This paper discusses historical and contemporary issues regarding communication approaches for educating Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children in Ghana. Discussion of the communication approaches took into account a brief historical background to the development of formal education for DHH children in the country, academic achievement of DHH…

All children have the right to education that meets their needs and aims to enable them full integration in their society. Education should guarantee all children an equal chance to actively participate in society regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or disability (Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989). Yet sophisticated mechanisms within…

The article reviews a study of interactions among deaf children, their parents and teachers which points out the need for developing early and ongoing contact with the deaf community. It is stressed that English and American Sign Language be given equal status in the classroom. (CL)

The gap between oral and manual production of the 159 profoundly deaf children in total communication programs indicated that spoken English did not develop simultaneously with manually coded English and that Ss educated in programs using manually coded English did not develop competence with early developing English syntax faster than those not…

Discusses the implications of deafness for cognition and describes communicative systems (the oral method and sign language) for the deaf. Holds that parents of deaf children should teach them both signing and speaking. (GC)

Research is reviewed on bilingual education and its application to the education of hearing-impaired students. Assessment procedures for obtaining valid samples of language behavior, distinguishing between competence and performance, and considering language variation are emphasized. (CL)

Describes research into the correspondence between speech and sign language by looking at simultaneous communication as it is used by fluent deaf persons. The study aims to determine what relationship, if any, exists between the morpheme level and the message level of utterances in discourse. (SED)

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)

Deaf children and hearing mothers using oral only communication spent significantly less time engaged in interaction than did mothers and children in the two groups using sign language or the hearing group. The major finding affirms the similarities between the deaf mother/deaf child pairs and the hearing mother/hearing child pairs. (Author)

Examines the differential mode usage (speech, vocalize, gesture and sign) of profoundly deaf preschoolers and their hearing mothers as a function of their level of communicative competence and method of communication. Relates simultaneous use of modes to higher communicative competence and specific pragmatic types of communication. (Author/MES)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the development of proto-imperative and proto-declarative utterances in normally developing, non-neonatally screened, profoundly deaf toddlers. Method: Both types of proto-declarative are considered to be the most basic prelinguistic and early linguistic communicative functions.…

The goal of the Manual/Simultaneous Communication Department (M/SCD) at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) is to assist deaf students in developing communication skills. (Author)

This reprint of a 1970 article examines some emergent concepts of psycholinguistics and relates them to the development of a language-training program for children with deafness. It discusses the stages and process of language development, and the advantages and disadvantages of the total-communication approach, oral communication, and the…

Storytelling by six teachers of the deaf was videotaped under three simulated conditions, as if they were presenting to hearing listeners, to oral deaf listeners, and to users of simultaneous communication. A number of grammatical and lexical characteristics were examined including Type-Token Ratios, a measure of lexical diversity, and Minimal…