PG-1: EF-B

(Especially at the throat position)

If good cueing is an art, it is also a craft which can be learned. One doesn't need to have pretty hands to cue with precision and grace. To the hearing impaired, "Clear is beautiful!" When learning the basics, some cuers take so literally the suggestion to touch the mouth, chin, and throat positions that they sometimes fall into the trap of bending the fingers in toward the throat rather than keeping the hand flat and parallel to the viewer. This finger-bending can be confusing to the deaf child -- especially at distances greater than a few feet away.

Watch yourself in a mirror or ask someone to monitor you while you cue these words with a flat hand (no curved fingers showing, please). The fingers are most apt to bend toward the throat, so there will be many of these throat positions for careful checking.

"ram" [3-t,5-s] "cram" [2-s,3-t,5-s] "scram" [3-s,2-s,3-t,5-s] "rat" [3-t,5-s] "Pratt" [1-s,3-t,5-s] "Sprat" [3-s,1-s,3-t,5-s] "cat" [2-t,5-s] "skat" [3-s,2-t,5-s] "scratch" [3-s,2-s,3-t,8-s] "Pac-Man" "ranch" "branch" "book" "brook" "foot" "shook" "took" "stood" "rook" "crook" "rip" "trip" "strip" "lamp" "clamp" "tramp" "stamp" "Apple Annie" "antiseptic"

Check to see that the cue fingers are straight and flat for this systematic review of all handshapes at the throat:

"pants" "advance" "Santa" "Nancy" "family" "Lassie" "jam" "chance" "dip" "kit" "sit" "bit" "film" "limb" "Jim" "chimney" "put" "could" "soot" "nook" "foot" "look" "good" "Chinook"

And try these sentences for carry-over of skills:

"You should read a good book every day."
"Pac-Man requires considerable skill to play."
"We took a dip in that brook."
"Jim should bandage his foot."
"Butch tramped through brambles and scratched his hand."
"Daddy and Sam are miles away by now."

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