Abstract

The receptive communication skills of 118 severely and profoundly deaf persons, aged 9 to 20 years, were assessed by a multiple-choice pictorial test. The most efficient method of communication was found to be reading, followed by Total Communication and manual communication; oral methods were clearly the least effective. The overall superiority of reading is further enhanced when account is taken of the rate of information transfer. Age and type of message also generated significant effects. Analyses of communication time suggest that the relative weakness of the oral technique results both from low signal/noise ratio and from short-term memory (STM) overload. Combining the oral and manual systems seems to create a more robust STM trace.

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