WEBVTT

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I am a speech language pathologist
which is a wonderful profession

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for people like me
who care about communication.

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We think that communication
is a human right.

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The focus of my career has been
on children who are deaf.

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And early on, I learned
of an innovation for access to language

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that I want to tell you about.

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My first job was at a preschool
in Washington, D.C.

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that included both
deaf and hearing children.

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And the first child I worked with
there was Bradley,

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a three year old who had
profound hearing loss.

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He didn't get much benefit
from his hearing aids

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so his parents had chosen to use
a visual mode of communication with him

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called Cued Speech.

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So I began to cue with him,

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and during that preschool year,
we did ordinary preschool things,

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but with the help of Cued Speech.

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We talked and I cued
about everything under the sun,

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and Bradley's language took off.

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We read and I cued dozens of books.

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And he learned to read.

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He went on to great language
and communication skills.

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Academic achievement.

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What was the key?

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I will forgive you if you think
I was the world's best speech therapist.

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But that wasn't it.

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The real key was we had
a powerful tool in our hands.

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We had Cued Speech. Cued Speech.

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What is it? What am I doing?

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We all use our eyes sometimes

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when we're trying
to hear a spoken message.

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But lipreading is really difficult.
Speech happens fast.

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Speech sounds look alike
when they are invisible.

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With lipreading alone,

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we understand only about
one-third of a spoken message.

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To overcome this,

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Cued Speech was developed
by Dr. Orin Cornett

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at Gallaudet University in the mid 1960s.

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He wanted to enable
hearing parents with deaf children

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to share spoken language.

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His idea was a set of hand cues

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that would add information
to the natural lip movements of speech

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to take the guesswork out of lipreading.

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How does it work?
It's a very simple system.

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Hand shapes show consonants.
Placements show vowels.

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Cues along with the lip movements
of speech show the sounds we're saying,

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and allow a deaf person
to understand 100% of what is said.

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Let me give you an example.

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Let's think about
the words 'bat' and 'pat'.

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If you are lipreading them,
you can't tell them apart.

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They look alike.

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But if we add cues,
we make them look different.

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Bat. Pat.

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You can even understand it without voice:

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(voiceless) Bat. Pat.

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If you have some hearing,
cues can be a supplement.

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But spoken language
can be understood entirely

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through vision if that's the need.

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Here's the chart that shows
the whole system on one page,

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hand shapes and consonants.

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For adults to learn to cue,

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it's simply a matter of matching up
the sounds you know

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with the hand shapes and the placements.

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Others can learn and understand
language by being cued to.

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What can we cue?

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Anything we can say

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like supercalifragilisticexpalidocious.

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I'm showing off.

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(Laughter)

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But I'm also showing you
what cueing can do.

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I've been cueing in English,
but we can also cue in Spanish,

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and more than 60
other languages and dialects.

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What about American Sign Language? ASL?

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Why do we need cues
when we have signs?

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ASL is a language in its own right
for a vibrant culture and community.

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Yes, ASL and Cued Speech are both
visual means of communication,

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but they are conveying
different languages.

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We have a sign language interpreter here,

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but he is called
an interpreter for a reason.

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He is changing
one language into another.

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It is possible to use both ASL
and Cued Speech, to be fluent in both.

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You don't have to choose between them.
You can do both.

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But when you want direct access
to spoken language,

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cues are an effective
and efficient way to do that.

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What about technology?
Cochlear implants. Digital hearing aids.

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Technology doesn't work for all.
And it doesn't work all of the time.

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Technology isn't a substitute

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for being able to clearly
and consistently convey language.

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When we cue to children who are deaf,

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much research and experience shows us
they learn language easily and naturally,

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with powerful effects on literacy
and academic achievement.

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One landmark study demonstrated
that when we cue to deaf children,

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they read like their hearing peers.

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And that's a very significant outcome

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if you know the history of literacy issues
for children who are deaf.

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But that's not all we can do.

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Children who have language
or learning disabilities,

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hearing children who are
learning to read, need phonics,

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need a good knowledge of spoken language
as the basis for decoding print.

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Cued Speech can be helpful
in all of those situations.

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Let's take a minute to see
Cued Speech in action.

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We'll see a video
that was produced by Aaron Rose.

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And Aaron and Mary-Beth are parents

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who are both deaf and grew up
using Cued Speech.

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And now they are cueing.

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They are sharing
their native English language

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with their daughter, Arabella.

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You will see her learning
and understanding language

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when it is cued to her.

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And you will see her beginning
to cue back to her parents.

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(Video) (Woman sneezing)

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[Achoo!]

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(Gasping) [Peek-a-boo!]

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[Ooo. Ooo. Ooo.
Ooo. Ooo. Ooo.]

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[Arabella]

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[Turn the page.]

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[Purple fish.]

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[Look at the firetruck.]

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[Do you want some milk?]

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[Leaf.]

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[Show mommy the ball.]

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[Butterfly. It's a butterfly.]

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[Where is the turtle?]

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[Where is the sun?]

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[The sun's outside.]

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[Where's the grapes?]

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[Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.]

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[Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.]

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[More.]

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[Yes!]

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[Can you cue it? A.]

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[B.]

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[C.]

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[D.]

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[E.]

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[One.]

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[Two.]

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[Three.]

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[Go.]

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[Go.]

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(Applause)

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I can tell you hundreds of stories
and point to dozens of studies

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that show the impact of Cued Speech.

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I'll end with the encounter that led me
to drop out of law school, learn to cue,

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and decide that I wanted to work
with families to help them communicate.

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The first time I saw
Cued Speech in action,

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I asked the mother I just met
why she had chosen to cue with her son,

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and she said to me,
"I want to share my language with my son.

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I want him to understand my words.

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I want him to get it
when I say 'I love you'.

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And he does."

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For 50 years, Cued Speech
has been a well-kept secret.

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But language shouldn't be a secret.

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Thousands of families
have benefited from cueing,

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but it still isn't widely enough known.

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Someone you know needs access to language.

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You can learn to cue.
Or you can tell someone about it.

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You can get the word out.
You can give language a hand.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)