In Cued Speech, when a consonant phoneme is not immediately followed by a vowel phoneme, the consonant handshape is placed at the side placement. The side placement is located:

• on the same side of the face as the hand that is being used to cue,
• in the same plane of the face (not too forward or behind the face/ by the ears),
• about four inches (4") from the side of the face,
• with the tips of the fingers near the level of the bottom of the chin.

It is important that the side placement not be placed too far from the mouth that the received cannot see both the hand and mouth at the same time. The side placement occurs in all adaptations of Cued Speech.

Practice

New cuers sometimes elide the side placement as they try to increase their speed of delivery. As they develop fluency, care should be taken theat the side placement is clearly established when appropriate:

• remember
• after
• winter
• interview
• Pepsi
• centered
• splintered
• rhymes

External Links

Guidelines on the Mechanics of Cueing - The online version of the 1994 journal article published in the Cued Speech Journal.