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!

As I progressed to the point of sentences and phrases, I started to think about what things I would say frequently during the day, especially things I would say to my son. I began practicing phrases like, "Time to go", "Are you ready?", "Where’s your backpack?", "All done?"… When I found myself repeating phrases during the day I’d add them to the list.

Eventually speed became my goal. My accuracy had improved greatly, but I was too intimidated to cue to anyone older than my son for fear of being judged. So, I began cueing to music. I’d walk for exercise and wear my ear buds while listening to music. Familiar songs with words I already knew were best. Often to get one sentence right, I’d miss the next three, but that was ok because I’d gotten one right. I was making progress and that was the important thing.

Hamlet’s on the syllabus for Ben’s senior year. The students are going to study Polonius’ advice to his son Laertes.  Hamlet, Act I, Scene iii, Lines 59-80.

• Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. (Lines 59-60)
• Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.  (Line 61)
• This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. (Lines 78-80)

Our assignment — provide ten to fifteen most important pieces of advice for your child as he goes off next year to college.  My submission:

To my son, Ben

• Acknowledge differences.  Focus on what you have in common.
• Live for something beyond you.  Love those near you.
• Floss your teeth.  And drink lots of water.
• Sometimes it’s like sailing.  Tack back and forth; it is often wiser than moving straight ahead.
• Sometimes it’s like hiking.  Lean into the hill and keep moving; it is often effort that gets you to the summit.
• Understand that people are weird.  Distinguish those who are the good-hearted oddballs; use caution with all others.
• Celebrate your physicality.  The body is amazing.
• Trust your instincts.  Evil exists.
• Walk in nature.  Engage in physical play.
• Treat a woman as equal in commerce. Admire a woman as beautiful in life. Accept a woman as partner in love.
• Read a newspaper regularly.
• Be physically strong, intellectual open, and emotionally sensitive.
• Give thanks.
• Show compassion.

Dad

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.

“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.

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

I’m always flattered to be asked to “represent” myself—I would never dare speak for others—and discuss my background, my upbringing, my thoughts, philosophies, and maybe even offer a few nuggets of advice. But I always enjoy learning from others and putting them into the hot seat as well.

As a congenitally deaf person, I have never known what it’s like to be something other than deaf—at least, in terms of our audiophilic world.  (Yes, I just coined a new word.) And since my parents learned of my deafness at a rather young age and accepted it pretty early, I can’t remember any attitude other than positivism and neutralism in my home – I was expected to do my best in school, engage in activities and be social with friends… my parents didn’t give a ____ about my being deaf.

So, I’d like to turn things around just a bit, and make this blog about YOU—the readers. Who are you? Why are you reading this? Why do you care about us, our blogs on WeCue, and Cued Speech in general?

Here’s a quick, little “meme” for you.

1. What did you think about deafness prior to having a family member, friend, or colleague who is deaf? (Be honest.)
2. What do you now think about deafness? If your views changed, how have they changed, and why?
3. When you first heard about Cued Speech, what was your initial reaction? (Be honest.)
4. Assuming you’re now encyclopedic about Cued Speech, what do you wish you had been told when you first learned about it?
5. Do you have any funny stories about learning to cue or trying to explain Cued Speech to others?

Okay, those questions might not be so quick and easy to answer. But I’m genuinely curious about what has brought you here. I’m a teacher—I gotta learn from my “students.”

Have a great day/evening, and happy cueing!

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