A conference celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Cued Speech, a mode of communication that visually represent the sounds of language, will be held from July 8 – 10 at the Westin Hotel, located at 7801 Leesburg Pike,  Falls Church. The conference aims to celebrate the enormous progress in the education of students who are deaf or hard of hearing since Cued Speech was invented a half century ago.

The conference features an International Symposium on Friday, July 8 where practitioners of Cued Speech from around the world will present on how the communication tool is used in their countries. On Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10, there will be presentations for professionals, parents and native practitioners of Cued Speech. There will also be programs for children and teens. The conference is expected to attract 300 families and professionals from the Cued Speech community to Falls Church.

Dr. Beverly Trezek, the lead author of the 2010 book Reading and Deafness: Theory, Research and Practice, will be the conference’s keynote speaker. Trezek is an expert on literacy intervention. For more information, visit cuedspeech.org.