English. The American and British English versions of Cued Speech uses eight hand shapes – none of which are derived from sign languages – to represent consonant phonemes, and four hand placements around the face to represent vowel phonemes. British and American Cued Speech are very similar but not identical. Cued Speech must be combined with mouthing (associated with the speaking of a language), as the hand shape, hand placement, and information on the mouth combine as unique feature bundles to represent phonemic values. Cues are not intended to be understood without mouthing, however, many deaf native cuers are able to decipher the cues alone without the use of the mouth. Similarly they tend to be able to perform well at deciphering the information on the mouth without the use of the hand (which is commonly referred to as lip reading). As of 2022, there are far fewer Cued Speech users than BSL and SSE users in the UK and a much lower percentage of deaf users than many other countries, however it is well established and is represented by the Cued Speech UK charity, based in Devon. Cued Speech has been adapted for languages and dialects around the world. Paget Gorman sign system The Paget Gorman Sign System, also known as Paget Gorman signed speech (PGSS) or Paget Gorman systematic sign language, was originated in Britain by Sir Richard Paget in the 1930s and developed further by Lady Grace Paget and Dr Pierre Gorman to be used with children with speech or communication difficulties, such as deaf children. It is a grammatical sign system which reflects normal patterns of English. The system uses 37 basic signs and 21 standard hand postures, which can be combined to represent a large vocabulary of English words, including word endings and verb tenses. The signs do not correspond to natural signs of the Deaf community. The system was widespread in Deaf schools in the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s, but since the emergence of British Sign Language and the BSL-based Signed English in deaf education, its use is now largely restricted to the field of speech and language disorder. Used elsewhere Australasian signed English In Australia, 'Signed English' was developed by a committee in the late 1970s, who took signs from Auslan (especially the southern dialect), invented new signs, and borrowed a number of signs from American Sign Language that have