Cued Speech and the Development of Reading in English: Examining the Evidence

Even though Cued Speech has been a communication option for 50 years, it has not been widely adopted among users of English or in the country where it was created (i.e., the United States). This situation has led scholars and practitioners in the field of deafness to question whether the original intent of creating this system has been realized and if there is an adequate research base to support the use of Cued Speech in developing English reading abilities. The purpose of this review was to examine the available research to determine whether there is evidence available to address the persistent questions about Cued Speech and English. Information from four areas of literature was reviewed and summarized, with converging findings from the available data sources revealing support for the role Cued Speech plays in developing reading abilities in English. Limitations of the current literature base and directions for future research are explored.