“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
Maya Angelou

Mary Elsie Daisey is a courageous mother. As the first mother to use Cued Speech with her deaf child, she is a pioneer of a system invented by Dr. R Orin Cornett in 1966. In order to test its efficacy, Cornett persuaded her to try his brand new invention; a manual system to support speech perception and language acquisition. Mary must have been full of doubts about taking on such a challenge. She must have worried about the outcomes of the trial and whether it would be a successful method for her child. But, like all true pioneers, she possessed the courage, vision, persistence and passion to take those first steps into the darkness, to be able to shed light on new possibilities and discover a new way for deaf children to acquire language and thrive.

Mary wrote of that first encounter, “I did not know what a lasting effect he (Dr. R Orin Cornett) would have on my life when we first met him back in September 1966. Our 2-year-old daughter, Leah, had just been diagnosed profoundly deaf and we knew absolutely nothing about deafness. Dr. Cornett’s assistant, Barbara Caldwell, began our education by explaining the current oral and manual options and then the new communication system her boss had just developed. It was called Cued Speech and he was anxious to have a family try it. When we met with Dr. Cornett, he convincingly described his system but cautioned that it had never been tried with a deaf child and that we should go home and think about it. He said we must realize that his enthusiasm was because Cued Speech was “his baby” – he believed it would work but he did not know that it would. In other words, he needed a guinea pig family to prove it would work — that the use of Cued Speech would provide for a deaf baby the natural language development, communication skills, and reading ability to function comfortably and optimally in the wide world around us.

We immediately decided to try Dr. Cornett’s new system and thus acquired the honor of being the first family to benefit from the use of Cued Speech. And we discovered in just one month that it was working! We had a remarkable communication system that allowed our family of five children to communicate with each other and their parents, and our deaf child was learning language and becoming a truly participating member of that family. Cued speech worked!”

Mary Elsie Daisey is co-author (with Dr. R Orin Cornett) of The Cued Speech Resource Book for Parents.

You can see Mary talking in this video about her success with Cued Speech when she was interviewed by William Friday on North Carolina People in 1985.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-Kc7qum1s

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 page on our website.

What do you call a donkey with three legs? Well, the answer to this, often told joke question, is fast becoming a surprise and ‘must-have’ children’s book for Christmas. The Wonky Donkey, written by Craig Smith from New Zealand, has shot up the bestseller’s charts after Janice Clark, a Scottish grandmother now living in Australia, was filmed reading it to four-month-old Archer.

Janice struggled to read the book while erupting into fits of giggles and the video of her and Archer, which was posted in August this year, has since been viewed millions of times on YouTube and Facebook. Her laughter is infectious and has turned both her and The Wonky Donkey book into viral sensations.

Always on-trend and with a good eye for a cueing challenge, Cued Speech UK’s own CueTutor Emma Sadeghi got in touch with author Craig Smith who sent her signed copies of his book; which inspired Emma to rally the Cued Speech UK team and take on the challenge of filming a cued version of his hilarious children’s story – just in time for deaf children to enjoy over the Christmas holidays.

Take a moment to watch and share with your friends and family, the Cued Speech UK version of The Wonky Donkey, produced and filmed by Cate Calder and featuring Cued Speech users – both big and small!

If you have a deaf child or want to learn more about Cued Speech, you can contact Cued Speech UK by phone (01803 712853) or by email ([email protected]). Cued Speech UK would love to see what you have to say!

By Lindsey Henderson

Top 3 fun and festive ideas for children

As the festive season approaches – embrace the opportunity to celebrate your child’s hearing aids with these parent tested top tips.

1. Christmas decorating kits £10.99

We love these Christmas kits from http://www.mylugs.co.uk/  Choose your festive charms from reindeers and snowfolk, to dancing Santas and cheery teapots. Charms slot easily onto hearing aid tubes. All hearing aids are catered for and kits include sparkly foil stickers, so little ones can be involved in picking their favurites.

Joanne 27, Mum of two, says:

“Elliot 2.5 did not like wearing his aids at all at first, he was always pulling them off. Everyday was a battle to get him to wear them and he would stuff them in places you wouldn’t believe. We would spend hours looking for them, I found them in the plant, behind the radiator and even in his Dad’s wellie boot!! Elliot loves Thomas the Tank and anything Cars related so I was over the moon to find the charms. Elliot helped me choose the designs from the my lugs website and now refers to his aids as his cars. I’m excited to get him some Christmassy ones as stocking fillers from Santa. “

2. Christmassy hearing aid headbands £14.95

These are highly recommended for babies and are made from a lovely soft cotton jersey fabric. The hearing aid or processor sits in a specially designed pocket keeping it soft and comfortable on the skin. Easy to clean with many designs to choose from. The Santa one is our favourite.

3. Christmassy clips £9.99

The festive season is such a busy time of year and we’re sure you’d much rather be spending time with your little ones than scouring the house for the aids or processors that have been flung off, hidden or posted somewhere. Try these awesome Christmassy clips from Etsy. https://etsy.me/2AlTID6