PROGRAMS
THE RACE AGAINST TIME FOR LITERACY
Most people have acquired up to 85% of their adult capacity for language by the time they are five years old. This basis in language is the fundamental key to reading readiness. If a child is prevented from developing this language awareness at the appropriate age because of a hearing loss or other cause, their potential for attaining adult literacy levels may be permanently hampered. Furthermore, for many children, the hearing loss may not be diagnosed until they are over a year old, with a whole critical year of language acquisition already lost to them. AEHI’s programs use Cued Speech as a tool with demonstrated effectiveness for making the sounds and structure of language visually accessible for people who are hearing impaired.
COMMUNICATION
Ninety-five percent of children who are deaf or hard of hearing are born to hearing parents. If the parents must learn a whole new language, Sign Language, in order to communicate with their baby, the child will only acquire language as quickly as the parents are able to learn the vocabulary of this new language. This process further slows the child’s acquisition of language skills. Cued Speech is a visual form of English, not a different language. It can be learned in under twenty hours of instruction. Parents are instantly able to communicate every word they can say, every thought they can conceive, in a way that is visually accessible to their child.
WHAT IS CUED SPEECH?
Cued Speech is a communication system that combines hand cues with the natural mouth movements of speech in a way that allows a deaf person to have complete visual access to spoken language, phoneme by phoneme, in much the same way as a hearing person has auditory access. In English, there are eight Cued Speech handshapes which, seen together with the natural mouth movements of speech, represent the 25 different consonant sounds of English. There are four different locations around the mouth which, together with the natural mouth movements of speech, represent the 15 different vowels and diphthongs used in English. Basically, one “cues” consonant/vowel pairs or lone consonants or vowels by placing the appropriate handshapes in the appropriate vowel locations in synchronization with all of the natural mouth movements of spoken English (with OR without use of the “speaker’s” voice).
With Cued Speech, the deaf person can “see” exactly what is being said with close to 100% accuracy. This is in sharp contrast to what a deaf person can accurately receive via speechreading alone. The best speechreaders achieve about 35-40% -- and that’s if they already know English. Since so many sounds look alike or are invisible on the mouth, deaf children cannot possibly learn the English language through speechreading alone. With Cued Speech, consonant sounds that look alike on the mouth will be Cued with different handshapes – and look-alike vowel sounds will be Cued in different locations. It effectively makes the sounds of the spoken word visible. Cued Speech is compatible with oral/aural, total communication and bilingual philosophies, enhancing communication and instruction in each mode.
CUED SPEECH AND LITERACY
Delayed acquisition of the concepts of language caused by hearing loss often hampers the process of learning to read. As a result, the average deaf adult who is the product of traditional deaf education reads at or below a fifth grade level. The use of Cued Speech as a teaching tool facilitates the achievement of an individual’s full potential for literacy.
ARTICLES ON CUED SPEECH
Recent articles on Cued Speech are available in Odyssey Fall 2003 published by the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University.
To view these articles you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.
RESEARCH AND THEORY SUPPORT CUED SPEECH (PDF - 944 kb)
By Carol LaSasso & Kelly Lamar Crain
PHONEMIC AWARENESS THROUGH IMMERSION IN CUED AMERICAN ENGLISH (PDF - 1.12kb)
By Kitri Larson Kyllo
CUED SPEECH & AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
HAND IN HAND (PDF - 499 kb)
By Harry Wood
COMMUNICATING VIA CUED SPEECH (PDF - 631 kb)
By Ami Tsuji-Jones
CUED SPEECH: A PROMISING PRACTICE IN DEAF EDUCATION
The Failure of Deaf Education Today
Literacy denied:
Nationally the average reading level of a deaf person who has completed all years of schooling is at or below a fifth grade level.
“Full Educational Opportunity” denied:
The majority of these children are being denied access to the general curriculum which is a violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It is also a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to deny hearing-impaired children the opportunity to derive the same benefit from their education as non-hearing-impaired children.
Most of these children are trapped in Special Education for their entire academic careers.
Why are today’s practices failing?
Today’s programs fail because they use communication modes and teaching methods which do not provide hearing-impaired children with the English language competence and phonemic awareness necessary for achieving literacy and academic excellence.
Some public school programs use American Sign Language (ASL) which is a visual / gestural language which has its own grammar and syntax which are distinct from those of English. It has no written equivalent. These programs are called bilingual-bicultural, wherein all instruction is done in ASL, and English is taught as a second language through written format.
For over thirty years, most public school programs have been using a method of education called “Total Communication.” Total Communication is an umbrella term which may encompass a variety of communication modes and teaching methods. Most Total Communication programs use simultaneous speech and signs presented in English word order in an attempt to systematically represent English for the child with a hearing impairment.
Neither of the above approaches succeeds because sign language, whether in English word order or not, is a conceptual language which does not impart the vocabulary, syntax, phonetics, or idiom of English -- all of which are critical to literacy and academic success.
Another educational option is the “oral/aural” approach, which teaches speech and English language through technology-aided hearing supplemented by speech reading. For children who cannot hear all of the sounds of spoken English, relying on speech reading as the only supplement is insufficient because too many sounds are indistinguishable on the mouth.
How to Turn Failure into Success
Is there a successful solution?
Yes: Cued Speech. Children who use Cued Speech generally attain language and reading levels equal to their hearing peers!
What is Cued Speech?
Cued Speech is a communication system which makes spoken English completely visually accessible to a child who is hearing impaired. The Cued Speech system uses eight hand shapes representing consonant sounds and four locations near the mouth representing vowel sounds. Consonants are cued in the appropriate vowel locations, syllable by syllable in synchronization with the mouth movements of speech (with or without voice). Cues supplement what is seen on the mouth in such a way as to make spoken language clear through vision alone.
Many studies confirm that deaf children do not achieve age-appropriate English language and reading levels. Cued Speech kids do.
Just exerting his control now when it is developmentally appropriate for him to do so! It's something new to him, and he's experiemtning with it.
