Communication is an innate behavior people engage in to convey one's thoughts, needs, and interests to others (Knapp, Hall, & Horgan, 2014). Recommended Practices from the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC, 2014) encourage teachers to partner with families to implement strategies that support…

For young deaf children a co-enrolment setting with hearing children in nursery school is recognised as a useful provision for inclusive education. The aim of the study reported in this article was to gain knowledge about pathways into literacy for young deaf children in a co-enrolment setting. The questions raised in this article are: How are…

A majority of parents who have a child who is deaf are hearing and usually have had no experience with deafness. The impact on the parents can unequivocally alter their lives. The professional advice given to the parent regarding their child is often accepted as irrefutable fact, and can lead to the emotional, social, linguistic, and educational…

Due to the fact that the outcomes of education for most school leavers who are deaf in Northern Ireland are weak literacy skills and below average reading ages, a study was undertaken to investigate this situation. The views and experiences of teachers of children who are deaf, and of young people who are deaf in Northern Ireland, where oral and…

Two methods (signs presented with or without accompanying verbal label) of training autistic children to use manual signs were compared. The efficacy of training in both treatment conditions was demonstrated but no clear differences in acquisition speed across conditions were apparent. (Author/CL)

An elementary school class that learned sign language also benefited from several positive side effects. As the students developed a new means of communication, they also become more aware of deaf individuals and their needs. (DF)

Intended to raise researchers' and teachers' awareness of fingerspelling as an important part of signed communication, a study examined its use with deaf children in the classroom. Five trained teachers of the deaf, participating in a demonstration total communication project in a public school in the Midwest, were videotaped in their own…

The paper describes a program of teaching simultaneous communication (total communication) to behaviorally disordered preschool children, and presents the cases of two autistic and two autisticlike children. Simultaneous communication involves tactile, visual, oral, and auditory modalities and combines spoken language with Signed English. Before…

Suggestions are offered to help hearing teachers use effective nonverbal techniques in conjunction with signing when communicating information to hearing impaired students. Topics discussed include use of discourse markers, ways of maintaining eye contact, gaining/maintaining student attention, and effective turn-taking. (JW)

Six research areas in manual/simultaneous communication (M/SC) for hearing-impaired individuals are discussed. (Author)

A similtaneous verbal and gestural approach to communication was used with 11 autistic children (5 to 10 years old). Available from: Journal of Practical Approaches to Developmental Handicap, 3304-33rd Street N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2L 2A6. (SBH)

This article introduces a reprint of an 1835 article by Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard entitled, "Existing State of the Art of Instructing the Deaf and Dumb". It reviews Barnard's background and achievements (including 25 years as the president of Columbia College), his familial progressive deafness, and his advanced views on communication…

Intended for speech and language pathologists, teachers, and others, the book serves as an introduction to the use of total communication with autistic and other severely impaired populations. A brief introduction addresses sign language adaptation, criteria for choosing a core vocabulary, and a hierarchy of receptive and expressive skills.…

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)

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)