The study examined actual communicative expressions of five 3-year-old profoundly, prelingually deaf children and their mothers, along with nonverbal contextual information. Each subject was videotaped in the home while interacting with the mother in toy play and usual daily activity. Results identified more than 4,500 communicative expressions, generally limited to one or two formal signs plus elements typically considered to be pre- or para-linguistic. Three conclusions were drawn: (1) learning impaired children learning total communication, who are at the beginning levels of formal languge, produce frequent and effective expression of communicative intention; (2) they are in some instances able to override linguistic limitations and produce highly specific communicative intentions beyond those seen in younger hearing children at similar formal language levels; and (3) their language use is skewed heavily toward social contact in lieu of information exchange. (CL)