Eight focus groups of teachers of students who are deaf/hard of hearing identified language instructional practices associated with either oral communication or total communication. This generated a set of 79 statements of practices that were then verified by program supervisors using a Likert-type scale. Teachers' identified practices differed…

Analysis of data from 600 Canadian teachers of the hearing impaired found that the communication mode employed by teachers has a major effect on the competencies perceived as necessary for teacher effectiveness. Oral/aural teachers supported a wider range of competencies than did teachers using a Total Communication approach. (Author/DB)

Conservation and metaphor acquisition were studied in 35 hearing-impaired children (ages 6-19) using either cued speech or oral-aural communication. Significant positive relationships were found between conservation and metaphor in both communication modes, age and metaphor, and age and conservation. Neither conservation nor metaphor was related…

Conversational control was compared between hearing mothers using auditory-oral communication (A/O) and those using total communication (TC) with 34 deaf preschool children. Among A/O children, maternal style reflected children's spoken language ability, whereas among TC children, maternal style related to children's social development, and…

This article discusses placement and educational approaches for students with hearing impairments including what the law provides, what students need, what conflicts exist, and implications for practice. The major principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1997 amendments) are summarized. A continuum of placement options is…

The paper addresses problems teachers of the severely hearing impaired have in being bimodal (speech plus signs) English role models as well as in using American Sign Language. The project described in this paper centers around inservice training and in-class demonstrations of the use of a modified form of Signed English to provide a visual…

The purpose of this study was to survey teacher training programs for teachers of the deaf, to ascertain the extent to which American Sign Lanuage (ASL) and Manually Coded English (MCE) are taught in such programs, and to solicit the opinions of university personnel on the role of ASL and MCE in the language development of deaf children. The…

Describes a conversation measure for evaluation communicative competence of deaf adolescents and adults in light of: 1) the rationale behind its development; 2) its independence of the subjects' language variety; and 3)its use in a study of 40 deaf adolescents. The interview protocal is give in the Appendix. (Author/LMO)

This digest discusses hearing loss in children. Topics covered include: (1) the causes of hearing loss and the three major types of hearing losses, conductive loss, sensorineural loss, and central auditory processing disorder; (2) the federal definitions of "deaf" (hearing loss which adversely affects educational performance and which is…

This case study used individualized communication for interviewing people with intellectual disability in outcome and quality of life research. Researchers developed a flexible communication strategy for involving service users, drawing on core, local and individual vocabularies and using signs, graphic symbols and photographs to supplement spoken…

This article summarizes a paper by Robert E. Johnson et al., "Unlocking the Curriculum: Principles for Achieving Access in Deaf Education." The paper examines the failure of total communication practices to educate deaf children and recommends that deaf children learn American Sign Language first and learn English as a second language. (JDD)

Total communication is the simultaneous use of speech and manual signs. This article presents a literature review regarding language disabilities of children with Down's syndrome and a case study concerning the effectiveness of the use of total communication with an infant with Down's syndrome. (Author/BB)

Intended for teachers of the deaf, the document provides a bibliography on instructional materials for aurally handicapped students from pre-primary to high school level. Materials for each age level are divided into eight categories: career education (adult level materials are also provided in this section); language; mathematics, reading; social…

Two teachers recount the 2 years they each spent teaching an autistic 9-year-old boy named Bernie. The first teacher reviews Bernie's life history, reporting the facts of his birth and followup examinations which revealed no medical abnormality. The teacher then describes her work with Bernie at the Therapeutic Nursery School. After an initial…