Children brought up with Cued Speech
Parents who use Cued Speech consistently in the home and from an early age can give their child an understanding of English which is very similar to hearing children. Deaf children brought up with Cued Speech can therefore arrive at school without the delayed and damaged language common amongst non-cueing children. Just as Cued Speech enables a young child to acquire language, so it can also give full access to language within a classroom. In continental Europe and the USA children may be educated within a program where Cued Speech is consistently used by all staff but in the UK it is more common for children to be supported by a learning support assistant who uses Cued Speech within a mainstream (hearing) school. The support assistant can act as a Cued Speech Transliterator (CST)* or - often as a temporary measure with very young children unused to school - can cue selectively, omitting the least important parts of a lesson. Selective cueing should be used with extreme caution because it undermines the unique ability of Cued Speech to give access to every sound of every word spoken but may be helpful at times, for example when a child (unlike hearing classmates) is unable to look at work or an item under discussion while looking at the CST.
Children who receive Cued Speech later
There are some differences between the use of Cued Speech with children who have been brought up with it and who therefore have age appropriate understanding of language and those who come to it later in life. Children brought up with Cued Speech can be expected to be able to make full use of a CST and have very few problems with access within the class. Some children who are struggling but who have a reasonable understanding of English flourish as soon as Cued Speech is made available. On the other hand children with severely delayed language may not be able to make full use of a CST because they do not have a sufficient language base. Intensive language development work should be undertaken using Cued Speech to narrow or close the linguistic gap. Meanwhile the CST should give support at the language level at which the pupil can benefit.
Are there any limitations to using Cued Speech in school?
Very few! Deaf adults and children who use their eyes to ‘listen’ (either with sign or Cued Speech) do get tired and may need more breaks than hearing children who are listening. It is, however, much less tiring than trying to lip-read. A continual use of a CST may limit the one-to-one contact that the deaf pupil will have with others (as will the use of a sign interpreter) and it is important to give the child some time to communicate directly. Almost all children brought up with Cued Speech use speech expressively (although their diction may be poor initially) and are good lip-readers, but Cued Speech does not teach diction. It is important to have help from a Speech and Language Therapist, preferably one who uses Cued Speech. Similarly, while research shows that the use of Cued Speech helps children to use their residual hearing, for best results listening skills must still be specifically taught.
