The author cites research that casts doubt upon the use of total communication as a means of facilitating speech, communication between parent and child, academic achievement, and vocabulary development in hearing-impaired children. He states that the Alexander Graham Bell Association is not antimanual communication, but rather prospeech. (CL)

The article reviews augmentative and alternative communication symbol classifications reported in the literature over the past decade. The "aided/unaided" dichotomy (based on user production of the symbol) is proposed as the superordinate level of classification, rather than the "static/dynamic" (based on transmission of…

This article presents initial guidelines for combining current conventions for analyzing sign language and spoken language, to represent signs accompanied by speech. Rules are outlined for transcribing utterance groupings in terms of their context, inflection, sign gloss, spoken component, and phonetic transcription. (JDD)

This digest uses a question-and-answer format to address issues that parents should consider when thinking about the total communication (TC) approach for a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. Total communication is explained as the use of any/all modes of communication (manual, oral, auditory, and written) depending on the needs of the child.…

This paper proposes new policies which stress making explicit the roles of sign communication and speech in total communication programs for students with hearing impairments. A review of the literature supports the need to redefine total communication, provide improved preservice and in-service training of teachers in effective communication…