2027 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 22-24, 2027 • Bellevue, WA
3/17/2026 | 9:40 AM - 10:10 AM | Early Access to Spoken World Languages Using Cued Speech | City Terrace 8
Early Access to Spoken World Languages Using Cued Speech
Early, consistent, visual access to an accurately modeled spoken language is critical for language acquisition, literacy development, and eventual academic success. Dr. Earl will demonstrate how the system of Cued Speech works in visually clarifying the phonemes of spoken languages to develop a mental model of that language. Children exposed to cues perform comparably to hearing peers in phonemic awareness, internal speech, recoding, phonics, rhyming, and spelling. Participants will learn some cues and practice cueing to each other. The importance of EHDI's 1-3-6 program will be discussed as it relates to how we can better inform parents of all the communication options, including Cued Speech, and provide early learning opportunities and modeling in the home from fluent deaf and hearing cuers. Selected results of notable research on Cued Speech will be reviewed. Resources and videos of parents cueing with their babies will be shared.
- Explain when and why Cued Speech was invented and how the system facilitates language access and acquisition.
- List two ways parents can use cued languages in the home to imitate, validate, and encourage their child's early vocalizations and attempts at speech and language production.
- Provide two ways that professionals can provide support to parents who wish to learn Cued Speech for language access with their young child who is deaf/hard of hearing.
Presentation:
View Presentation File
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Polly Earl
(Primary Presenter), National Cued Speech Association , mainecues@gmail.com;
Dr. Polly Earl has taught children with special needs for the past 42 years. She is a teacher of the deaf, special education consultant, President of the Cued Speech Association of New England, Certified Instructor of Cued Speech, and Northeast Co-Regional Director on the Board of the National Cued Speech Association. Her doctoral research was an ethnography studying a baby with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) whose parents cued in Dutch and Spanish with her starting at eight months. This was the first known study to examine the simultaneous acquisition of two cued languages in a young deaf child.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.