Speech
Leanne Cued Goldberg Jen Gotlieb Lauren Kaplan
What is Cued Speech?
Cued Speech is a visual communication system that combines mouth movements with cues to make all the sounds of a spoken language look different from each other. In English, there are eight handshapes that distinguish the different consonant phonemes and there are four locations near the mouth that distinguish the vowel phonemes. All the phonemes of the spoken language are made to appear visually different from each other, either on the mouth or on the hand. Phonemes alike on the mouth are different on hand, and vice versa. All phonemes are read from the lips -- that is, no single phoneme can be identified from the hand alone. Thus it is really a lipreading-support system. The basic unit of Cued Speech is the CV (consonant-plus-vowel) syllable, just as in speech itself, so that the cues can be synchronized with normal speech in such a way as to convey various prosodic features, such as stress, duration, and even intonation. Cued Speech has been adapted to more than 55 languages and dialects.
What did we just say?
Who uses Cued Speech?
Cued Speech was created for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing Children and adults with communication, language, and literacy needs can also benefit from using Cued Speech. Whether an individual is able to hear or is unable to process auditory information effectively, Cued Speech presents spoken sounds visually, integrating the senses, to avoid confusion and frustration. It is used by hearing parents of deaf children, SLPs, audiologists, educators etc.
What is it supposed to do?
The aim of cued speech is to overcome the problems of lipreading and thus enable people who are deaf to understand full spoken language. With Cued Speech, the person who is deaf can see exactly what is being said with close to 100% accuracy. This is in sharp contrast to what a person who is deaf can accurately receive via speechreading alone. The best speech readers achieve about 35-40% of the message -- and thats if they already know English.
Cued Speech Facilitates:
Enhanced communication from an early age Improved literacy Early and rapid acquisition of language Acquisition of internal spoken language Improved ability to use residual hearing Improved ability to benefit from cochlear implantation Improved lipreading skills Bilingualism with access to spoken language within a sign language community Direct access to foreign spoken languages Improved speech Full access to education curriculum
What training is needed?
The memory required in the handshape and placement combinations for the 40 or so phonemes in English can be learned in a weekend or approximately 20 hours. Estimates of time for individuals to become fluent (i.e., be able to cue at the same rate as speaking) in Cued Speech vary from six weeks to a few months.
Rationale
In 1966 Dr. Cornett, Professor of Audiology at Gallaudet (USAs university for people who are deaf) observed that the majority of the exceptionally able students who are deaf were not competent in written English. His AIM was to devise an easy to learn system which parents could learn and which would enable children who are deaf to see all the sounds of speech Thus children who are deaf brought up with CS can acquire an understanding of the phonemic sound-based structure of language. Cornett believed that if a child could have a solid foundation of spoken language on which to draw, then their literacy skills and their communication with hearing family and friends could be improved.
Research Findings
The original motivation behind cued speech was to improve the literacy levels of students who are deaf and it has been found to be uniquely successful. Leybaert & Charlier (1996) have demonstrated that deaf individuals who have been exposed to Cued Speech both at home and at school perform comparably to hearing peers on tasks of phonemic awareness, internal speech recoding, phonics, and spelling and perform generally better than their deaf counterparts from oral or signing backgrounds.
The many benefits of Cued Speech come from the simple fact that, with the addition of cues, the lip-patterns of speech are as clear to deaf people as the sounds of speech are to hearing people.
Literacy: Research has shown that profoundly deaf children with whom Cued Speech is used can achieve reading scores equivalent to hearing children of the same age. (Wandel, 1989) Internalized Language: Research shows that profoundly deaf children with whom Cued Speech is used can think in the spoken language of hearing society. (Alegria et al, 1989) Helps Listening: Research has shown that deaf children familiar with Cued Speech use their residual hearing to greater effect. (Charlier & Paulissen, 1986) Cochlear Implants: Children's use of Cued Speech prior to cochlear implantation has a significant positive effect on the ability to benefit from the implant. (Osberger, 1997)
Limitations of Cued Speech
It is not used as commonly as other methods. There are not enough Cued Speech transliterators. There has been numerous findings proving the success of Cued Speech, however, most people arent aware of it making it unavailable to the general population.
Other Populations that can benefit from Cued Speech
PDD Auditory Processing Disorders Articulation Disorders Other General Speech and Language Problems
Cued Speech with PDD children and children with Auditory Processing Disorders (Beck, 1998).
Children receive auditory information This visually. overcomes a common component of the syndromes that fall under PDD- the inability or difficulty in processing auditory info.
Poor comprehension, deficient articulation, phonologic errors, and hypersensitivity to auditory stimuli are present in these syndromes.
Individuals with PDD process visual stimuli better than auditory stimuli. This also helps individuals focus and begin to relate to peoples faces better. CS is a multi-sensory integrated approach. Voice and visual cues are synchronized and complementary which allows the child to see and hear a message as a unit. Written accounts of the use of CS with PDD are scarce, oral accounts are more abundant. For children with hypersensitivity to sound their teacher can use CS without voice.
Cued Speech can support speech and articulation therapy skills by:
Focusing attention on the mouth Reinforcing the pattern of phonemes within a word or phrase Identifying the speech sounds and syllables being targeted Being a motoric reminder and trigger of speech production Integrating sound, sight, and motor aspects to help the learning process
General Speech and Language Problems:
Children who hear but who have difficulty making sense of speech sounds, can be helped in exactly the same way by seeing visual representations of the sounds of speech. Children with S/L problems can find speech sounds very confusing. The 8 hand shapes and different vowel positions that make up CS give the child a concrete means of learning about sounds and helps them to make sense of what is otherwise a jumble of noise. The consonants on each hand shape have been selected carefully to avoid confusion with sounds that look and sound familiar, same with the vowels.
Specific Populations that will not benefit from Cued Speech
Child with poor motor coordination Dyspraxic children: because they have difficulty articulating words correctly and consistently and are often unaware that they made an error Children with poor memories Child who has difficulty processing sounds and establishing the rules of sounds and grammar CS can cause confusion because it doesnt deal with root words, it works in a CV formation (jum+ping CS). It is easier with some children to teach ASL 1st in order to improve their expressive language and THEN teach CS
Our Opinion
Cued Speech Works!!!!! When Cued Speech is paired with ASL, individuals with hearing impairments can communicate with the deaf community as well as gain proficiency in written language. It benefits hearing children as well.
References
www.aehi.org www.cuedspeech.co.uk/home.htm www.cuedspeech.com www.cuedspeech.org www.deaflinx.com/mode_cue.html www.uri.edu/comm_service/cued_speech/ www.zak.co.il/deaf-info/old/cued_speech.html Alegria, J., Dejean, K., Capouillez, J., & Leybaert, J. (1990). Role played by Cued Speech in the identification of written words encountered for the first time by deaf children. CuedSpeech Journal, 4, 4-9. Charlier, B.L. (1986). Audiometric Vocal et Language Parle Complete (L.P.C.) Speech Audiometry and Cued Speech Otica, 10, 19-25. Chapman, I.M. (1984). The effects of cued Speech on the auditory Discrimination of English Vowels by Hearing Chinese Speakers. Masters Thesis University of Mississippi. Cornett, R. (1994). Accelerating English Acquisition ...