Cued speech is a visual system of communication used with and among

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

hard-of-hearing Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spok ...

people. It is a phonemic-based system which makes traditionally spoken languages accessible by using a small number of

handshape In sign languages, handshape, or dez, refers to the distinctive configurations that the hands take as they are used to form words. In Stokoe terminology it is known as the , an abbreviation of ''designator''. Handshape is one of five components ...

s, known as cues (representing

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

s), in different locations near the mouth (representing

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

s) to convey spoken language in a visual format. The National Cued Speech Association defines cued speech as "a visual mode of communication that uses hand shapes and placements in combination with the mouth movements and speech to make the phonemes of spoken language look different from each other." It adds information about the

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

of the word that is not visible on the lips. This allows people with hearing or language difficulties to visually access the fundamental properties of language. It is now used with people with a variety of language, speech, communication, and learning needs. It is not a

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...

such as

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

(ASL), which is a separate language from English. Cued speech is considered a communication modality but can be used as a strategy to support auditory rehabilitation, speech articulation, and literacy development.

History

Cued speech was invented in 1966 by R. Orin Cornett at Gallaudet College,

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

"All Good Things...Gallaudet closes Cued Speech Team", ''Cued Speech News'' Vol. XXVII No. 4 (Final Issue) Winter 1994: Pg 1 After discovering that children with prelingual and profound

hearing impairment Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to Hearing, hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to Lang ...

s typically have poor

reading comprehension Reading comprehension is the ability to process written text, understanding, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Reading Comprehension of spoken language, comprehension relies on two abilities that are co ...

, he developed the system with the aim of improving the reading abilities of such children through better comprehension of the

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

s of English. At the time, some were arguing that deaf children were earning these lower marks because they had to learn two different systems: American Sign Language (ASL) for person-to-person communication and English for reading and writing. As many sounds look identical on the lips (such as and ), the hand signals introduce a visual contrast in place of the formerly acoustic contrast. Cued Speech may also help people hearing incomplete or distorted sound—according to the National Cued Speech Association at cuedspeech.org, "

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted Neuroprosthetics, neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for imp ...

s and Cued Speech are perfect partners". Since cued speech is based on making sounds visible to the hearing impaired, it is not limited to use in English-speaking nations. Because of the demand for use in other languages/countries, by 1994 Cornett had adapted cueing to 25 other languages and dialects. Originally designed to represent

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

, the system was adapted to French in 1977. , Cued speech has been adapted to approximately 60 languages and dialects, including six

dialects of English Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, and other aspects of grammar. For the classification of varieties of English in pronunciation only, see regional accents of English. Overview Dialect ...

. For

tonal languages Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasis ...

such as Thai, the tone is indicated by inclination and movement of the hand. For English, cued speech uses eight different hand shapes and four different positions around the mouth.

Nature and use

Though to a hearing person, cued speech may look similar to signing, it is not a

; nor is it a manually coded sign system for a spoken language. Rather, it is a manual modality of communication for representing any language at the phonological level (

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

). A manual cue in cued speech consists of two components: hand shape and hand position relative to the face. Hand shapes distinguish consonants and hand positions distinguish vowel. A hand shape and a hand position (a "cue") together with the accompanying mouth shape, makes up a CV unit - a basic syllable. Cuedspeech.org lists 64 different dialects to which CS has been adapted. Each language takes on CS by looking through the catalog of the language's phonemes and distinguishing which phonemes appear similar when pronounced and thus need a hand sign to differentiate them.

Literacy

Cued speech is based on the hypothesis that if all the sounds in the spoken language looked clearly different from each other on the lips of the speaker, people with a hearing loss would learn a language in much the same way as a hearing person, but through vision rather than audition.Cued Speech: What and Why?, R. Orin Cornett, Ph.D., undated white paper.Proceedings of the International Congress on Education of the Deaf, Stockholm, Sweden 1970, Vol. 1, pp. 97-99 Literacy is the ability to read and write proficiently, which allows one to understand and communicate ideas so as to participate in a literate society. Cued speech was designed to help eliminate the difficulties of English language acquisition and literacy development in children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Results of research show that accurate and consistent cueing with a child can help in the development of language, communication and literacy but its importance and use is debated. Studies address the issues behind literacy development, traditional deaf education, and how using cued speech affects the lives of deaf and HOH children. Cued speech does indeed achieve its goal of distinguishing phonemes received by the learner, but there is some question of whether it is as helpful to expression as it is to reception. An article by Jacqueline Leybaert and Jesús Alegría discusses how children who are introduced to cued speech before the age of one are up-to-speed with their hearing peers on receptive vocabulary, though expressive vocabulary lags behind. The writers suggest additional and separate training to teach oral expression if such is desired, but more importantly this reflects the nature of cued speech; to adapt children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing to a hearing world, as such discontinuities of expression and reception are not as commonly found for children with a hearing loss who are learning sign language. In her paper "The Relationship Between Phonological Coding And Reading Achievement In Deaf Children: Is Cued Speech A Special Case?" (1998), Ostrander notes, "Research has consistently shown a link between lack of phonological awareness and reading disorders (Jenkins & Bowen, 1994)" and discusses the research basis for teaching cued speech as an aid to phonological awareness and literacy. Ostrander concludes that further research into these areas is needed and well justified. The editor of the '' Cued Speech Journal'' (currently sought but not discovered) reports that "Research indicating that Cued Speech does greatly improve the reception of spoken language by profoundly deaf children was reported in 1979 by Gaye Nicholls, and in 1982 by Nicholls and Ling." In the book ''Choices in Deafness: A Parents' Guide to Communication Options'', Sue Schwartz writes on how cued speech helps a deaf child recognize pronunciation. The child can learn how to pronounce words such as "hors d'oeuvre" or "tamale" or "Hermione" that have pronunciations different from how they are spelled. A child can learn about accents and dialects. In New York, coffee may be pronounced "caw fee"; in the South, the word friend ("fray-end") can be a two-syllable word.

