Students with the dual handicaps of hearing impairment and mental retardation display special problems in language acquisition. These problems do not appear to have been addressed by curricula that have been designed for either of the single handicap groups. Since specially designed curricula for this population are virtually nonexistent, a…

The use of total communication in educating deaf preschool and elementary school students in the Santa Ana Program for the Hearing Impaired, Orange County, California, is described. Total communication is explained to consist of auditory training, speech, speechreading, fingerspelling, and the language of signs. Aspects of the program described…