“There are two primary advantages of cued language over signed language for the 95% of parents of deaf children who are themselves hearing.  First, learning to cue a language that one already knows can be accomplished in a weekend.  Parents who do so can be fluent visual language models of English and other traditionally spoken languages for their deaf child in a very short period of time.  …

A second advantage of cued English over ASL is that it offers the same advantage in learning to read that English speaking children have, compared to children who are learning English as a Second Language.  This is, learning to read a language is much simpler for children who are familiar with the conversational form of that language before formal reading instruction than it is for children who are learning to read while simultaneously learning the language.”

I’m sure there are those who will see this quote and be ready to argue its validity, but this statement was not made off hand.  It was made based on years of research and experience with deaf students.  For 10 years, Dr. LaSasso directed diagnostic reading clinics for more than 400 deaf and hard of hearing children and their parents from multiple modalities. 

So, dear blog reader, have you found a favorite quote yet?  If so, please share it! 

I wish I knew more about this lady’s background.  I wonder why she switched at age 7. I wonder if her family, or school, or someone else was the primary influence for the change.  I wonder how she will do learning as an adult.  I hope I find more videos from her.

Just in case you can’t see the video, here’s a direct link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSs4PTV8UPs

To show you how so very important prosody is in communication, I’ve embedded two short videos of myself cueing several short sentences, one with prosody, one without. See which one you can get the most meaning out of:

WITHOUT PROSODY

WITH PROSODY

What were the differences?

In the second video, I used prosodic markers like longer and shorter pauses, elongated words/vowels to show stress, and body language. You could far more easily tell what the most important words were, and what meanings I meant to convey.

So, would you rather watch someone cueing with, or without prosody?

You probably said “WITH!!”
I agree. As I mentioned in my first post on this subject, watching someone who cues with almost no prosody can be boring. They also convey much less meaning. For this reason, it is important to get into the habit of cueing prosody. Especially if you’re a transliterator… Different speakers will have very different ways of using prosody.

Stay tuned for part III!

Dates: 8/27/09 – 8/30/09

Location: Front Royal, Virginia

Research has shown that the family provides the most influential language model in the child’s early life. Cueing in the home has been proven to provide a deaf child with the greatest understanding of language. This is the key to an ability to read, write, communicate and reach his or her full potential. At CCVA, families and professionals can learn the entire system of Cued English in one weekend, without the distractions of everyday life. See first hand the successes of families and professionals who have been using Cued Speech for many years. Learn how Cued Speech can help to meet your child’s academic needs. Receive educational and emotional support. If you don’t want to take the class, come to the presentations by professionals in the field of deafness and deaf education. Hear the latest research and learn to advocate for your child.

CueCamp Friendship
Urbana, MD

6/18/2009 to 6/21/2009

Cue Camp Friendship–June 18-21, 2009
Make plans now to attend Cue Camp Friendship in its NEW location at the Bishop Claggett Conference Center overlooking the beautiful Sugarloaf Mountain! Conveniently located just minutes off I-270, 5 miles south of Frederick, MD. Easily accessible from three major airports.
Contact MDCSAprez@gmail.com for more information. http://mdcsa.org/

Cue Camp New England
Falmouth, Maine

7/9/2009 – 8/2/2009

Learn to Cue or Improve your Cueing Skills. Learn how Cued Speech can be used to improve the English language skills and literacy of children who are deaf. Meet others who use Cued Speech. Make new friends. http://www.cuedspeechmaine.org/CuedSpeechCamp.html 

Cue Camp Virginia
Front Royal, VA

8/27/2009 to 8/30/2009

CCVA Will be held at the 4-H Center in Front Royal, VA,
FROM AUGUST 27-30 2009!
After a long and very successful run at the 4-H Center in Jamestown, VA, the NVCSA Interim Board of Directors would like to announce that Cue Camp Virginia (CCVA) will be moving this year to the Northern Virginia 4-H Educational Center in Front Royal, VA.

This mountaintop facility is approximately a 60-minute drive west from Fairfax, VA, and is located only a few miles from Interstate 66. On-site lodging, dining facilities, conference facilities with six break-out rooms, and recreational facilities (including pool and bon-fire pit) are superb.

In keeping with NVCSA’s Mission of Education, Advocacy and Support, the Board believes the new Front Royal location offers a more convenient destination, which will entice those Fairfax area elementary and pre-school families who have not been able to come to CCVA in the past a good reason to do so.

To receive updates as they become available sign up for the eNewsletter at http://www.nvcsa.org

What is prosody?

pro•so•dy (noun) :    the patterns of stress and intonation in a language.

What does it involve? 

With spoken language, it involves pitch, stress, and syllabic length. With cued language, there are two main components:

Facial and/or gestural indicators.

• often follow stress, voice changes, tone, rhythm, etc.
• eyebrows, shoulders, head tilts, upper body motions, are just a few of these indicators. Many people use them naturally to differing degrees when communicating.

Pauses.

• of emphasis, hesitation, or by-products of syllabics.
• think about the phrase, “That that is, is.” Where are the pauses? What happens if you leave them out?

Why should you develop cueing skills in prosody, along with accuracy and fluency? 

Prosody in spoken languages imparts a LOT of meaning and emotion. All good storytellers are pros with prosody. Recall that in this day and age of emails and IMing, people talk about how meaning (especially implied meaning) is sometimes lost when not communicating face to face or voice to voice. If prosody is not used when cueing, nor faithfully transliterated, that same loss of meaning can happen- even with the visual medium of Cued Speech providing access to words. In my opinion as a native cuer, prosody is just as important a skill to cultivate as accuracy and fluency. 

