A Time to Discover
by Marcia Beveridge
by Marcia Beveridge
National Cued Speech AssociationOur family would like to share our experience at CueCamp Friendship 2007 to let families know what a worthwhile experience it can be and to let West Coast cueing families know about a very special scholarship fund that can help you achieve your goal of getting to camp.
Our family consists of two hearing parents and our six children age 18 months to 11 years. Our three year old son and sixteen month old son were born with a profound and severe hearing loss respectively. We have been cueing since the older child was 8 months old. Both boys now use bilateral cochlear implants. We live in the “cueing desert” of southern California, where most professional reactions to our choice to cue have not been encouraging to say the least. Incorporating cueing into our daily lives has been a challenge also, between frequent business travel for Dad and frequently overwhelming household responsibilities for Mom. Nevertheless, we consider the effort well worth it, as each family member benefits from our use of Cued Speech in some way. All of which is to say we long for opportunities to put aside daily life and focus on cueing while connecting with other families on the same path.
Cue Camp California 2006 whetted our family’s appetite for a longer camp with more participants, so in late spring we contacted the director of Cue Camp Friendship and said that we wanted to come. We knew this would be a logistical and financial challenge, but we were willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Imagine our astonishment and gratitude when we were informed that not only does the Maryland Cued Speech Association have scholarships available for the camp, but also that the National Cued Speech Association has the Kris Wilson Scholarship available to help West Coast families afford the cost of travel to camp. With the financial burden greatly lightened we began to tackle the logistical challenges with enthusiasm.
The week held breakthroughs in cueing for all of us. This was my husband’s third time through the beginner course and this time, thanks to his instructor’s patience and the slower pace that a whole week of camp affords, he put the vowels/locations together with the handshapes. After two years of struggle, he is exultant that he can cue anything, slowly, and be understood.
I found in the Beyond the Basics class the practice and feedback I need to smooth out and speed up my cueing. The instructors and my classmates also shared many invaluable practical tips about cueing, especially in a challenging family setting. Their encouragement bolstered my confidence greatly. They were a group of extraordinary people whose warmth, wit and wisdom I will never forget.
All of the children participated in well-organized groups whose instructors are our heroes. They not only gave us the break we needed to concentrate on cueing, they patiently challenged each child to move forward with their cueing skills. The groups also afforded our hearing children the opportunity to socialize with D/deaf and hard-of-hearing peers. At last our hearing children had the opportunity to see children their age cueing fluently, to know that it really makes a difference, and to realize that there are other families overcoming communication challenges.
Our two youngest children were blessed with four dedicated teachers and helpers who had creative activities planned for every waking moment. The camp theme for the week, resCUE, seemed to have been chosen for them as their favorite toys are fire trucks and police cars. The highlights of their week were the opportunities to get up close to the sheriff’s patrol car and the fire engine. Our three-year-old was so happy and relaxed, surrounded by people who could communicate clearly to him. The first evening at supper he sat, chin in hand, gazing at the family at the table next to ours, able to follow others’ conversation for the first time in his life. He is a language-hungry child, and he was in an all-you-can-eat language buffet the entire week.
Equally as rewarding as our progress in cueing were the connections we made with the people we were privileged to spend the week with. Cuers in general are people who think outside the box, and who care passionately about unlocking that box for the special person(s) in their life. After two years of near-total isolation from other cueing families it felt like coming home to see so many people cueing everything they said (even cell phone conversations). We feel so validated in our struggle to reach fluency as a family. We treasured the opportunities to talk with parents who have faced the same difficulties, to meet their children for whom doors have been opened up by their sacrifices, and to seek advice from educators and transliterators. At mealtimes, the table full of young deaf/hard-of-hearing adults buzzing with animated conversations was a sign of hope for us. We were privileged to make the acquaintance of some of these young people during the week and they are inspiring human beings: gracious, spunky, bright and determined to hold a hand out for those starting the climb.
It is hard to put into words our gratitude to Dr. Cornett for the communication he made possible through Cued Speech. One morning, I brought our three-year-old, clingy and tired, to class with me. His processors had been left in the room to dry out. He seemed not to be paying much attention, but suddenly a little voice spontaneously repeated the word I had just cued a single time: accusation. What are the odds, without Cued Speech, that a profoundly deaf three-year-old, without any amplification, could effortlessly “see-hear” that word? But that’s the real gift of Cued Speech—that what looks like an amazing feat to us, is, from our child’s standpoint, no feat at all. His internal phonological model is the same as it is for a hearing child, the language cued to him is clear and complete, whether his processors are on or off, so he overhears words just as a hearing child would.
As brilliant as the Cued Speech system is, without people willing to teach it and support the families who use it, it wouldn’t be available as a tool. We thank the NCSA for helping Dr. Cornett’s vision come to life for our family though their support. We thank the family and friends of Kris Wilson for honoring her life’s work, and for understanding the special challenges West Coast cueing families face, by establishing a scholarship in her memory. Those gifts were the seed for our priceless experience of healing and hope at Cue Camp Friendship 2007. It was truly a gift that will endure, not only for us but also for all whose lives are changed by our children.
Somehow, some way we will be back for more, and we hope to see you there.