on a small, wallet-sized card. The basics of cued speech can be learned in just a few days. Practice builds speed. Usually within a few months of steady practice, a cuer will find her comfortable rhythm.

How Is Cued Speech Different from Sign Language?

Assistants who work with cued speech are called transliterators, not translators. Transliterators give their clients exactly the sounds which are being heard around them. Translators are indeed translating English into another language (ASL or another sign language) for their clients. You can see a diagram of the cued speech system online. Click here for the Cued Speech for American English chart.

Want to Learn More about Cued Speech?

An excellent starting point is the National Cued Speech Association (www.cuedspeech.org). Their Web site has links to family camps where parents can learn the basics of cued speech in a few days while their children have fun with outside activities. It also links to other classes, both for parents and professionals. You will also find online papers presented at the Cued Speech 40th Anniversary Convention (2006).

Additionally, a manual for learning cued speech has been made available online, Gaining Cued Speech Proficiency.

A Cued Speech Bibliography

These resources are available in the Central Rappahannock Regional Library system:

An Adventure in Cued Speech

This video "presents cued speech users, their families and professionals, demonstrating and discussing cued speech in a variety of settings. Appropriate for families with deaf children, speech language pathologists, audiologists, cochlear implant professionals, teachers of the deaf, transliterators, special education teachers, and administrators."

Choices in Deafness: A Parents' Guide to Communication Options by Sue Schwartz

"A useful and balanced aid in choosing the appropriate communication option for a child with a hearing loss. Experts present the following communication options: Auditory-Verbal Approach, Bilingual-Bicultural Approach, Cued Speech, Oral Approach, and Total Communication. Covers medical causes of hearing loss, diagnosis, audiological assessment, and cochlear implants. Families also offer their personal experiences."

The Cued Speech Resource Book for Parents of Deaf Children by R. Orin Cornett and Mary Elsie Daisey

This huge (820 pages) resource by the creator of cued speech lays out the system as well as providing case studies, personal stories, articles, and research.

Language Matters has trained, tested, and certified many transliterators in Virginia. While many of them work year-long with clients in school systems, others are available for work on a more temporary basis. Language Matters maintains a database of Cued American English Transliterators (CAETR).

If you have questions about the club, transliterators, or cued speech generally, please email Virginia and Steve Johnson at thistle3@poetic.com.