<-...... 1< .... INTEREST REPORT

Orientation to Cued Speech R. Orin Cornett

Orientation to Cued Speech A hand configuration and a hand location are executed simultaneously. Thus, the basic unit of Cued Speech is a Iipreading support system in expression in Cued Speech is the consonant·vowel which eight configurations of one (either) hand are syllable. This makes possible the accurate synchron· used in four locations to supplement the visible man­ ization of cueing with speech, in normal rhythm and ifestations of speech. It is designed to raise the accu­ at rates up to that of normal speech. racy with which spoken language is perceived to approximately the level of persons with normal hear­ Cued Speech is designed to overcome the fol­ ing, with regard to perception of phonemes, sylla­ lowing major problems encountered by a large bles, duration and stress. majority of children with prelingual severe or pro· found hearing impairment: Nicholls (1979) verified the reliability of Cued Speech in a study of eighteen profoundly deaf child­ 1. The problem of limited communication in the ren in Australia (PTA's 97 to 122 dB): "The children home during the early years, resulting in retarded or in this study demonstrated the ability to receive damaged personality development and delayed highly accurate information on the speech signal social maturation. entirely through vision .. .these findings .. .indicate 2. The problem of delayed and limited acquisition that Cued Speech can provide profoundly and of verbal (spoken or written) language. totally deaf children with access to precise pho­ 3. Failure to acquire an accurate mental model of nemic information as a basis for verbal learning". the spoken language. Such a model is indispensable Thirteen of the eighteen children scored 100% on the as a base for the development of reading as a natu­ identification of the key (last) word in each of 36 ral, easy and enjoyable process. four-word low-predictability sentences presented on 4. Failure to develop the ability to communicate videotape without sound. The average of the group with society at large. An accurate mental model of was 96.0%. On key words in high·predictability sent· spoken language is required for development of ences the average was 96%. intelligible speech patterns, for speechreading, and for accurate use of written language. The accuracy with which Cued Speech is received can be demonstrated easily by presenting Theoretically, the problem of communication in spoken words in a foreign language to a profoundly the home can be solved through use of signs, fin­ deaf child with hearing aids removed. If the child is gerspelling, or Cued Speech. In practice there are accustomed to Cued Speech, and if he/she is capa­ serious difficulties. About 95% of children born with ble of making the required sounds, he/she can accu· a severe or profound hearing impairment have hear· rately reproduce, without hesitation, words never ing parents. Fred Schreiber, for many years Execu· encountered before. tive Director of the National Association of the Deaf has estimated that only about two percent of hearing Cued Speech utilizes eight hand configurations parents with hearing-impaired children who use (see Appendix) to group the consonant phonemes signs become "competent" in signing. It is estimated into eight groups. The consonants within each that five percent of such parents keep up with their group are visually contrastive on the mouth, and hearing·impaired child in signing, so that communi­ thus can be lip read in the presence of the cue (hand cation at home is limited by the inadequacies of the configuration). Consonants that look alike on the parents, not those of the child. Usually, parents have mouth, such as/m/,/b/ and/pI look different on the no difficulty in the first few years, when the child is hand, since they are made with different hand con· learning signs from them. But, when the child starts figurations (5, 4, and 1, respectively). Four locations pre-school and begins to pick up new signs by the of the hand near the face are used to group the dozens, the parents, in most cases, gradually fall vowels, as shown also on the chart. The vowels behind. within each group, identified by a specific hand loca­ tion, are visually contrastive. Thus, they can be An advantage of fingerspelling, which it shares lipread in the presence of the cue (location). with Cued Speech, is that it is a true code for verbal

