Today Cued Speech UK is celebrating National Poetry Day! This celebration of poetry takes place every October, generating an explosion of activity nationwide, with thousands of amazing events across the UK – in schools, libraries, bookshops and hospitals, on buses, trains and boats – all celebrating poetry’s power to bring people together.

2019 is the 25th anniversary of National Poetry Day and Cued Speech UK have created this short film to celebrate this event.

This year’s theme of ‘Truth’ is embodied in how the poem is performed using Cued Speech, which is a method that truly makes spoken language visible for deaf people. A combination of lip-patterns, handshapes and hand positions ensure that all the sounds of spoken language are there to see. Nothing is hidden or difficult to discern for deaf people, who use Cued Speech to support their understanding of spoken language. It is a true visualisation of speech and we think it is beautiful.

The poem that you are about to see and hear is called ‘Helen Keller’ – a powerful and beautiful poem, written by Langston Hughes and performed here by Cate Calder. Helen Keller was a famous American author, political activist, and lecturer, and the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. To watch the film, just click on the image above.

To find out more about Cued Speech you can visit our website: www.cuedspeech.co.uk

You can give a donation to Cued Speech UK by using our Support Us website page.

Why not learn to use Cued Speech yourself – We would love to see what you’re saying!

This amazing video shows how language can be made visual in three different ways, for deaf people to enjoy a beautiful song: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.

When you watch this video, you might be forgiven for thinking the three performers are all using signs and gestures, hand-shapes and movements in the same way. That is unless you are able to spot the difference. What we are in fact seeing are two languages conveyed in three different ways.  BSL (British Sign Language) and the English language represented by SSE (Sign Supported English) and Cued English (with Cued Speech). Three different ways that deaf people in the UK access language – visually!

British Sign Language

Sign Language is a visual means of communicating using gestures, facial expression, and body language. Sign Language is used mainly by people who are Deaf and in Britain the most common form of Sign Language is called British Sign Language (BSL); a full-fledged natural language, which was recognised by the UK government in 2003.

Many hearing people are under the false impression that Sign Language is a worldwide universal language, but this, however, is far from the truth. BSL is distinct from other signed languages used around the world and because of its isolated nature, there is even significant variation within BSL from city to city in Britain. This is known as regional variation and can be thought of as being similar to regional accents and colloquialisms found in spoken languages.

Many people are also mistaken in thinking that BSL is a way to convey the English language. However, BSL is not dependant on nor is it strongly related to spoken English, it is a silent, spatial language with its own grammar and lexicon and has no written form. Like any full and natural language, BSL takes many years of practice to master and achieve fluency. BSL is the preferred language of over 87,000 Deaf people in the UK, for whom English may be a second or even a third language. If we include all the people who can use BSL, there are a total of 151,000 individual users in the UK. This figure increases still further if professional BSL users are taken into account, such as interpreters and translators.

Representing spoken (or in this case, sung) English language in this film are two invented ‘visual modalities’ or codes; Sign Supported English and our own Cued Speech.

Sign Supported English

Another form of signing used in Britain is known as Sign Supported English (SSE). SSE is not a language. It uses many of the same signs as BSL but these are now added (where possible) to the spoken words and follows English word order. It is used by people like Megan to clarify what she is saying in English.

As the name suggests, Sign Supported English only ‘supports’ English, it does not completely represent the subtlety and complexity of the full English language, as there are so many words that do not have equivalent signs. SSE does not give access to the phonology of English, which is so vital for becoming literate but it is commonly used in Deaf education.

English speakers who are still in the early stages of learning BSL often revert to using their signs in English word order while mistakenly believing they are using BSL. In fact, they are producing SSE.

Visual English with Cued Speech

To the untrained eye, Cued Speech can look similar to both BSL and SSE. Although, in fact, Cued Speech is doing something very different. It is used to help deaf people see what we’re saying, it is a lip-reading tool.

The hand-shapes that Cate is using in the video, are not ‘signs’, as in BSL. They are actually more like ‘sounds’ and they are there to show deaf people what they can’t see by lipreading alone. It’s only possible to lipread about 1/3 of the sounds that we make when we’re talking, adding the cues gives deaf people a way to see every sound, the handshapes show consonant sounds and the position and movement of the hand reveals the vowels sounds.

Cued Speech is used to help deaf people see spoken languages from all around the world and it can be used bilingually alongside a signed language, just like in this video.

You can start learning Cued Speech. Just follow this link: https://www.cuedspeech.co.uk/learning-to-cue/

Why not register on Cued Speech UK’s online foundation course: https://cuedspeechlearning.co.uk/

Why not give a donation to Cued Speech UK by using our Support Us website page.

If you have a deaf child or want to learn more about Cued Speech, you can contact Cued Speech UK by using our contact page, you can also send an email to [email protected] or you can call us on 01803 712553.

Cued Speech UK would love to see what you have to say!

Lythe School pupil, Eve Winter, has become the youngest person ever to sit a Cued Speech exam at 11 years old. Not only is she the youngest but she is even in the top 5% of successful candidates.

