The study, based on L. Cronbach's Characteristics by Treatment Interaction model, investigated seven preschool programs for aurally handicapped children which variously employed the oral-aural method, the Rochester method, or the total communication method. Equipment, materials, grouping procedures, and activities were indicated for each program. Programs were compared for degree of parent involvement, adequacy of facilities and personnel, administrative organization of services, pupil populations, and degree of program structure. One hundred and two children from the programs were selected as the sample population. Data were reported from the Leiter Performance Test, the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, classroom observation, communication analysis, pupil records, the Brown Parent Attitude Scale, and a semantic differential measuring parent attitudes towards concepts related to deafness. Conclusions such as the following were drawn: children in structured programs tended to have higher IQ scores than those in unstructured programs; gestures were the most common mode of communication between children, regardless of the program's official methodology; communication from child to teacher most frequently involved the oral-aural mode; and no differences were found in speechreading abilities in the oral-combined and structured-unstructured comparisons. (GW)