A follow-up study examined the effects of different tactile aids on tasks of visual speech reading in 14 adults with severe hearing impairments. Compared with speech reading alone, tactile aids impaired sentence-based speech reading at first, although performance improved with training. No effects of vibrotactile aids or training were obtained for…

This study examined the relationship between the teaching method, oral or total communication, used at children's schools and children's consonant-production accuracy and vocabulary development over time. The children (N=147) had used cochlear implants for between 6 months and 10 years. Results indicated a complex relationship among children's…

Twenty-eight deaf adolescents enrolled in a day-class program for the hearing impaired were administered a battery of four short factual stories using oral, manual, simultaneous, and interpreted modalities of communication. (Author/PHR)

Designed for use by individuals studying on their own, teachers, self-help groups, audiologists, and other professionals working with individuals with hearing impairments, this manual provides 23 lessons for learning to lip-read. The lessons are organized to help the lipreader recognize how sounds look when they are spoken, thus leading to…

The relative effectiveness of total communication and oral communication training in a parent-assisted, home-based language intervention program was studied with 15 Down's syndrome children, 18-36 months old. (Author/SEW)

Three Spanish deaf preschoolers were taught receptive vocabulary in oral English, English sign-mix, oral Spanish, Spanish sign-mix, and sign alone. Subject one learned best using sign alone. Subject two performed best using oral Spanish or sign alone. Subject three seemed to profit from sign, Spanish sign-mix, or oral English. (Author/SW)

The article analyzes the controversy over total communication vs. oralism in the education of hearing impaired students, notes the differences between speech and language, and suggests points to be considered by parents in deciding on one or the other approach. (CL)

Discusses learning to read by hearing impaired children and maintains that given a language base (in sign alone, oral and/or signed English), a total communication environment, and the opportunity to utilize various modes to decode written English, it appears likely that hearing impaired children can develop reading and writing skills in English.…

A study of 60 Chinese Americans and 46 controls found the Chinese Americans were more likely to believe persons with speech disorders could improve speech by "trying hard," to view people using deaf speech and people with cleft palates as perhaps being emotionally disturbed, and to regard deaf speech as a limitation. (Author/CR)

The study found that the extent of teacher control over conversations with deaf pupils using oral/aural only, signed English, or cued speech communication affected pupil response, including taking initiative in conversations, misunderstanding of the teacher, and length of conversational contributions. Different methods of communication by the 13…

Hearing-impaired speechreaders use linguistic context to compensate for the poor visibility of some speech movements. Constraints on spoken language enhance speechreading performance and help compensate for the paucity of sensory data. The largest effects come from linguistic constraints imposed by sentence context--syntactic, semantic, and…

The speech intelligibility of 18 children with prelingual deafness was examined after using cochlear implants for an average of 3 years. The average speech intelligibility score of the nine children using oral communication was significantly higher than that of nine children using total communication. (DB)

Teachers of students with deafness (31 teachers following an oral approach and 93 following the Total Communication approach) were surveyed to examine work-related stress. The two groups did not differ in overall stress levels but did differ on two stress factors: institutional provision of technical and personnel assistance, and agreement with…

This paper reviews the historical development of Auditory-Verbal International, which was established as a nonprofit organization to achieve the goal of increasing availability and effectiveness of the auditory-verbal approach for individuals with hearing impairments. The group's position statement is presented, along with principles of…

This paper deals with the auditory-verbal therapy process as implemented with two children (ages three and seven) with hearing impairments, enrolled in the Auditory-Verbal Therapy Programme of North York (Ontario) General Hospital. The paper contains audiological information, long-term objectives, and a detailed lesson plan for each child. (JDD)