Cued Speech chart

To cue a word:

  1. Divide word into sequence of Consonant-Vowel(CV) pairs.
  2. For each CV pair, place the consonant handshape at the vowel placement while mouthing the corresponding consonant-vowel phoneme pair. Note that:
    • Consonants with no following vowel are cued at the side placement.
    • Vowels with no preceding consonant are cued with handshape 5.

Other rules to keep in mind:

  1. At the side placement:
    • /oe/ and /ah/ require a 1-inch forward movement.
    • /uh/ requires a downward movement (between 1/2" and 3/4").
  2. Consecutive identical cues require that the placement be touched twice (At the side, a "flick" is used to represent two touches).

For a detailed explanation of how to cue, review our suggested materials for books and websites that may be helpful in learning to cue, or consider taking one of our Weekend Workshops.