A Model for Teaching Parents of Young Hearing-Impaired Children Total Communication in the Home—Project RITCH

A federally-funded consortium, Project RITCH (Research In Total Communication in the Home), developed a model videotape program to teach total communication to the families of young hearing-impaired children in their homes. The model program resulted from two years of research on issues related to sign selection, presentation and filming, such as use of optimal sign descriptors and use of appropriate camera angles. The research findings lead to the development of a prototype videotape which was field tested nationwide. Information from the field test was used to develop a series of 60 lessons on 20 videotapes.

To make the videotapes easily accessible to families of hearing-impaired children throughout the country, the consortium developed and field tested procedures to house the tapes in local video stores and have them distributed to the families at no cost.