Human CommunicatIon Canada/Communicatian Humoine Canada. Vol. 9, No. 3, 1985 13 language. Once parents learn it, they have free same easy, natural way as a hearing child. Research access to the use of all the language they know. In is needed to substantiate this assertion, and is pres­ practice, however, fingerspelling does not work out ently in progress. Meanwhile, the reading accomp­ as the major mode of communication. It is so slow lishments of most children who have grown up with and laborious that gestures and abbreviations tend consistent exposure to Cued Speech continue to to be substituted for the full fingerspelling that would surprise and delight their parents and teachers. be required for the accurate learning of verballan­ guage. Fingerspelling is very useful, however, as an In a letter dated Nov. 8, 1888, Alexander Gra­ adjunct to either signing or Cued Speech, for clarify­ ham Bell wrote: " ... the necessary preliminary to ing the written form. good speech is that the pupil should have a definite conception of how we pronounce our words-that Cued Speech, like fingerspelling, can be he should have in his mind a definite model which he learned in a reasonably short time, and fluency can attempts to copy. With this model in mind, the be acquired in a few months of use. As a visual code defects of his speech will be due not to defective aim, for spoken language, it can be used without vocabu­ but to defective execution." The typical profoundly lary limitation as soon as it is learned, and speed is hearing-impaired child grows up with an incomplete not a problem after the initial stages. For hearing and inaccurate mental model of the spoken lan­ parents, therefore, it solves the problem of commun· guage. This limits the intelligibility of his/her speech ication in the home, permanently, if they learn and as much or more than defects in articulation. Cued use it faithfully. Hearing siblings, other relatives and Speech contributes substantially to the acquisition friends who learn the system can likewise contribute of an accurate mental model of spoken language by to the development of the hearing-impaired child a hearing-impaired child. It is therefore the ideal through interaction and communication with complement to a good program of auditory training him/her. and speech therapy. Delayed acquisition of verbal language is, for Speech reading is another important skill, for most hearing-impaired children, the principal barrier which prior knowledge of spoken language is a to learning throughout life. It inhibits not only com­ necessity. A typical word with five or six letters in it munication with others, but learning in general. The will have a hundred or more homophenes, words sophisticated knowledge of human beings today has which look the same on the mouth. Thus, no one resulted from all the experience and learning of can lipread individual words reliably without consid· those who have gone before. These are handed erable support from hearing. A typical five-word down through interaction, instruction, and reading. sentence has tens of millions of possible interpreta· Reading, of course, is completely dependent on tions from what is seen on the mouth. The speech knowledge of verbal language. Interaction and reader must be able to select the one of those inter­ instruction are also highly dependent on verballan­ pretations that fits the rules of spoken language and guage, except as they can be accomplished through whose words fit into all the groups of "Iook-alikes". signs. Speechreading is a highly sophisticated activity Theoretically, the one avenue of learning com· in which many factors are involved. Among them are pletely open to a profoundly deaf person, without the following: any handicap or limitation, should be reading. In 1. The degree of familiarity with the relationships practice, it is the area in which the failure of educa· between configurations and movements of the tional programs for the hearing-impaired is most mouth and the elements (syllable, words, phrases) evident. Approximately 95% of prelingually severe of the spoken language. These relationships are not and profoundly hearing-impaired children have been one-to-one. Speechreading is not a process of direct estimated never learn to read well enough to locate recognition of verbal elements. In fact, O'Neil and an unfamiliar word in the dictionary and understand Davidson (1956) reported that skill in speechreading its meaning. The appalling significance of this is that does not involve recognition of verbal elements as such children never learn a word themselves. They such. have to be taught every written and spoken word 2. Completeness and accuracy of the spoken lan­ they acquire. About the same percentage never guage model. read for pleasure, simply because it is too difficult for 3. Proficiency at a computer-like process involving them to read anything at their level of interest. thousands of "yes-no" decisions which the mind Cued Speech was developed to make it possi­ must make in considering and rejecting possible ble for a profoundly deaf child to learn to read in the interpretations (of the patterns visible on the mouth)

