When hearing speakers address a mixed audience of hearing and deaf participants,[1] they have a choice of three methods by which to convey the information in their presentation. They may choose to use English and provide an English-to-ASL interpreter, use ASL and provide an ASL-to-English interpreter, or use simultaneous communication (SimCom).…

Sixteen deaf persons using total communication or sign language and 10 deaf persons using oral communication were administered the Test of Communication Skills (which measures information context and message class) in their preferred modality. Results showed that total communication was a more effective communication method under the testing…

The effectiveness of verbal, sign, and simultaneous systems for the acquisition of receptive language by an autistic boy was investigated. Results suggest nonsignificant differences among the three methods. (Author/SEW)

This study examines the receptive skills of severely deaf subjects employing either oral or total modes of communication in the comprehension of a wide range of syntactical and semantic structures. For almost all types of structures investigated, the total system was found to be the more effective method of communication. (Author/SJL)

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.…

The study of effects of mode (manual only, manual plus oral, and manual plus oral plus aural) and language (Signed English or American Sign Language) on the comprehension of deaf students (mean age 16 years) found no significant treatment effect for mode of presentation; there was an interaction between languages and mode. (Author/DB)

Receptive communication skills of 118 severely and profoundly deaf persons, (9-20 years old) were assessed by a multiple-choice pictorial test. The most efficient method of communication was found to be reading, followed by total communication and manual communication; oral methods were clearly the least effective. (Author/CL)

Total communication procedures were used with three severely mentally retarded children (mental ages 2 to 4) to examine the effects of receptive speech on the acquisition and maintenance of manual signing. Signs corresponding to known words were generally acquired faster and retained better than signs corresponding to unknown words. (Author/JW)

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)

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 longitudinal study was conducted of 153 children (3-7 years old) with severe and profound hearing losses. Ss were tested three times over a 4-year period, including measures of linguistic and academic performance. In addition, information was collected on the background characteristics of Ss through parent interviews. Among findings were that,…

The study measured hearing-impaired (N=106) students' reception of language presented via five modes: oral, aural, manual, oral-aural;, and simultaneous manual and oral. The simultaneous manual and oral and the manual modes received the highest ratings. Results are discussed in terms of theories of cognitive processing and selective attention.…

Speech, speechreading, and manual reception skills of 78 deaf students were evaluated over a 2-year interval of residency at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in order to determine the relative stability of these skills within an integrated environment which stresses the use of amplification and oral-aural instruction. (Author)

Deaf children (N=52) were administered a videotaped presentation of a vocabulary test under one of five conditions: Total Communication (TC) with audio; TC without audio; Manual Communication (MC) with no mouth movement; Oral Communication (OC) with audio; and OC without audio. Modes using MC or TC yielded performances significantly superior to OC…

A study investigated whether differences in working memory could account for variance in word recognition and receptive vocabulary skills of children (ages 5-16) using oral communication (n=32) and total communication (n=29). A contribution from working memory was observed only for the span tasks that incorporated an auditory processing component.…