AN INVESTIGATION WAS UNDERTAKEN TO DETERMINE WHETHER EARLY MANUAL COMMUNICATION WITH DEAF CHILDREN INFLUENCES THEIR SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION OF (1) INTELLIGIBLE SPEECH, (2) READING ABILITY, (3) SPEECH READING ABILITY, (4) WRITTEN LANGUAGE, AND (5) PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT. THE DESIGN INVOLVED MATCHED PAIRS OF SUBJECTS BECAUSE OF THE LARGE NUMBER OF VARIABLES WHICH NEEDED TO BE CONTROLLED. EARLY MANUAL COMMUNICATION WAS THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE. ONE SUBJECT OF EACH MATCHED PAIR WAS A DEAF CHILD WHO HAD LEARNED MANUAL COMMUNICATION FROM INFANCY. THE OTHER WAS A DEAF SUBJECT WHO HAD NOT LEARNED MANUAL COMMUNICATION FROM INFANCY. FROM 5 SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF, A PRELIMINARY MATCHING LED TO 105 CHILDREN OF DEAF PARENTS BEING MATCHED WITH 337 DEAF CHILDREN OF HEARING PARENTS. ALL CHILDREN WERE 10 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER. DATA COLLECTED BY PARENTAL QUESTIONNAIRES WERE USED IN PAIRING OF CHILDREN. PAIRS OF SUBJECTS WERE MATCHED AND TESTED WITH REGARD TO SEVERAL VARIABLES. THE DEAF CHILDREN WHO HAD LEARNED TO COMMUNICATE MANUALLY FROM INFANCY WERE SUPERIOR TO THE GROUP WITHOUT EARLY COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCES IN SPEECHREADING, READING, AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT, WHEN THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY MANUAL COMMUNICATION ON THE LANGUAGE OF DEAF CHILDREN IS PRESENT, THIS INFLUENCE HELPS THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONVENTIONAL LANGUAGE SKILLS. (JC)