14 Human Communication Canada/Communication Humaine Canada, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1985 not consistent with the language model, and in the shoe, so that the symbol will be associated with selecting from those that are consistent. the concept of a shoe. This is true whether the child 4. Proficiency at combining with (3) a similar is deaf or hearing, and whether the language symbol rejection-selection process utilizing situational clues, used is a cued word, a spoken word, or a sign. In the facial expression and other non-labial stimuli. beginning the child is simply associating (in the case 5. Confidence, flexibility, and patience, ability to of Cued Speech) a combination of facial and manual withstand confusion without giving up ~ these are patterns with the object, just as he/she would with a attributes which contribute to the development of sign. Later, as the child is taught to make speech speechreading ability. sounds, he/she will begin to associate sounds with There is wide variation in the speechreading the parts of the Cued Speech representations, and skills of hearing-impaired children who have grown begin to be able to express in speech anything said in up with Cued Speech. I know of none, however, if Cued Speech, even a new word. intact except for hearing loss, who is not a substan­ tially better speechreader than most. The primary characteristic of a code which makes it possible for a child to learn verbal language, Because the hearing-impaired child must use without being specifically taught it word by word, is the information visible on the mouth in order to that it must be possible for the child to receive a new receive and understand Cued Speech, he/she can­ word in the code and then be able (without help) to not avoid becoming familiar with the mouth patterns produce the new word in the target form. The only of specific words and phrases, and the way they fall codes which make this possible for the deaf child to into "look-alike" groups. In addition, because Cued acquire spoken language without being taught each Speech is a direct visible representation of the word, are fingerspelling and Cued Speech, the spoken language, he/she automatically acquires a former for written language, the latter for spoken mental model of that spoken language in the Cued language. Of course the child who learns spoken Speech code, through consistent reception and use language through Cued Speech can learn written of it. In most cases, the child needs no specific English much more easily and rapidly than a child training or special practice in speechreading. Inter­ who does not know the spoken language. The child action with persons who do not cue will provide who does not know the spoken language must be ample opportunity for development of speechread­ specifically taught every written word he/she ever ing skills. learns, unless and until reading progresses to the point at which new language can be learned by read­ Cued Speech shares with signing one specific ing. Most children with severe or profound hearing disadvantage. Most hearing persons simply will not losses never reach this level, though most could. learn a special system or method for communication with profoundly hearing-impaired persons, who Cued Speech has important implications for constitute a small fraction of one percent of the mainstreaming. Mainstreaming of profoundly deaf population. The rate at which a deaf child learns children should probably be limited to nonacademic language through Cued Speech seems to be directly classes and activities except in cases in which the proportional to the amount and quality of his/her hearing-impaired child is near the average language exposure to Cued Speech. Thus, hearing siblings, level of the children in the class with which he/she is other relatives, hearing friends, classmates or others to study an academic subject. This is particularly at school, baby sitters and others willing to learn and true of subjects such as language arts and social use Cued Speech with the child can contribute sub­ sciences. For academic mainstreaming it is also stantially to language and social development. A essential that the child receive the language used by great advantage is the short length of time required the teacher in a form clear to him/her. This means to learn Cued Speech, plus the fact that it can be that a Cued Speech interpreter would be necessary used without language limitations long before one unless the teacher learns and uses Cued Speech becomes fluent in its use. most of the time. The quality of use of Cued Speech has to do Mainstreaming can be facilitated by teaching primarily with the fact that the language used must Cued Speech to hearing classmates and friends. In relate directly to what the child is thinking in order some schools with children who are either main­ for him/her to associate concepts with language, streamed or in self-contained classes, a Cued and thus learn language. For a very young child the Speech club is a great asset. This provides not only language symbol for shoe must be delivered to social benefits but substantial language-learning him/her at the moment when his/her attention is on opportunities.

