“Imagine, if you will, a family that has just had a new baby. These new parents never talk to the baby and somehow manage to keep the baby from most conversation until he is about two years old. At two, they decide it is the correct time for baby to begin to talk. Each day, for fifteen minutes, they have talking lessons. They don’t speak to the baby the rest of the time. These well meaning parents spend a lot of money and research and find the perfect talking curriculum. Unfortunately, they quickly become frustrated with their child’s inability to speak.”

“Now If these parents came to you for advice I’m sure you would be horrified that they hadn’t been speaking to their baby all along. It is likely you would tell them to dump the complex ‘talking curriculum’ and just start conversing with their child. You would reassure them that teaching him to talk is really not that complicated and if they would just start to make conversation a regular part of his environment, he would absorb (learn), most of the necessary skills.” http://kbagdanov.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/819/

The quoted paragraphs above were not written about raising a hearing impaired child.  The title of the article is “3 Keys to Great Writing” and it was found on a blog called Substantive Education.  The focus of the blog is a home school education.  The writer goes on to draw parallels between how children learn to speak and how they learn to write.  Now don’t get all upset with the author for putting an emphasis on speaking, she does have hearing children.  However, when I read these opening paragraphs I was struck with the similarities to what happens in many hearing households who suddenly find themselves with a hearing impaired child. While the Substantive Education blog article focuses on learning to speak, the physical act of speaking the words is merely a way for the hearing author to assess her hearing child’s ability to learn language. So understand my point, look back at what was said, not in the context of learning to speak, but in the context of learning language. 

For years many families didn’t even know that their child had a hearing problem during these early years because there were no screening tests.  Unbeknownst to the parents, they did manage to “keep the baby from most conversation”.  But, even in today’s environment of early screening, parents find it difficult to provide a first language model in the home. How does one just start conversing with their hearing impaired child?  To speak their native language while cueing is often not even provided to the family as an option by the professionals they encounter.  But cueing in your household allows the family to continue to converse in the language of the home, while including the child in the conversation.  It allows the family to “just start conversing with their child”.  It makes “conversation a regular part of his environment, (and) he (will) absorb most of the necessary skills.” 

If you listen to the Scher/Consacro family in the video below you will see how they have cued to their children from the day they were born. You can witness for yourself that immersing your child in the language of your home through Cued Speech does indeed make “conversation a regular part of his environment”.  Ultimately, it becomes apparent that a hearing impaired child in a cueing home can indeed “absorb most of the necessary (language) skills” in much the same way a hearing child would.

Who Uses Cued Speech? from National Cued Speech Association on Vimeo.