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1. PHILOSOPHY
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===============1=============== PHILOSOPHY Total communication has emerged as a liberal approach to the use of both oral and manual means of communication for deaf people, but history records earlier attempts to teach deaf children through combined methods. Indeed, some of these practices may be seen as antecedents of the modern concept of total communication. An understanding of these past events might give a useful perspective for dealing with the present day problems, but within the context of the wider knowledge and modern resources now available. This opening chapter begins with a brief outline of some earlier practices, insofar as they might be viewed as forerunners of ideas that are now being brought together in the eclectic philosophy of total communication. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE It is generally considered that the systematic teaching of deaf people had its origin in sixteenth century Spain, when the deaf children of important families were placed in the care of Pedro Ponce de Leon. Because it was a legal requirement that these children should acquire speech to claim their inheritances, the prime emphasis was placed upon the teaching of speech. According to Farrar (1890), the order of instruction was "first teaching to write names of objects, then articulation, followed by the association of the written word with the spoken form" (p. 34). Another Spaniard, Juan Pablo Bonet, published the historically important book Reduccion de las Letras, y Arte Para Ensenar a Hab1ar los Mudos (1620), which included a one-handed manual alphabet. This book was eventually translated into English by Dixon in 1890, with the title Simplification of the Letters of the Alphabet and Methods of Teaching Deaf Mutes to Speak. Bonet believed that fingerspelling should be used by members of the family to the young deaf child. In his method, articulation 2 Total Communication of speech was based upon written and fingerspelled symbols . It is likely that Bonet's alphabet was an adaptation of existing systems, possibly one of the earlier Italian manual alphabets published in Rosselius's Thesaurus of 1579 (an illustration appears in Savage, Evans, and Savage, 1981). The seventeenth-century English scholar John Bulwer produced the first books in English dealing with communication for deaf people. In Chirologia, or the Naturall Language of the Hand published in 1644, he used the term chirologia for communication on the hands "composed of the speaking motions, and discoursing gestures" (title page). To this he added chronomia, "or the Art of Manual Retoricke" comprising the "Naturall Expressions, Digested Art in the Hand, as the chiefest Instrument of Eloquence" (title page). He claimed that natural gestures, which he termed chirograms, were a form of universal language ex- '~;;;":~~":[O'r~"i ~ ~ .! ~ I c F I(~ ~ ,~""1 ~~ i I ... I ,\< ~! ~ I \ f ~iidi~,'~7' ~ ,"~~J 11 ( " - ' T ~ ~ L»=»»»~f ~~l J~I Iz~) l: Figure 1. Spanish one-handed manual alphabet, published by Bonet in 1620 [3.135.205.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 10:38 GMT) Philosophy 3 pression. He invented a system of communication on the fingers, which he called arthrologie, and in his Deafe and Dumbe Man's Friend, or Philocophus, published in 1648, he described lithe Subtle Arte, which may inable one with an observant Eie, to Heare what any man speaks by the moving of his lips" (title page). This process he called labiall augerie. Bulwer thus advocated the use of processes which we would now think of as signing, fingerspelling, and lipreading. A noteworthy theorist on the nature of language was George Dalgarno of Oxford. In his Didascalocophus: or, the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor of 1680, he described a primitive manual spelling system, in which letters were represented by pointing with one hand to parts of the other hand. He called his system, possibly the first to be devised especially with deaf people in mind, dactylology, a term which has continued to be used for fingerspelling up to the present time. He suggested that deaf children should be exposed to fingerspelling from an early age, in the hope that they might learn language in a way similar to that for hearing children. Dalgarno's system was not the form of fingerspelling which later became widely used in Britain. The earliest version of the British fingerspelling system dates from the pamphlet Digiti Lingua of 1698 which, with modifications , has evolved as the present day two-handed manual alphabet. Another Oxford scholar of the time, John Wallis, also became interested in the problems of communication. His book Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae of 1653 (usually referred to as De Loquella) was written as a grammar of English as a foreign language. Wallis thought that this might be of value for deaf people, and in due course he became involved in teaching a deaf man. Some details of his method are known. From the use of spontaneous gesture, he proceeded to teach the written alphabet and gave separate attention to teaching speech articulation (Bender, 1970). The Braidwood family claimed to use an exclusive oral 4 Total Communication Figure 2. English two-handed manual alphabet, published in Digiti Lingua in 1698 method in the early British schools. However, after the death of the first Thomas Braidwood, his nephew, Joseph Watson of the school in the Old Kent Road, London, published his Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (1809) in which he implied that the Braidwoods' success was based upon similar principles to the method used by Wallis-the use of natural