This study aims to measure the effectiveness of "multiplex teaching method" in mastering vocabulary for deaf students. Multiplex teaching method consists of picture language, sign language, printed-word language, written language, and spoken language. The research was designed as a single subject research (SSR) with baseline,…

A majority of parents who have a child who is deaf are hearing and usually have had no experience with deafness. The impact on the parents can unequivocally alter their lives. The professional advice given to the parent regarding their child is often accepted as irrefutable fact, and can lead to the emotional, social, linguistic, and educational…

A review of problems with using such manual communication systems as cued speech, fingerspelling, Signed or Manual English, American Sign Language, and Pidgin Sign provides a rationale for using a combination of American Sign Language and Pidgin Sign and a few markers from Signed English for a Total Communication system. (CB)

A survey indicated that out of 1,888 teachers of hearing-impaired students, 140 use American Sign Language (ASL) in their classrooms. Further investigation reduced this number to 25 who actually use ASL and 6 who probably do. (Author/CB)

The authors address several issues pertinent to designing environmentally based total communication assessment and training programs for language delayed hearing children for whom oral language training alone is inadequate. (Author/CL)

The study analyzed the dyadic conversational speech of two hearing-impaired twin boys trained in simultaneous communication. Results indicated the adolescents used an integrated bimodal form of English with a grammatical base that did not vary as a function of the presence or absence of simultaneous signs. (Author/DB)

A mother of a hearing-impaired two year old offers examples of utilizing siblings (who have learned sign language) to foster the language development and socialization of the younger child. (DB)

A literature-based rationale for teaching American Sign Language (ASL) as the primary language system for deaf children elaborates on the following points: Sign languages are visual-manual; spoken languages are oral-aural. Competency in a first language tremendously increases a person's ability to learn a second language. Deaf children have not…

The observational study examined the sign language and communication abilities of 10 nonspeaking, autistic and autisticlike children (6 to 14 years old) involved in simultaneous communication training. Video data were collected as each child interacted with his/her therapist and with an unfamiliar adult. Analyses of the children's and adults'…

The mother of a young deaf child describes her son's progress in communicating through sign and verbal language. (CL)

Intended to raise researchers' and teachers' awareness of fingerspelling as an important part of signed communication, a study examined its use with deaf children in the classroom. Five trained teachers of the deaf, participating in a demonstration total communication project in a public school in the Midwest, were videotaped in their own…

The paper describes a program of teaching simultaneous communication (total communication) to behaviorally disordered preschool children, and presents the cases of two autistic and two autisticlike children. Simultaneous communication involves tactile, visual, oral, and auditory modalities and combines spoken language with Signed English. Before…

Suggestions are offered to help hearing teachers use effective nonverbal techniques in conjunction with signing when communicating information to hearing impaired students. Topics discussed include use of discourse markers, ways of maintaining eye contact, gaining/maintaining student attention, and effective turn-taking. (JW)

The need for selection, standardization, and development of signs and manual communication systems for use in the educational setting is discussed. (Author)

A similtaneous verbal and gestural approach to communication was used with 11 autistic children (5 to 10 years old). Available from: Journal of Practical Approaches to Developmental Handicap, 3304-33rd Street N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2L 2A6. (SBH)