Advocates of bimodal bilingual (Bi-Bi) early intervention argue that both visual and auditory communication systems reflect optimal family and educational interactions for teachers, families, and their young children with hearing loss. The primary objective of this commentary is to highlight semantic variations noted in theoretical, ideological,…

The purpose of this study is to show the changing trends within the population of children who are deaf and hard of hearing in Belgium over the last 12 years. The combination of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening programs, early intervention, and cochlear implants have tremendously influenced the education and support of children who are deaf or…

Acquisition of phoneme-grapheme correspondences, a key concept of the alphabetic principle, was examined in young children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) using a semantic association strategy embedded in two interventions, the Children's Early Intervention and Foundations for Literacy. Single-subject design experiments using multiple…

The author cites research that casts doubt upon the use of total communication as a means of facilitating speech, communication between parent and child, academic achievement, and vocabulary development in hearing-impaired children. He states that the Alexander Graham Bell Association is not antimanual communication, but rather prospeech. (CL)

Legislation and court cases are cited to underline the critical need of mental health services for hearing impaired persons. Effects of hospitalization on hearing impaired persons who use only sign language are said to render the hospitalization antitherapeutic. Suggestions are made to mental health centers to improve services. (CL)

The study compared scores on a literacy battery of hearing-impaired subjects exposed to either an instructional communication system that attempts to completely encode a language (e.g. oral English, Signing Exact English) or to signed systems that incompletely encode spoken English. Students using the completely encoded language tended to perform…

This article reflects on Alexander Graham Bell's 1888 testimony before the Royal Commission of the United Kingdom on the Condition of the Deaf and Dumb, Etc. Excerpts are grouped by reference to (1) language education for the hearing impaired; (2) speechreading; (3) methods of teaching; (4) speech; and (5) sign language. (Author/PB)

Discusses English acquisition in children with severe to profound hearing impairments. Components that should be integrated during language acquisition are discussed and include phonology, semantics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. The mixture of learning conditions that influence the progress of language development in sign, speech, and text…

A teacher, speech-language pathologist, school principal, and audiologist rated 27 hearing-impaired elementary students on effective use of language, speech, and sign language and on presence of a learning disability and/or behavior problem. Ratings were compared with each other and with test scores purporting to identify learning disabilities or…

In this article, two teachers of students with hearing impairments present their understanding of semantics and how they use this understanding to informally assess students' signed, oral, and written-language samples. Describes different classroom strategies for encouraging students with hearing impairments to use rich language. (Author/CR)

A study involving 20 children (ages 4-9) using cochlear implants compared the articulation of those who used oral communication only (n=10) and those who used total communication (TC). Results from the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation indicate those using only oral communication committed significantly fewer errors than TC users. (Contains…

Production of 19 word-initial two-segment consonant clusters was examined in 12 children (ages 6-16) with cochlear implants, including 6 using oral communication and 6 using total communication. Results showed that 48% of the clusters were correctly produced (75% correct for oral communication users and 21% correct for total communication users).…

A study examined the speech intelligibility of children (ages 1-15) with deafness who use hearing aids. Data revealed a strong significant trend toward higher intelligibility for children with more residual hearing, and a significant trend toward higher intelligibility for users of oral communication than those using total communication. (Contains…

A study of reading, writing, spoken and signed language, speech perception and production, and cognition of 100 profoundly hearing-impaired students in oral and mainstream high school programs suggests that hearing-impaired students have much higher potential for literacy than previously reported, and that the primary predictor is English-language…

This paper provides a legal update on the role of the judiciary in determining an appropriate communication method for teaching hearing-impaired students. The paper concludes that the judiciary has consistently upheld the right of educational agencies to determine educational methodologies while attempting to protect hearing-impaired individuals'…