Comparison of the relative effectiveness of oral and total communication training models for teaching expressive labeling skills to three echolalic autistic children (six-nine years old) demonstrated that total communication was the most successful approach with each of the Ss. (Author/CL)

The study compared effects of oral speech with total communication (speech plus sign language) training on the ability of mild mentally retarded children (four-eight years old) to repeat four-word sentences. Results pointed to the superiority of the total communication approach in facilitating sentence repetition. (Author)

Five children with severe educational retardation, aged 5-12, were involved in sign training in which the spoken words corresponding to signs were receptively known to participants. Whether signs were taught concurrently or in a serial fashion, signs taught by total communication were acquired faster than those taught by sign-alone training.…