Cued Speech and the Acquisition of Reading by Deaf Children

The reading impairment of the majority of prelingually, profoundly deaf subjects (Conrad, 1979) results mainly from a deficiency of their primary linguistic competence. It is widely recognized that orally educated deaf children attain only limited ability in the reception and production of both oral and written language (see Quigley and Paul, 1984 for a review). The lack of adequate communication between the child and his environment, especially in early childhood, is often identified as the main cause of this situation. A number of alternative communication methods have been proposed as potential solutions in order to reduce the language impairment of deaf children.