Greetings on the Fourth of July, the celebration of American Independence, the quintessential summer holiday. Salutations to all cuers, for providing our children with the gift of literacy and thus independence of learning.

About a half dozen years ago, I heard a lecture by Dr. Carol LaSasso, presenting on her paper co-authored with Dr. Melanie Metzger (see the NCSA web site for links to the paper), about the benefits of using Cued Speech to teach deaf children how to read. Both Ben’s mom and I had been drawn to cueing in a great way because of its focus on literacy. Dr. LaSasso laid out her research and its conclusion that Cued Speech was the best system to teach deaf children to read. She then observed the phrase I have since stolen and used without attribution for years: in order to learn independently, one has to be able to read.

Cued Speech is the best system to teach a deaf child to read, and thus cueing leads to ability of our deaf children to learn independently. No reliance on technology, interpreters, or intermediaries. Cueing, with its ability to show the phonemes of spoken language, and thus permit the de-coding of the written version of the spoken language, teaches deaf children to read. And with reading, our deaf children are always independent in learning. Access to the written word; literacy in action!

Proudly cue “Happy Independence Day!” For cuers, for our deaf children, this phrase is more than just a salutation for one day.