The National Cued Speech Association defines Cued Speech as "...a visual mode of communication that uses hand shapes and placements in combination with the mouth movements and speech to make the phonemes of spoken language look different from eachother."

The Cued Speech system seamlessly merges a spoken language's mouth movement with different hand shapes and locations. There are 8 hand shapes which are representative of the different consonant sounds in the language, and there are 4 different hand placements which represent the various vowel sounds. As opposed to speech reading, this powerful combination of both oral and manual movements helps further enhance an individual's ability to distinguish the different speech sounds, or phonemes, which make up the language. This is made possible by the system's brilliant design of assigning sounds which look the same visually on the mouth with the additional visual cue of a different hand shape and/or placement.

Who is Cued Speech for?

Cued Speech was created with the initiative to help improve literacy of the deaf/hard of hearing. While over the years, the intended user base has grown beyond just that population, the ability to improve a person's language development and skill set has stayed the same. By implementing the use of Cued Speech into your child's life, you will see immense gains in your child's language abilities. Since Cued speech visually breaks spoken language down into the individual speech sounds, this allows for your child to gain the same language exposure and experience that his/her peers have on a daily basis. Cueing also allows for your child to stay right on track, if not ahead, of their peers even in areas such as reading and writing. Beyond that, since Cued Speech is not a language, but rather a language adaptable system, you can apply cueing to your home preferred language. This simplistic system which can be learned in only a matter of hours is something that your whole family can do!

A common misconception of Cued Speech is that it is strictly beneficial to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. While in reality, the Cued Speech system is beneficial to not only that population, but also to anyone who has difficulty in language development, comprehension, or utilization. This includes, but not limited to, those who have Autism, Down syndrome, and Apraxia. Cued Speech is also a great tool for the whole family and any professionals who may work closely with a person who could benefit from Cued Speech (SLP, OT, PT, deaf educator etc.)

Is Cued Speech for My Child/Family?

Why Pursue Cued Speech?

While some other modes of communication, such as American Sign Language, are a language in themselves, Cued Speech is not a language. Instead Cued Speech is a multi-modal means of making spoken language visible, and therefore is applicable (with slight adjustments) to over 60 different languages. Unlike ASL which is always growing and changing, Cued Speech is a finite system which can be learned in just about 15 hours. Once the basics of the systems are learned, with some practice, a person can easily and proficiently be able to cue anything they want to say! Along with the easy learning capability, Cued Speech also allows for exposure and experience of language helping foster great skill based and developmental gains.

Is Cued Speech for Me?

Do you often feel restricted in your capabilities of understanding a verbal conversation? Do you feel like sometimes you're missing a piece of the puzzle that makes it almost impossible for you to understand the overall concept? Is it easier for you to understand something when you see is rather than when you hear it? If you've said yes to any of these questions, then Cued Speech would be a huge help to you! By Cued Speech breaking down and showing spoken language as each speech sound, there are no translation errors. So even new words, or not easily translated words, big or small, are shown without skipping a beat. The message said is the exact message shown. No more being behind your friends who easily understand the teacher's instructions. No more not understanding the joke at the family dinner party. No matter what your age, with Cued Speech by your side, you are finally informed just as well as everyone else. You finally get the whole picture; no more missing puzzle pieces!