Deaf children to benefit from training at Medway campus
A technique which allows deaf children to more quickly acquire a better understanding of speech and improve their reading abilities was the subject of a two day workshop organised by Speech & Language Therapy students at the Universities of Medway campus. Cued Speech uses hand-shapes near the mouth to clarify the lip patterns of normal speech.
The 15 students are taking a two-year Postgraduate Diploma in Speech & Language Therapy run jointly by the University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University. During the workshop, organised by student Maureen Dennis, they were given practical examples of how Cued Speech can be used in many different clinical, educational and social settings.
Cued Speech uses eight hand shapes in four positions near the mouth, so that deaf and hearing impaired babies, children and adults can see all the sound based units of speech as clearly as hearing people can understand them.
Anne Worsfold, Executive Director at the Cued Speech Association, who designed and ran the workshop, says: “Because the group had such a good understanding of the English language it was possible to cover nearly as much ground in this workshop as we would normally do in five days. By the end of the workshop everyone had got to grips with the system.”
Story by Public Relations
Find out more about Cued Speech at: www.cuedspeech.co.uk
To find out more about studying Speech & Language Therapy see: http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/pg/hsc/slt
Picture: The students who took part in the workshop.