Cued Speech is a communication system that uses hand cues with spoken English in order to promote visual access to the phonetic sounds in words. The system was designed to be used with deaf children, but it is currently used with both deaf and hearing children. To a layperson, Cued Speech may seem like a type of sign language. It is not. Nor is it a sign system (such as Signing Exact English). While Cued Speech does make use of handshapes and movements, the handshapes and movements represent phonemes not concepts, as is the case for sign-based systems.