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COMMUNICATION MODES

This booklet (OPEN DOORS: Options in Communication and Education for Children Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing) addresses the five modes of communication most widely used in this country. In alphabetical order they are: American Sign Language, Auditory-Verbal, Cued Speech, Manually Coded English, and Oral. Each mode is defined in terms most commonly used by those who advocate for it.

American Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual/gestural language used by many members of the Deaf community in the United States and Canada. It is estimated to be the third or fourth most commonly used language in the U. S. Although it is a language that utilizes the visual/gestural medium, it is not merely gesture or mime: one cannot understand it until one learns it. For those who wish to learn it as a second language, it takes many years of study and interaction with people who use it.

(Summarized from, "A Basic Course in American Sign Language," Humphries, Padden, O'Rourke; 1994.)

ASL is a language in its own right. it is not derived from English. ASL has its own grammar and syntax (patterns of arrangement of words and phrases to make sentences) which are distinct from those of English. For example, plurals and tenses are indicated differently in English and ASL. Other important aspects of ASL are the use of appropriate facial expressions and body movements. Also, fingerspelling is used in instances where there is no sign available; for example, for many proper names and technical terms.

As a primary mode of communication, ASL is most often used in families where the parents are deaf and their native language is ASL. When the young deaf child is fluent in ASL, he or she may then be taught English as a second language so as to facilitate literacy. English may be taught via fingerspelling and/or written format or, by a native speaker of English, via Cued Speech.

If hearing parents wish to learn ASL for use with their deaf child as a primary or secondary language, classes may be available through their public school special education association, a local college, or a community service organization. For proficiency to develop, the parents will need to provide opportunities for the child, and perhaps the whole family, to have contact with and communicate with others in the Deaf Community. There may even be an organization in the area that can provide the family with a tutor or mentor who is deaf. When it comes time to make decisions regarding educational placement, the parents may request that their child be enrolled in a specialized program for the deaf or hard of hearing in which there are other children enrolled who are native ASL users. Keep in mind that frequent and prolonged exposure is required in order for language fluency to develop.

For more information regarding this mode of communication, parents may contact the National Association of the Deaf.

Auditory-Verbal

The auditory-verbal philosophy is that it is the right of children with all degrees of hearing loss to have the option of developing their abilities to listen and communicate using spoken language while growing up in the regular living and learning environments of their communities. Following auditory-verbal principles helps children who are deaf or hard of hearing learn to use their amplified residual hearing and/or a cochlear implant to listen, to process verbal language, and to speak.

The auditory-verbal approach is facilitated by identification of the hearing impairment as early as possible. The child is promptly fitted with appropriate amplification, making use of the most advanced technology. Audiological management is ongoing to ensure that maximal use of residual hearing is being made through either hearing aids or cochlear implant and any other assistive technology.

Parents and caregivers, as the child's primary language models, are participants in therapy sessions. They are provided with extensive counseling, education, and support so that they will facilitate their child's integration of listening into the development of spoken language. Through individualized therapy sessions with a qualified auditory-verbal therapist, the child is taught to learn verbal language through an emphasis on listening. The child is also taught to monitor his or her own voice and the voices of others to enhance the intelligibility of his or her spoken language. The normal developmental patterns of listening, language, speech, and cognition are followed to stimulate natural communication.

The auditory-verbal approach utilizes diagnostic therapy to continually assess the child's progress over time in each of the above developmental areas. Modifications are made to the child's program when indicated. Support services are also provided to facilitate his or her educational and social inclusion in regular education classes.

The auditory-verbal approach has much in common with the oral approach. Key differences are that with the auditory-verbal method, speechreading is not emphasized. Although the child is not prevented from looking at the person speaking, the child learns to listen first and is not required to look at the speaker's mouth for information. Also, with the auditory-verbal approach, the child is educationally mainstrearned from the start in preschool. In the oral approach, the child is often enrolled in an oral deaf/hard-of -hearing special education program until the child has met the program's criteria for mainstrearning.

For more information on this mode of communication, parents may contact Auditory-Verbal International.

Cued Speech

Cued Speech is a visual communication system which, in American English, uses eight handshapes - representing consonant sounds in four different locations near the mouth - representing vowel sounds. Consonants are "cued" in the appropriate vowel locations allowing the cues to be synchronized with what is actually being spoken - syllable by syllable.

Spoken English cannot be learned through speechreading alone because too many sounds are indistinguishable on the mouth. Using Cued Speech supplements what is seen on the mouth in such a way as to make spoken language clear through vision alone. The Cued Speech system, for American English, is depicted in its entirety in the diagram on the following page.

Literacy is the original and primary goal of Cued Speech. Cued Speech allows the child who is deaf to "see-hear" the English language as it is spoken - and to pick it up naturally, in essentially the same way as a child who is hearing. Children who use Cued Speech generally attain language and reading levels equal to those of children who are hearing. This is in stark contrast to the low reading levels attained by the average deaf child.

A significant benefit for the more than 90% of children who are deaf who have parents who are hearing, is that Cued Speech allows these parents to communicate with their children in their own native spoken language. "Most hearing parents can learn the system in a week or two and can become quite proficient in a few months of use," reports Dr. R. Orin Cornett, who has been helping families and professionals all over the world to learn Cued Speech since he invented the system in 1966. This allows for easy and complete communication within the family, throughout childhood, adolescence and into adulthood.

For children whose parents are deaf and whose native language is American Sign Language, Cued Speech can be used at school by teachers whose native language is English so as to facilitate the child's acquisition of English at school.

Although speech is not required of the child who uses Cued Speech virtually all do develop speech. If development of good oral communication skills is to be a goal for the child, the use of Cued Speech must be supplemented by adequate and coordinated training in audition and speech production.

For more information on Cued Speech parents may contact the National Cued Speech Association.

Manually Coded English

These are actually a group of systems, developed for educational purposes, that use signs, fingerspelling, or gestures separately o in combinations to represent English manually. "These systems are not distinct languages as ASIL is. Instead, the signs for words are presented in the same order as in English, and invented signs are used in some systems to convey tenses, plurals, possessives and other syntactical aspects of English. The conceptual base o ASIL, however, is maintained in most of these sign systems.' ("Choices in Deafness", Sue Schwartz, 1996.) The most common of these systems are Signed English, Seeing Essential English (SEE 1), Signing Exact English (SEE 11), and Contact Signing/Pidgin Signed English (PSE).

Parents who wish to learn more about Manually Coded English systems should contact their local public school special education associations. Often, the sign language classes provided through the public school systems utilize one of these sign systems rather than ASL.

Oral

The oral approach combines the use of speech, residual hearing, and speechreading as the primary means of communication for persons who are deaf.

The oral communication approach is based on the premise that most children actually have functional residual hearing, and that the speech signal is redundant, so that not every sound must be heard in order to understand a message. For oral language learning to be successful

with children who are deaf or hard of hearing, the hearing loss must b identified at an early age, preferably through infant hearing screening procedures before the infant is discharged from the hospital Amplification would be fitted shortly after the loss is identified, an programs of early intervention must take place during the critical yea of language learning (0-6 years), but the sooner the better.

Almost all auditory oral approaches today rely heavily on the training residual hearing. The traditional auditory/oral approach trains the chi with a hearing disorder to acquire language through the use of residual hearing augmented by speechreading (lipreading). In addition, hea\ emphasis is placed on amplification devices, such as hearing aid cochlear implants and assistive devices.