Take a look at this news report about Eve Winter’s success with Cued Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwCGgn6Wjs

Why don’t you start learning Cued Speech right now, by registering on our online foundation course in Cued Speech: https://cuedspeechlearning.co.uk/

Why not give a donation to Cued Speech UK by using our Support Us website page.

If you have a deaf child or want to learn more about Cued Speech, you can contact Cued Speech UK by using our contact page, you can also send an email to [email protected] or you can call us on 01803 712553.

Cued Speech UK would love to see what you have to say!

Lythe School pupil passes adult exam with flying colours

Written by Louise Perrin and published on 08 July 2019 by the Whitby Gazette

Eve Winter has become the first child to sit a Cued Speech exam

Lythe School pupil, Eve Winter, has become the first child ever to sit a Cued Speech exam, and she’s done amazingly well.

Eve, 11, took the Cued Speech level one exam on June 26 and received her results from Cate Calder at Cued Speech UK who said: “Eve not only passed every section of the exam with flying colours, she is easily within the top 5% of all candidates that have successfully taken this exam over the years due to the extremely high levels of skill and accuracy that she demonstrated throughout.”

Nikki Summers, deaf inclusion worker, said “I honestly can’t say how proud I am of her.”

Cued Speech is a way of making spoken language visible for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Eve explained further: “lip reading without Cued Speech is only 33% accurate, with Cued Speech it’s 98%”.

Unlike British Sign Language (BSL), which is a language in its own right, Cued Speech is a way of making spoken English visible using a series of easily identifiable hand gestures. So while BSL has only one word for dinosaur, with Cued Speech the reader can understand the word stegosaurus.

Eve, 11, took it upon herself to learn to use the language to enable her to better communicate with pupil, Alfie Blackwell, 8.

Alfie suffers from Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD), which causes a profound loss of hearing. It’s a complex condition which causes Alfie’s hearing to fluctuate, he can literally hear one minute and not the next. As Mrs Summers, explained; “You can’t rely on it”.

Mrs Summers and her colleague Carly Simpson, also a deaf inclusion worker, set up a Sign & Cue club in September 2018. Eve, who enjoys freestyle dancing, practiced at the club, but continued her learning at home. Mrs Simpson said: “it’s really encouraging that Eve has done so well”

Alfie’s mum, Sarah Blackwell, said “We use Cued Speech alongside British Sign Language BSL, to incorporate the full English Language for Alfie. We are the first to use this system in North Yorkshire and would encourage anyone to do the same. If anyone wants to know more they can get in touch with us or the Cued Speech association. “

When asked why she chose to learn Cued Speech Eve replied “because I want to help deaf children when I grow up, it’s a good idea to learn earlier rather than later.”

Sarah continued: “The children and teachers at Alfie’s school have done incredibly well at learning Cued Speech and Sign Language. There are quite a few children who have done fantastic and gained a lot of fluency in both.

“It fabulous news that Eve Winter has taken her Cued Speech Exam, we are so proud. Eve and some other children at Lythe have supported and encouraged Alfie, showing such a passion for learning Cued Speech and BSL they will always be such a special part of Alfie’s childhood.”

Alfie, an energetic young man, keen to join in with everything, said he is pleased that Eve can talk to him: “I like it when Eve reads stories to me, it makes me really happy” he smiled.

And what does mum, Lisa Winter, think of her daughter’s achievement? She’s clearly very proud as she sums up what everyone else is thinking: “She’s amazing”.

To find out how you can learn Cued Speech, visit our website here.

You can now register on our Cued Speech self-study foundation course.

If you have a deaf child or want to learn more about Cued Speech, you can contact Cued Speech UK by using our contact page, you can also send an email to [email protected] or you can call us on 01803 712553.

Cued Speech UK would love to see what you have to say!

Why not give a donation to Cued Speech UK by using our Support Us website page.

Each year we look forward to celebrating Cued Speech at our Family Cue Days. We like to enable families and professionals to relax and learn in beautiful surroundings, with comfortable on-site accommodation, good food and fun things to do for everyone. It’s a chance to meet up and see first-hand the successes of families and professionals who have been using Cued Speech for many years.

This summer we are going to be in both Hertfordshire and Wales:

• 17 August 2019, Academy St Albans, St Albans, Hertfordshire. Click here for a PDF of this flyer.

• 31 August 2019, FCS Margam Park Discovery Centre, Port Talbot, Wales. Click here for a PDF of this flyer.

Come along and join us to learn or improve your cueing skills. Whether you’re starting from scratch or emerging as a Cued Speech user, you can share the fun with other families with deaf children, and professionals learning this amazing and life-changing communication method. We like to create an environment full of visual language, so users of spoken English and British Sign Language can feel welcome and included. Everyone is nurtured and supported to cue with confidence.

Contact Cued Speech UK to book onto one of our Family Cue Days, by sending an email to [email protected] or you can call us on 01803 712553.

To find out how you can learn Cued Speech, visit our website here.

Why not give a donation to Cued Speech UK by using our Support Us website page.

Show what you have to say, with Cued Speech UK!