Prachi’s Story
- by Preeti Kochar

Preeti Kochar writes about how her daughter was diagnosed, the frustrations of “going it alone” and how they learned about Cued Speech. Prachi gained fluency in English very quickly after being exposed to Cued Speech and is now learning Hindi using Hindi cues.

After many years of wanting a child we finally had a beautiful daughter, she was perfect and very alert. We named her Prachi (Sanskrit for the East). At two weeks old, my mother, who was visiting from South Africa, told me Prachi was a very bright child. Read more

Stephanie Pagano began using Cued Speech at a young age and received a cochlear implant when she was five. Her mother tells the story of how they came across Cued Speech and began using it with Stephanie, as well as why they decided to get her an implant.

At 9 months my daughter was starting to call me from her crib. She began to babble and would say “Bye Bye” to me when I left her at daycare. At 10.5 months she had a high fever and ear infections that we had a hard time getting rid of. When she was 14 months, the dog barked right behind her and she wasn’t startled, I knew something was wrong. Read More

Lexi and Isaiah Grafe both have auditory neuropathy. Their parents describe how Cued Speech helped them succeed first in an oral program, and then mainstreamed in the local school. They also talk about the advantage (a solid understanding of English) that Cued Speech gave the children as they learned to use their recent cochlear implants.

My name is Deanne Grafe and my husband, Judd and I are the parents of two profoundly deaf children. Lexi is 6 years old and Isaiah is 5 years old. When Lexi was 15 months old, we took her in to see her pediatrician for a check-up. She had a checklist of milestones and Lexi had hit every one of them except for beginning to talk. Her doctor asked if she was at least saying Mama and I said “no”. She said “I wouldn’t worry about it, but if she’s still not talking at 18 months, we’ll do some hearing tests.” On the drive home, I started to get that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was very wrong. Read More

Cued Speech & Auditory Processing Disabilities
- Written by a mother whose daughter, age 4, has auditory processing disabilities

One thing we did find out is that Laura does NOT have a hearing loss. The ABR results apparently are not correct. I had her hearing tested again in Denver, by a pediatric OTO [otolaryngologist] and everything looks great. Her tympanometry isn’t good but that is not a concern by anyone I speak to. So we are back to square one with Central Auditory Processing Disorder and that is it. Read More