gesture, written language, and speech. The early teacher of the deaf in France, the Spaniard Rodriquez Pereire, was also secretive about his method, but an account written in 1764 by one of his most able students , Saboureaux de Fontenay (cited in Farrar, 1923) suggested that he also used signing, fingerspelling, and writing. Pereire adopted the manual alphabet used by Bonet but modified and augumented it in such a way that the hand formations represented not only the letters of written French but also the phonemes of spoken French. This phonetic system, for which Pereire adopted the term dactylology , may be viewed as an early forerunner of the nineteenth - and twentieth-century systems of phonetic fingerspelling and manual cueing of lipreading. The serious study of sign language and signing systems Philosophy 5 began with the work of Abbe Charles Michel de l'Epee at Paris. In his publications (1776; 1784) he described his teaching approach. In addition to speech and lipreading, he made early use of the manual alphabet, based upon Bonet's publication. He considered the language of signs to be the natural language for deaf people but set about to modify and expand it into his signes methodiques-systematic signing of the French language. This was a forerunner of the modern systems for signing in the exact word order of spoken language. De l'Epee undertook the preparation of a dictionary of signs, which was eventually completed and published as Theorie des Signes by his successor as head of the Paris school, Abbe Roch Sicard (1818). When Sicard was, in turn, succeeded by Roch Bebian, there began a gradual reversion to the use of "natural" signs, used with fingerspelling to represent French syntax (Bebian, 1825, cited in Stokoe, 1960). The approach to teaching based upon the use of signing, fingerspelling, and written language , in addition to speech and lipreading, became known widely as the French method (in contrast to the German method, which was the name given to the pure oral teaching advocated in Germany by Samuel Heinicke). When Henry Guyot founded a school for deaf children at Groningen in 1790, he based his teaching on the work of de l'Epee, but he was anxious to give greater prominence to speech and developed a combined oral and manual approach which became known as the old Dutch, or mixed method. De l'Epee and Sicard also had an influence in England. Louis du Puget from Switzerland, who was familiar with the French method, was appointed head of the school at Birmingham and introduced signing and fingerspelling. When Charles Baker, who had trained under du Puget, opened the school at Doncaster in 1829, he developed a method which started with natural signing, was followed by fingerspelling, and led on to writing. William Neill, who [3.135.205.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 10:38 GMT) 6 Total Communication had worked under Baker, was appointed head of the school at Newcastle upon Tyne, and he in turn introduced a comFigure 3. French one-handed manual alphabet, published in mid-nineteenth century Philosophy 7 bined method. His successor, Andrew Wright, placed a greater emphasis upon speech. By 1891, he advocated a combined method using natural signs and the manual alphabet , leading to written language and the teaching of articulation and lipreading for those children who showed aptitude -surely an early forerunner of total communication! The French method also influenced education of deaf people in the United States from its beginning. In 1815, the founders of the first public school for deaf children sent Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to Europe. Gallaudet's intention was to observe the oral method in London and the French method in Paris. However, difficulties prevented him from studying the oral method of the Braidwoods, and in 1816, he travelled to Paris to observe with Sicard. Upon his return to the United States, accompanied by Laurent Clerc, he became head of the school opened in 1817 at Hartford, Connecticut, later known as the American School for the Deaf. He soon worked out the teaching method. The early use of manual signs was followed by teaching of more conventional type signs, then fingerspelling was introduced, followed by written language (American Asylum for the Deaf, Report for 1819, p. 6-8). The form of fingerspelling used was based upon the one-handed alphabet used in France at that time. One of Gallaudet's two sons, Edward Miner Gallaudet, became the first president of the institution of higher education for deaf students at Washington, D.C., which was later named Gallaudet College in honor of the elder Gallaudet . The method of communication for instruction at that time included signing and fingerspelling with speech and lipreading. Edward Miner Gallaudet described this approach as the combined system (Gordon, 1892). With the opening of further schools in other states, the use of manual communication in teaching remained dominant until the founding of the Clarke School at Northampton , Massachusetts, dedicated to pure oral teaching. Other 8 Total Communication oral schools followed. One significant attempt to modify the pure oral approach was made at the Rochester School for the Deaf in New York state. Zenos Westervelt proposed the use of fingerspelling, but only in conjunction with speech and in the correct grammatical word order of English (Westervelt, 1878). This became known as the Rochester method which has seen revivals from time to time. By the later part of the nineteenth century, there were in the United States two broad educational philosophies, one advocating exclusive oral teaching and the other supporting the use of combined oral and manual media. In European countries, due largely to the influence of the International Congress at Milan in 1880, a more general adherence to Figure 4. American one-handed manual alphabet, published in early nineteenth century [3.135.205.