Human Communication Canada/Communication Humaine Canada, Vol 9, No, 3, 1985 15 Appendix

...... CI\ Cued Speech for Speakers of English (Symbols are from the International Phonetic Alphabet) The added notes make the system complete, covering all "brands" of English

w'::> 0- ~ ~ ~ ~ side position throat position chin position mouth position

lallal (father, palm) lael (that) British lul (hot) I A/ (butter) British (only American short 0, as in not III (it) American 101Uaw) if lips are opened enough lel (get) I~I(nickel, the) lul (book, put) to confuse with a) if lul (food, blue) :3 131(fur) (British) IV (feet) § 101Uaw, bought) British Q 101(notation) :3 I~IAmerican (fur) :3 " t Diphthongs are cued as guides of the hand between appropriate positions; e.g., /aI/ from /a/ to /I/, /au/ l from /a/ to /u/, and /ou/ from/i/to /u/, and lell from le/ to /1/. ~ :3 S" :3 Fig. 1* Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig.

"1;- Cl g'

~ ~ ~ "~" f\1 ~ (( 0 ~ Q ~ :I " ~ It! Ihl Ikl Idl 1nl Ig/ IrY < j2.. Iml Isl Iwl Ivl IpI Ibl Id 31 Ijl ~ Irl IY Izl 131 IMf 181 ItY Z 9 1r>1 ¥ jj *The hand shape shown in Figure 1 is also used with an isolated vowel - that is, a vowel not preceded by a consonant.

-, --~~,..,...... - "-..---.,.--.---.-- ..,,, .. .-.,-~ -~,-,"", ...,- ...... -,-,.--.--.. .. -~...... --.--.-""''''.-''' ...... -,:.----.-.--.--., ..- ...... ~-'--'' ..... There are evidences of a trend toward wider should develop good oral communication and lan­ acceptance of Cued Speech as a useful tool for use guage skills, and could, if provided additional sup­ in educating deaf children. A dozen or so Total port by a system designed to do so. Likewise, the Communication programs intent on improving their move toward use of Cued Speech in Total Commun­ stewardship of the oral communication and reading ication programs, though still only a beginning, is skills of hearing-impaired children have introduced indicative of increasing recognition that most the use of Cued Speech for teaching spoken lan­ hearing-impaired children could and should develop guage, while continuing the use of some form of better oral communication and language skills, even signed English for communication and interaction. in programs using signs. The Board of Directors of the Alexander Graham References Bell Association on October 29, 1983, approved a resolution recognizing " ... the method of Cued Nicholls, Gaye H. Cued Speech and the Reception of Spoken Language. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Stu­ Speech is to be that of an adjunct to oral communi­ dies and Research, School of Human Communication Dis­ cation ... ". Included in the resolution were expres­ orders, McGiIl University, Montreal, Canada. 163 pp. 1979. sions of concern that the method " ... be considered O'Neil, J. and Davidson, J.L. Relationships Between Lipreading for use only with those students whose residual Ability and Five Psychological Factors, Journal of Speech and audition does not provide adequate information .. ," Hearing Disorders, Dec., 1956, 478-486. and that " ... the long-term use of Cued Speech has R. Orin Cornett, Ph.D. is Research Professor and Director of not been tested in terms of removing the information Cued Speech Programs, Gallaudet College, Washington, D.C. set of cueing, in order for an individual to receive information only through the avenues of speech­ Address reprint requests to: R. Orin Cornett, Ph.D. reading and the auditory mode." This guarded Cued Speech Office, Gallaudet College, recognition is indicative of increasing realization 800 Florida Ave., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002. among oralists that more hearing-impaired children

DANTEC Electromedical & Scientific Equipment Ltd. 140 Shortlng Road, Scarborough, Ontario, M 1 S 3S6, Canada OISA Phone (416) 2982091 - Telex: 06525137 Evomati~ 8000 • completely integrated system for evoked potential testing * Galvanically isolated patient unit * Floppy disc storage permits patient * One preamplifier for each electrode tests to be retained, recalled and com­ * Fully computerized operation pared * Powerful signal averaging and data * Multi-functioning stimulaton for audi­ processing toryevoked * 60 user~efined programs stored on * Storage of full patient journal includ­ one disc ing curves, patient data and text * Calor display combined with finger-

I I I Human Cammunication Canada/Communication Humaine Canada. Vol. 9, No. 3, 1985 17 I ~