WHAT IS CUED SPEECH (CS)?

CUED SPEECH WAS DEVELOPED in 1966 by Dr. R. Orin Cornett at Gallaudet University. Concerned by the pervasive literacy problem among deaf children, Cornett determined that accessibilty to English at a phonemic level is essential for reading the English language.

Cornett's system uses handshapes to signify consonant phonemes and placements and movements to represent vowel phonemes. These symbols (or cues) combined with information supplied by the mouth make English completely accessible and unambiguous through vision alone.

When hearing parents learn to cue, they do not learn a new language. They simply learn to send English (or other languages they know) through a modality that is readily accesible to deaf children.

For the deaf child, cued English is sent through a natural and accessible modality for communication. Deaf children who grow up with cued English acquire the language naturally through everyday interaction in much the same ways (and with similar milestones) as those children who acquire a language through speech or through signing.