Stephanies' Story

[loml]

I began to do research on hearing loss and available methods of communication. I read about Cued Speech in Choices in Deafness and was asking everyone about it. The comments that were coming back to me included, “It doesn’t work. No one uses it. She will never fit in with her deaf peers.” At that point I wanted her to fit into our family and use the same system of language that we were all using. Our representative at Early Intervention informed us of a center who just started offering Cued Speech. We checked it out and met with Amy Hurowitz, a deaf adult who had been raised on Cued Speech. We felt our eyes twinkle again for the first time in almost a year. The philosophy of Cued Speech matched our needs and Amy was so bright and understood everything! We wanted the same thing for our daughter.

http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/viewpoints/Stephanie_Pagano.asp

For the first year of the implant, we used Cued Speech all the time. Any sounds, words, concepts, everything was cued to her. At her 6-month evaluation she was doing O.K. At her one-year evaluation, Stephanie's scores were amazing.

Hearing Aid (Pre-implant)
1-year post implant


PBK-50 Word Test
(Monitored live voice, auditory only,
and open set conditions) 0% words correct 60% words correct with 79% phonemes correct



Mr. Potato Head Test
(Monitored live voice,
open set conditions) Hearing Aid (Pre-implant) 1-year post implant

(Auditory only) 10% key words
10% sentences 25% key words
30% sentences

(Adding cues) 65% key words
70% sentences Not tested


The “Mr. Potato Head Test” showed that by adding Cued Speech her comprehension scores increased tremendously. The personnel at the clinic felt her scores were a result of using Cued Speech and internalizing the language she was being fed along with the new auditory input she was getting from her implant.

http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/viewpoints/Stephanie_Pagano.asp

*hoping this is not a repeat*