Giving language a helping hand | Cathy Rasmussen | TEDxFlourCity

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Cathy presents cueing and its applications across the country.

I am a speech language pathologist
which is a wonderful profession

for people like me
who care about communication.

We think that communication
is a human right.

The focus of my career has been
on children who are deaf.

And early on, I learned
of an innovation for access to language

that I want to tell you about.

My first job was at a preschool
in Washington, D.C.

that included both
deaf and hearing children.

And the first child I worked with
there was Bradley,

a three year old who had
profound hearing loss.

He didn't get much benefit
from his hearing aids

so his parents had chosen to use
a visual mode of communication with him

called Cued Speech.

So I began to cue with him,

and during that preschool year,
we did ordinary preschool things,

but with the help of Cued Speech.

We talked and I cued
about everything under the sun,

and Bradley's language took off.

We read and I cued dozens of books.

And he learned to read.

He went on to great language
and communication skills.

Academic achievement.

What was the key?

I will forgive you if you think
I was the world's best speech therapist.

But that wasn't it.

The real key was we had
a powerful tool in our hands.

We had Cued Speech. Cued Speech.

What is it? What am I doing?

We all use our eyes sometimes

when we're trying
to hear a spoken message.

But lipreading is really difficult.
Speech happens fast.

Speech sounds look alike
when they are invisible.

With lipreading alone,

we understand only about
one-third of a spoken message.

To overcome this,

Cued Speech was developed
by Dr. Orin Cornett

at Gallaudet University in the mid 1960s.

He wanted to enable
hearing parents with deaf children

to share spoken language.

His idea was a set of hand cues

that would add information
to the natural lip movements of speech

to take the guesswork out of lipreading.

How does it work?
It's a very simple system.

Hand shapes show consonants.
Placements show vowels.

Cues along with the lip movements
of speech show the sounds we're saying,

and allow a deaf person
to understand 100% of what is said.

Let me give you an example.

Let's think about
the words 'bat' and 'pat'.

If you are lipreading them,
you can't tell them apart.

They look alike.

But if we add cues,
we make them look different.

Bat. Pat.

You can even understand it without voice:

(voiceless) Bat. Pat.

If you have some hearing,
cues can be a supplement.

But spoken language
can be understood entirely

through vision if that's the need.

Here's the chart that shows
the whole system on one page,

hand shapes and consonants.

For adults to learn to cue,

it's simply a matter of matching up
the sounds you know

with the hand shapes and the placements.

Others can learn and understand
language by being cued to.

What can we cue?

Anything we can say

like supercalifragilisticexpalidocious.

I'm showing off.

(Laughter)

But I'm also showing you
what cueing can do.

I've been cueing in English,
but we can also cue in Spanish,

and more than 60
other languages and dialects.

What about American Sign Language? ASL?

Why do we need cues
when we have signs?

ASL is a language in its own right
for a vibrant culture and community.

Yes, ASL and Cued Speech are both
visual means of communication,

but they are conveying
different languages.

We have a sign language interpreter here,

but he is called
an interpreter for a reason.

He is changing
one language into another.

It is possible to use both ASL
and Cued Speech, to be fluent in both.

You don't have to choose between them.
You can do both.

But when you want direct access
to spoken language,

cues are an effective
and efficient way to do that.

What about technology?
Cochlear implants. Digital hearing aids.

Technology doesn't work for all.
And it doesn't work all of the time.

Technology isn't a substitute

for being able to clearly
and consistently convey language.

When we cue to children who are deaf,

much research and experience shows us
they learn language easily and naturally,

with powerful effects on literacy
and academic achievement.

One landmark study demonstrated
that when we cue to deaf children,

they read like their hearing peers.

And that's a very significant outcome

if you know the history of literacy issues
for children who are deaf.

But that's not all we can do.

Children who have language
or learning disabilities,

hearing children who are
learning to read, need phonics,

need a good knowledge of spoken language
as the basis for decoding print.

Cued Speech can be helpful
in all of those situations.

Let's take a minute to see
Cued Speech in action.

We'll see a video
that was produced by Aaron Rose.

And Aaron and Mary-Beth are parents

who are both deaf and grew up
using Cued Speech.

And now they are cueing.

They are sharing
their native English language

with their daughter, Arabella.

You will see her learning
and understanding language

when it is cued to her.

And you will see her beginning
to cue back to her parents.

(Video) (Woman sneezing)

[Achoo!]

(Gasping) [Peek-a-boo!]

[Ooo. Ooo. Ooo.
Ooo. Ooo. Ooo.]

[Arabella]

[Turn the page.]

[Purple fish.]

[Look at the firetruck.]

[Do you want some milk?]

[Leaf.]

[Show mommy the ball.]

[Butterfly. It's a butterfly.]

[Where is the turtle?]

[Where is the sun?]

[The sun's outside.]

[Where's the grapes?]

[Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.]

[Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.]

[More.]

[Yes!]

[Can you cue it? A.]

[B.]

[C.]

[D.]

[E.]

[One.]

[Two.]

[Three.]

[Go.]

[Go.]

(Applause)

I can tell you hundreds of stories
and point to dozens of studies

that show the impact of Cued Speech.

I'll end with the encounter that led me
to drop out of law school, learn to cue,

and decide that I wanted to work
with families to help them communicate.

The first time I saw
Cued Speech in action,

I asked the mother I just met
why she had chosen to cue with her son,

and she said to me,
"I want to share my language with my son.

I want him to understand my words.

I want him to get it
when I say 'I love you'.

And he does."

For 50 years, Cued Speech
has been a well-kept secret.

But language shouldn't be a secret.

Thousands of families
have benefited from cueing,

but it still isn't widely enough known.

Someone you know needs access to language.

You can learn to cue.
Or you can tell someone about it.

You can get the word out.
You can give language a hand.

Thank you.

(Applause)