Maryland Cued Speech Association
Cue Contact
Lana Portolano
 
Your connection to Cued Speech: cue mom
 
Number of years cueing: 5
 
How did you learn to cue?: I first learned the basics from a video.  Then Amy Ruberl coached me a little, and I took a beginners course organized by Language Matters.
 
Describe what CS means to you or what effect it has had on your life or the life of your family.  Our family decided to learn Cued Speech when we adopted our two Ukrainian daughters, Lena (now 8, profoundly deaf) and Dasha (6, hearing).  We wanted our daughters both to learn to read without limits, and found Cued Speech to be the solution.  Lena was entirely prelingual when she arrived in the U.S., but after less than one year of cueing at home, her English skills test at 46 months receptively.  We expect her to be near age-level (receptively) in another year.  At first, I had to do "work sessions" and games with Lena to get her to watch my face.  But now, language acquisition has become simply a matter of talking with her about everything, and frequently introducing new subjects and vocabulary.  She clearly understands just about everything I say/cue to her in plain English.  Diagnosed with auditory neuropathy and virtually no response to sound on her audiogram even while wearing hearing aids, Lena acquired all of her English completely in silence for the first nine months.  Three months ago, she received a cochlear implant at Johns Hopkins.   Cueing has been the perfect tool for training her to distinguish speech sounds, as well.  Lena cues expressively, and she is already beginning to produce sounds in appropriate places while she cues words.  I am still a slow- to medium-speed cuer, but the more I cue, the easier it gets.   
 
What county do you live in? Prince Georges
 
Contact info:  mportolano@yahoo.com    (301) 949-2996

(Cue Contact info. updated Sept 20, 2004)