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 10:38 GMT) Philosophy 9 pure oralism prevailed. These were the traditions which persisted into the twentieth century. A NEW APPROACH IN THE UNITED STATES The middle part of the twentieth century saw new technical developments of great importance to the oral approach. The earlier invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell and the discovery of the principles of electronic amplification of sound led eventually to the development of the audiometer for the measurement of auditory acuity and the hearing aid for amplification of speech. Audiology, the science of hearing and deafness, emerged as a new field of specialization. One of the pioneers of the audiological era was Dr. Max Goldstein, who founded the Central Institute for the Deaf at St. Louis in 1914. He developed a scheme for training of residual hearing, named the acoustic method, which he distinguished from earlier oral and manual methods (Goldstein , 1933). The subsequent advances in audiological knowledge and technology have helped children with impaired hearing to use hearing aids to good effect. The modern concept of oralism emphasizes the early discovery of hearing loss, guidance to parents of young deaf children, and amplification of speech and training of residual hearing . To recognize the importance attached to the place of residual hearing for the reception of speech, the term orall aural method has been applied for this approach. Some use of combined methods, using both oral and manual media, persisted in the United States, mainly with older students. At the higher education level, Gallaudet College had a record of teaching through a combined method, using signing and fingerspelling in conjunction with speech and lipreading. The majority of the state schools for the deaf had a permissive attitude towards manual communication at the upper levels but were generally committed to oral teaching at the primary level. Most private schools and special classes in public schools maintained a pure oral outlook (Garretson, 1976b). By the mid- 10 Total Communication 1950s, it was the invariable practice in American schools to start young deaf children by the oral method (Elstad, 1955). It was claimed, in a study by Falberg in 1964, that sign language was not formally taught to students in American schools for the deaf, and where it was used in the classrooms, this was at the high school level (p. 35). During the 1960s, the prevailing attitude towards teaching method became increasingly questioned by educators in the United States. Evidence of the results of the oral approach gave rise to dissatisfaction. Vernon (197l) surveyed studies by Schein and Bushnaq in 1962, Boatner in 1965, and McClure in 1966, which revealed that of the deaf student population, over 30 percent were illiterate, 60 percent were at a fifth-grade level or below, and only five percent reached tenth-grade level or better, and these were mostly hard of hearing or adventitiously deafened students. An important study of the actual attainments of deaf students on completion of their schooling provided further evidence. A survey of results of the National Achievements Tests standardization study carried out from the Office of Demographic Studies of Gallaudet College in 1974 (Trybus and Karchmer, 1977) found that in the twenty-year-old deaf population (who had passed through primary education in the 1960s) the average student had a reading ability below fifth-grade level; only 10 percent read at above eighth-grade level. Although oral teaching prevailed in the early stage of formal education, some measure of the effects of the use of early manual communication was possible through observing deaf children of deaf parents. Comparisons were made between the linguistic and educational attainments of deaf children of deaf parents who had been brought up using manual communication and deaf children of hearing parents brought up with oral communication. Studies carried out with matched groups of children concluded that the early use of manual communication had a beneficial influ- Philosophy 11 ence on various aspects of development, including general educational attainment (Stevenson, 1964), lipreading ability (Stuckless and Birch, 1966) and written language and social maturity (Meadow, 1968). Some experimental studies of work in schools also suggested that a combined method using fingerspelling with oral media promoted reading skill (Hester, 1963) and also written language and lipreading (Quigley, 1969). Some caution is called for in the interpretation of matched studies. Deaf children of deaf parents are more likely to have hereditary-type deafness than deaf children of hearing parents. Consequently, the deaf children of hearing parents might have a higher incidence of brain injury, which could in turn adversely affect linguistic and educational development. Vernon and Koh (1970) carried out a study which took account of this possibility. They included as subjects only deaf children of hearing parents for whom there was positive evidence that they had deafness of hereditary type. Vernon and Koh still found the deaf children of deaf parents to have better educational attainment and were able to conclude that this was due to their early experience of manual communication. An example of an experimental program aimed at developing the potential of a combined teaching approach with young deaf children was described by Brill and Fahey (1971). The California School for the Deaf at Riverside had previously used fingerspelling in conjunction with oral communication with children in grades one through twelve but considered that children under five years of age were usually not mature enough to learn fingerspelling of words. In 1969, it was decided to introduce signs with oral communication to preschool children, aged three to five years. Brill and Fahey observed the development of concepts , signs, and spoken and lipread words, and they concluded that the children made better progress than had been observed previously through pure oral teaching. [3.135.205.