<-. ........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.