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 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.…

A survey of educators (N=321) of the hearing impaired indicated that educational setting and communication mode employed most strongly affected their opinions on competencies relevant to instructional effectiveness. Those using oral/aural approaches thought a greater range of competencies necessary than those teaching in large special schools…

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)

Analysis of stop consonant production by 12 children (ages 6-12) who have used cochlear implants for at least 5 years indicates children's stop inventories differed from English mainly in having additional, non-English stops. Total communication users had fewer ambient stops and more nonambient ones that did oral communication users. (Contains…

This study analyzed storybook reading sessions involving a mother and her three-year-old twin daughters, one of whom was deaf. The mother asked the hearing twin almost twice as many questions as she asked of the deaf twin, and asked the hearing twin primarily conventional test questions, but she asked the deaf twin more gestural questions.…

Evaluates effects of age of initial intervention on hearing-impaired children's academic achievement, social-emotional adjustment, and speech comprehension. Early intervention was not associated with improved performance in any dependent measures. (Author/BB)

Project RITCH (Research In Total Communication in the Home) developed a model videotape program to teach total communication to families of young hearing-impaired children in their homes. Discussed are the process of designing the videotape prototype, field testing, characteristics of a model home program, and videotape distribution through local…

This study of 53 deaf adolescents at a residential school and their parents found that parents who used total communication had children whose self-esteem scores were higher than those of children whose parents used an oral-only method of communication. A positive relationship was also found between student self-esteem and reading level.…

Describes the development of the Interactive Video Questionnaire for interviewing deaf persons. The questionnaire uses videodisc and bar-code readers to present survey questions on screen in American Sign Language, Signed English, speech reading, or as English subtitles. (DB)

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…

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…

Examines the effect that hearing parents' communication methods have on the self-esteem of their deaf children. Results indicate that adolescents whose parents used total communication (speech, finger spelling, and sign language) had higher self-esteem scores than adolescents whose parents used speech only. Makes recommendations for school social…

Eight focus groups of teachers of students who are deaf/hard of hearing identified language instructional practices associated with either oral communication or total communication. This generated a set of 79 statements of practices that were then verified by program supervisors using a Likert-type scale. Teachers' identified practices differed…

Analysis of data from 600 Canadian teachers of the hearing impaired found that the communication mode employed by teachers has a major effect on the competencies perceived as necessary for teacher effectiveness. Oral/aural teachers supported a wider range of competencies than did teachers using a Total Communication approach. (Author/DB)