Presented is the third year interim report of a 4-year longitudinal study comparing effectiveness of seven preschool programs which serve approximately 69 deaf children. Schools are seen to emphasize either an oral-aural, Rochester (oral-aural plus fingerspelling), or total communication approach to language development. Reported are the following results: Ss' scores on visual-motor subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) were almost identical to scores of normal hearing children; Ss were superior to hearing norms in the test of manual expression; Ss in more structured programs scored higher on the ITPA than Ss in less structured programs; scores of Ss were higher than norms on four subtests of the Metropolitan Readiness Test; scores on a new Receptive Communication Scale showed sound alone to be the least efficient communication mode (43 percent) rising to 86 percent when speechreading, fingerspelling, and signs were added; ratings with the Expressive Communication scale revealed that raters correctly identified 37 percent of Ss' expressive attempts; Ss in two programs (oral-aural and total communication) achieved higher articulation scores than Ss in other programs; Ss in a program basing its curriculum on concepts of J. Piaget scored higher than other Ss on a test of Cognitive Development Measures; in child to child communication the most common made was sign language; in child to teacher communication the most common mode was oral-aural followed by sign; and parents of children in oral-only programs now have neutral rather than negative attitudes toward manual communication. (DB)