I was once subjected to a transliterated rendition of the American national anthem during a school assembly, done without an ounce of verve or vim. It was a disgrace to Francis Scott Key.

Another transliterator was a pro with prosody… she would even cue the gravelly voice of the history teacher, and her transliteration actually looked “gravelly” to me- all grindy and gray, just like the teacher’s voice sounded to her! She could pick up the moods and idiosyncrasies of teachers… sarcasm, anger, boredom, etc. and show them through her cueing. 

Some parents of hearing children like to use different voices for characters when reading to their kids. Cueing can be used in the exact same manner, with prosody!

With cued language, you have the ability to convey not only phonemes, but idiosyncrasies of language, implied meaning, and emotions. The addition of that extra layer of communication grabs more attention (helpful with easily distracted children!) and can make communication clearer.

Stay tuned for part 2, with more examples and some ideas for improving your prosodic cueing. If you have questions, please ask!

E

The life of a Cued Language Transliterator is much like the above scenario.  We do some prep work when available:  perusing textbooks, reading newspapers, scanning power point slides, watching the DVD of “Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” 53 times in 4 days.  But the bulk of our job is one note at a time, revealed in rapid succession as people produce the phoneme combinations that we call “spoken language.”  In the ear and out the hand, as spontaneously as a professional musician who reads the notes and then plucks the corresponding strings or presses the correct valves.  We train for our jobs, but much of life is unrehearsed banter that must be transliterated immediately with appropriate prosody and without filters or prep time.  We do this every day.  It’s beautiful music.

I was at a friend’s son’s Bar Mitzvah last weekend (I have just loved saying that phrase; such joy to use a double possessive). In a quieter moment, it was revealed through our conversation about Ben being deaf, and my friend’s relatives proceeded to ask questions. Can he hear? Is he mainstreamed? Does he sign? Wears what aids?

The Cued Speech conversation: “System designed to help deaf children learn to read and write, by conveying the spoken language in a visual form, and that visual form providing the ‘phonics’ of the spoken language, called ‘phonemes’ … The hybrid, using a manual system (like signing) but conveying the oral language (so really an oral approach). The genius of Dr. Cornet’s system — whatever looks alike on the mouth is cued differently; whatever is cued the same looks different. No ambiguity.” The Constant Educator.

And we haven’t even talked about the implant!

I truly welcome the questions, and love to talk about Ben; cueing; cochlear implants; the differences between oral, sign, and cueing; social adjustments; reactions of Maddie as a hearing sibling.

I have no expectations that people would know of cueing. What people know of deafness is usually mixed up with signing. So something other than signing, especially a system that uses the hands, is pure puzzlement to most people.

So while I sometimes have a tinge of disappointment that cueing is so under the radar, it provides a great opportunity for awareness and teaching.

Deafness is Ben’s story, his identity. The story of his parents and sister, his extended family. Cueing is part of Ben’s deafness. The cochlear implant is part of his deafness. Because cueing is our history, the now and future is literacy, Ben’s ability to read and write, to learn independently.

– Never heard of Cued Speech?
– Well, do a have a few minutes?
– Excellent, because I have a great story to tell.
– It is about a young boy — a human story full of drama and inspiration.
– My connection to the story?
– The Constant Educator, of course.

As parents we can’t leave everything up to our kids though.  We need to be there to smooth the transitions and make sure everything is in place to kick-off a successful school year.  As a parent we need to take an active role in our children’s education.  We should meet their teachers and set up a method for an open and ongoing dialog.  We need to make sure all the technology our children need is working optimally.  Don’t leave anything to chance.  Make sure the school has tested any assistive devices you child will be using.  Has your child had a hearing test?  Have their hearing aids or cochlear implants been tested?  Have you communicated any changes or needs to the school audiologist?  Are there back up batteries available to your child during the school day? 

Parents also have to remember that their actions are the most important models in their children’s lives.  Look at your own reading habits.  Do you make reading a part of your day?  If you don’t, what message does that send to your child?  Whether your children are preschoolers or teens, they need to see that you take reading as seriously as you tell them to take it.  A recent report from the National Endowment for the Arts, shows that “Americans in almost every demographic group were reading fiction, poetry, and drama – and books in general – at significantly lower rates than 10 or 20 years earlier.”  What impact does this have?  The data from the study suggests that reading transforms the lives of individuals.  Reading correlates with financial and job success, it correlates in fact with almost every measurement of positive personal and social behavior.  Deficient readers are less likely to become active in civic and cultural life, most notably in volunteerism and voting.  So, while the majority of Americans are taking less interest in reading, as the parents of  hearing impaired children, it is incumbent on us to strive to do better. 

As the parents of children with a hearing impairment, it’s going to take more work on our part to foster a positive attitude toward reading.  This of course, is where Cued Speech plays a very crucial role.  The Cued Speech system enables those who are deaf or hard of hearing to visually absorb language (English in our case).  This includes all the phonemic structure of the English language.  Cueing provides visual access to phonemic structure, which leads to phonemic awareness and phonemic decoding skills necessary to decode language and become proficient in reading.  Cueing provides those building blocks that give our hearing impaired children the vocabulary and language interaction they need to become proficient readers.  Remember to read to your children and remember to cue to them too; and not just during reading time, but all the time.  Remember to allow your children to see you reading for your own enjoyment.  You’ll both benefit.  Have a great school year!