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 10:38 GMT) 12 Total Communication The children in the program had developed an understanding and communicating ability of over 350 concepts .... The speech and speechreading abilities are better in children who experience the combined system than with restriction to oral methods, and the social adjustment as demonstrated by their behavior is far better. As a resulti the child's familial relationships, as well as his schoo ones, are appreciably smoother and more rewarding (p. 19). Although the findings from research were widely regarded as evidence of the shortcomings of pure oral methods and the greater effectiveness of combined communication , acceptance was not universal. For instance, Nix (1975), in a review of research, questioned the interpretation of some of the studies. But actual events suggest that educators, in general, began to take a serious interest in the manual communication media in actual teaching methods. Gradually there emerged a new attitude. Garretson (1976b) recorded that during the 1960s "a segment of the profession began to articulate the need to develop a philosophical framework that would recognize the value of manual modes as useful adjuncts to accepted aural/oral approaches " (p. 89). The theoretical interest in manual communication was heightened when such distinguished linguists as Lenneberg (1967, p. 320) and Chomsky (cited in Vernon, 1972) expressed critical views on pure oral communication for all severely deaf children. Out of this growing concern there developed a more liberal outlook which advocated the use of oral and manual media in combination. This became known as total communication . Although the term had an earlier usage, as for instance in a work by Margaret Mead (1964), it has become associated with the liberal communication approach for deaf people. Garretson (1976b) records that the term total communication was used in 1968 by an educator, Dr. Roy Holcomb, to describe a flexible approach to communication in teaching deaf children at Santa Ana, California. The term was quickly taken up, and in 1968 it was adopted by Dr. David Denton to describe the philosophy at Philosophy 13 the Maryland School for the Deaf. Denton (Note 1\ described the approach there as comprising "the full spectrum of language modes, child-devised gesture, the language of signs, speech reading, fingerspelling, reading, and writing ... the development of residual hearing for the enhancement of speech and speech reading skills." The importance of fingerspelling and signing, to supplement the inadequacy of lipreading, has been emphasized. Vernon (1972\ explained total communication as "a constructive coping with the reality of the limitations of lipreading .... the deaf child is taught and is given the opportunity to communicate through a system no more ambiguous to him than the spoken word" to the hearing child (p. 531\. The obligation of both hearing and deaf people to adjust their skills to meet the needs of the particular situation was stressed in a description of total communication as a concept that involves the use of all means of communication with deaf people and by deaf people. It requires that a hearing person use his speech, signs, fingerspelling, and English syntax. It holds the deaf person to these same requirements. It also requires that every effort is made by the deaf person to use residual hearing (Merrill, Note 2\. The concept of a multimedia approach to communication gained further acceptance, so that in an international seminar held at London in 1975, total communication was said, by Brill (1976\, to involve the use of any and all modes of communication. This includes the use of a sign language system, fingerspelling, speech, speech reading, amplification, gestures, pantomime , drawing and writing . . . expressive modes can be used simultaneously such as speech, one of the forms of manual communication, and amplification. The individual ... may receive through only one of the modes or by two or more modes simultaneously (p. 80\. The most significant departure from the pure oral approach was the recognition of signing, and especially sign 14 Total Communication language. There was, of course, not complete agreement about its use among educators of deaf children. Scouten (1973), although strongly advocating the use of fingerspelling with speech, questioned the concept of total communication on grounds that it undervalued the place for oral development and that the use of sign language might impair the development of English. Equally strong arguments were made in favor of sign language. Stokoe (Note 3) held the following view: If total communication is to be what it claims to be, then it must include in its total more than just American English and all the many ways of coding it in visual symbols. Total Communication as a force in the education of the deaf must include the knowledge and use of sign (ASL). It was pointed out by Stuckless (1976) that the term total communication "means different things to different people . To some, the one essential element is manual communication , to others, it is an assortment of techniques all of which have validity when used appropriately and selectively " (p. 