Debate over cued speech vs. sign language

The topic of deaf education has long been filled with controversy. Two strategies for teaching the deaf exist: an aural/oral approach and a manual approach. Those who use aural-oralism believe that children who are deaf or hard of hearing should be taught through the use of residual hearing, speech and speechreading. Those promoting a manual approach believe the deaf should be taught through the use of signed languages, such as

(ASL). Within the United States, proponents of cued speech often discuss the system as an alternative to ASL and similar sign languages, although others note that it can be learned in addition to such languages. For the ASL-using community, cued speech is a unique potential component for learning

English as a second language English as a second or foreign language refers to the use of English by individuals whose native language is different, commonly among students learning to speak and write English. Variably known as English as a foreign language (EFL), Engli ...

. Within bilingual-bicultural models, cued speech does not borrow or invent signs from ASL, nor does CS attempt to change ASL syntax or grammar. Rather, CS provides an unambiguous model for language learning that leaves ASL intact.

Languages

Cued speech has been adapted to more than 50 languages and dialects. However, it is not clear in how many of them it is actually in use. *

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

* Alu *

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

* Belarusian * Bengali *

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

* Catalan *

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

* Danish * Dutch *English (different conventions in different countries) **

Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

(Standard Southern) **

Scottish English Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined ...

South African English South African English (SAfE, SAfEn, SAE, en-ZA) is the List of dialects of English, set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British Empire, British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, ...

Trinidadian English Trinidadian and Tobagonian English (TE) or Trinidadian and Tobagonian Standard English is a dialect of English used in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidadian and Tobagonian English co-exists with both non-standard varieties of English as well as oth ...

* Finnish and Finnish Swedish (same conventions) *French **

Canadian French Canadian French (, ) is the French language as it is spoken in Canada. It includes multiple varieties, the most prominent of which is Québécois (Quebec French). Formerly ''Canadian French'' referred solely to Quebec French and the closely re ...

** French (France) () *German ** German (Germany) (, "Phonemic Manual System") **

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

* Gujarati * Hausa * Hawaiian *

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

*Hindustani **

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

* Hungarian * Idoma * Igbo *

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

* Japanese * Kiluba and Kituba (same conventions) *

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

Lingala Lingala (or Ngala, Lingala: ) is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser de ...

* Malagasy *Malay ** Indonesian ** Malaysian *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

* Maltese *

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

* Odia * Polish *Portuguese **

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...

European Portuguese European Portuguese (, ), also known as Lusitanian Portuguese () or as the Portuguese (language) of Portugal (), refers to the dialects of the Portuguese language spoken in Portugal. The word "European" was chosen to avoid the clash of "Portugues ...

() * Punjabi (Lahore dialect) *

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name Setswana, is a Bantu language indigenous to Southern Africa and spoken by about 8.2 million people. It is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalaga ...

* Shona * Somali *

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

() * Swahili * Swedish (Sweden) * Tagalog/Filipino * Telugu * Thai * Tshiluba * Turkish * Ukrainian * Yoruba Similar systems have been used for other languages, such as the Assisted Kinemes Alphabet in Belgium and the Baghcheban phonetic hand alphabet for

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

References

External links

Organizations

National Cued Speech Association
of the USA (NCSA)
Language Matters
(LMI)
Cued Speech UKTesting, Evaluation, and Certification Unit (TECUnit)
The cued language national testing body of the United States
Cue Everything
See The Latest Cued Speech Videos And Why They Rock
On Cue
Newsletter from the NCSA
DailyCues.com
Skills Development and Training Follow Up Resource Featuring The Cuer Connector and Word Generators
SPK KIU
SPK Pertuturan KIU

Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti (PDK) KIU - Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR)

Tutorials and general information

Cued Speech Discovery/CuedSpeech.com
- The NCSA bookstore. Some overview information and how to incorporate Cued Speech effectively.
DailyCues.com
- News, Cued English Dictionary, Cuer Database, and learning resources – some free online.
learntocue.co.uk
- Multimedia resources for learning Cued Speech (British English)
NCSA Mini-Documentary
- A 10-minute video explaining Cued Speech. Audio, ASL, sub-titles and some cueing.

- extensive free course for cueing American dialects of English, containing QuickTime video samples.

Cued languages other than English

Cued Portuguese: Português Falado ComplementadoCued Spanish: Método Oral Complementado (MOC)Cued French: Langage Parlé Complété (LPC)Cued Polish: FonogestyCued PersianCued FinnishCued Malay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cued Speech Deafness Human communication Phonology Education for the deaf 1966 introductions