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…

Examined is the combination of methods (aural, manual, oral) used within the philosophy of total communication for the deaf. The use of Cued Speech, a tool whose purpose is to make spoken language visually clear at the levels of phonems, syllables, suprasegmentals, words, and phrases, is advocated for communication with the deaf. (BD)

A review of problems with using such manual communication systems as cued speech, fingerspelling, Signed or Manual English, American Sign Language, and Pidgin Sign provides a rationale for using a combination of American Sign Language and Pidgin Sign and a few markers from Signed English for a Total Communication system. (CB)