Getting Started with Early Intervention
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ASDC Snapshots: Communication Modes

Parents use one or more of several modes to communicate with their deaf child.

American Sign Language (ASL): ASL is a full, signed language with its own grammar, word order and idioms. It is the primary language of many Deaf persons in the United States. It is associated with Deaf culture, which has custom, beliefs and mores unique to itself.

Bi-lingual-Bi-Cultural: Schools where American Sign Language is the primary language of instruction generally subscribe to a bi-lingual/bi-cultural approach, where ASL and the Deaf community are seen as strengths. English is taught primarily through reading and writing, and speech training is offered.

Contact Language: Individuals who are learning a second language (such as hearing parents learning ASL) often follow the rules and patterns of their first language (such as spoken English). Contact language, sometimes called Pidgin Signed English, is the mode of communication that results from the "contact" between these two languages.

Cued Speech: Cued Speech is a sound-based visual communication system which, in English, uses eight hand shapes in four different locations ("cues") in combination with the natural mouth movements of speech, to make all the sounds of spoken language look different.

Oral: This approach emphasizes the use of residual hearing and speech reading. The use of sign language is not encouraged.

Signed English: These sign systems use signs from ASL along with invented signs to represent English word order and rules. These systems are not languages, but are codes meant to be used to support spoken English. Some examples are Seeing Essential English (SEE I) and Signing Exact English (SEE II).

Speechreading: This is the skill of understanding spoken language through movements visible on the mouth, facial expression and body language, and contextual cues.

Sim-com: See Total Communication

Total Communication: In theory this approach uses the diversity of ways in which persons who are deaf communicate: signing, speechreading, gesturing, use of residual hearing, etc. In practice this approach often appears as simultaneous communication, "sim-com," or signing and speaking at the same time.

The information sheets on this web page come to our site courtesy of the American Society for Deaf Children (ASDC). ASDC would like to share this information with all parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The American Society for Deaf Children can be reached at:
P.O. Box 3355, Gettysburg, PA 17325
717/334-7922 v/tty Business
717/334-8808 Fax
800/942-ASDC v/tty Parent Information and Referral