143). Stuckless considered that "the legitimacy of the concept rests with the selectivity with which each potential technique subsumed under the concept is used" (p. 143). Garretson (1976b) recorded that there was broad agreement on three aspects of total communication: (a) it is "a philosophy rather than a method"; (b) it involves "a combining of aural/oral-manual media according to the communicative needs and the expressive-receptive threshold of the individual"; (c) it recognizes "moral right of the hearing impaired ... to maximal input in order to attain optimal comprehension and total understanding in the communication situation" (p. 89). To these observations Garretson added his perception. Total communication is neither a method nor a prescribed system of instruction. It is a philosophical approach that encourages a climate of communication flexibility for the deaf person free of ambiguity, guess work and stress. . .. [3.135.205.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 10:38 GMT) Philosophy 15 Hierarchical distinctions among the various modes are avoided, each modality receives legitimate status as an acceptable instrument for human interchange (Garretson, 1976b, p. 90). By 1976, interest in total communication had reached such a level as to warrant an official definition. The Conference of Executives of American Schools for the Deaf at the Forty-Eighth Meeting held at Rochester, New York, agreed upon a definition of total communication as a philosophy incorporating the appropriate aural, manual, and oral modes of communication in order to ensure effective communication with and among hearing impaired persons (Garretson, 1976a, p. 300). This hallmark of official recognition reinforced the widely understood concept of total communication as an eclectic attitude towards the selective use of appropriate media to suit the needs of the situation. Subsequent developments in educational practice emphasized this interpretation of total communication as a philosophical attitude towards the acceptance of oral and manual media, rather than a methodological prescription as to how they should be used. This outlook was exemplified in the description developed for the Pre-College Programs at Gallaudet College, which held that total communication is not a method, but rather a philosophy of approaching any given communication situation.... It is a recognition that not all modes of communication are effective for individuals in all situations ... a commitment to a selection of those modes or combination of modes which will be most effective with individual children (Cokely, 1979, p. 9-10). PARALLEL CHANGES IN BRITAIN The trend in the United States was paralleled by developments in Britain, where concern for the level of educational attainment of hearingimpaired children led to similar changes in attitude and practice. During the 1950s, most of the formative influ- 16 Total Communication ences on education of the deaf had been centered on a pure oral philosophy. Teachers were trained to use oral methods onlYi the communication research was concerned mainly with use of residual hearing, lipreading, and speech intelligibilitYi and the early guidance to parents emphasized the role of speech and lipreading. It is not surprising that, against this background of influence, the majority of British schools for the deaf aspired, at least officially, to use pure oral methods of teaching. The opening of many partially hearing units meant that by the mid-1960s the majority of children receiving full-time special educational treatment because of their impaired hearing were placed in ordinary schools. It was expected that when properly assessed , partially hearing children should be capable of making satisfactory progress in speech and language by oral teaching. With the continuing trend towards integration of hearing-impaired children in ordinary schools, the special schools became preoccupied with the needs of the more severely handicapped, and this brought into question the suitability of pure oral teaching for all deaf children. In 1964, an important committee of inquiry was set up by the British Department of Education and Science under the chairmanship of a distinguished educator, Professor Michael Lewis, to consider the possible place of fingerspelling and signing in the education of deaf children. The report of the committee (Department of Education and Science , 1968) strongly endorsed a place for oral communication and urged improvements in the conditions for oral teaching. But it also recommended that research should be carried out to determine whether "the introduction of manual media of communication would lead to improvement in the education of deaf children" and to evaluate the "effects of combining oral and manual media" (p. 106). The publication of this report, popularly known as the "Lewis Report," opened the way for scientific study of communication in British schools in the 1970s, including Philosophy 17 evaluation of the results of oral teaching and the introduction of combined teaching methods. In a study of communication methods, Rodda, Godsave, and Stevens (1974) commented on evidence suggesting that only a minority of deaf children educated by oral means attained intelligible speech and good lipreading ability. "How many children," they asked, "in how many places taught by how many teachers under differing oral regimes have to fail to make a viable educational progress before it is admitted that the oral technique is not so much a soundly based methodology but more a way of life?" They emphasized that, of course, some children benefit by oral education , and that all deaf children should be taught speech and lipreading, but questioned whether the small minority who achieve good speech and lipreading "represent a defensible position to warrant the formal exclusion of the other communication systems from the schools accepting the prelingually , profoundly deaf child" (p. 735). In 1976, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf published the proceedings of an important international seminar on methods of communication currently used in the education of deaf children. Twenty participants from Great Britain, Ireland, Holland, the United States, and Canada presented papers. Of those experienced in education, psychology , psychiatry, or social work, some advocated the continuation of a predominately pure oral approach (Braybrook ; Lowell; Reeves; Watson), but others proposed, or discussed evidence for, the use of combined oral and manual media for some deaf children (Brill; Craig; Davis; Denmark ; Evans; Freeman; Meadow; Montgomery; Reed; Stuckless; Verney; Vernon). In a summary of these papers, Conrad (1976) commented on "the difficulty of assessing exactly what oralism has been able to achieve." He pointed out that, in contrast to "a very substantial body of research (into the use of combined media, there is) a curious, dramatic , and ... unfortunate imbalance in documentation [3.135.205.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 10:38 GMT) 18 Total Communication (with lack ofl a single published account which sets out the outcome, the achievements, and the shortcomings of good oral education" (p. 1481. It was Conrad himself who later provided sound evidence of the results of the predominately oral education in British schools. Working from the University of Oxford, with his colleagues Kyle, Morris, McKenzie, and Weiskrantz, Conrad (19791 carried out a comprehensive study of the actual attainments of virtually all prelingually deaf children completing their formal education in England and Wales during the period 1974 to 1976, a total of 468 children, of whom 359 were in special schools and 128 in partially hearing units. He provided a quantitive account of their attainments in communication and spoken and written language, their capacity for thinking, and their ability to internalize language and to use linguistic symbols. Conrad found a lack of satisfactory attainment in language development. Apart from general progress in language, as measured by reading and writing, the theoretical justification for an exclusively oral education must surely rest upon its special capacity to promote oral reception, oral internalization, and oral expression of language. Conrad's findings revealed that these specific criteria of oral success were not widely attained. He found unsatisfactory levels of lipreading, internalized speech, and spoken language. The Lewis Report (Department of Education and Science, 19681 recommendations for research into the effects of combining oral and manual media were implemented, in 1973, in a developmental study of manual media in teaching methodology carried out jointly by the Northern Counties School for the Deaf and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with the official support of the Department of Education and Science. This involved the introduction of one-handed fingerspelling and signing, in conjunction with oral media in a combined method. It was confirmed that a new form of manual communication could be quickly learned by deaf children, and that combined media had a Philosophy 19 beneficial effect on reception and understanding of English language (Savage et al., 1981). By the late 1970s, a number of British schools for the deaf had introduced combined methods of teaching or formally adopted the term total communication for their teaching approach. These include some of the older schools with past experience of manual methods, such as the Royal School for Deaf Children at Margate, the Royal West of England School for the Deaf at Exeter, and the Yorkshire Residential School for the Deaf at Doncaster, as well as some more recently opened schools, such as Heathlands School for the Deaf at St. Alban's, and Beverley School for the Deaf at Cleveland. In the south of England, the widening interest led to the setting up of a working party to develop practical guidelines for the most effective ways of combining lipreading, speech, residual hearing, signing, and fingerspelling into teaching method (Robson, Note 4). In Scotland , there has been research into the effectiveness of signing and fingerspelling (Montgomery, 1966, 1968; Montgomery and Lines, Note 5), and the term total communication has been widely applied for the combined teaching methods in Scottish schools. The support for total communication from professionals in fields allied to education included strong advocacy for the use of sign language. Verney (1976), a social worker, believed that "the manual component of total communication should be a standardized and systematized version of the sign language already in use by deaf adults" (p. 71). Denmark (1976), a psychiatrist , also maintained that total communication should include "the sign language as used by deaf people in this country" (p. 77). THE WORLDWIDE TREND The influence of total communication quickly spread beyond North America and developed into a worldwide trend. There is a close interaction between the United States and Canada in the field of education of deaf children. The concept of total communication quickly gained ground in Canada, where one of the 20 Total Communication strongest supporters has been Dr. Roger Freeman, a psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia. As happened in other European countries, the Milan International Congress of 1880 had a strong influence on teaching methods in Sweden, where sign language had earlier been used. For many years, deaf people had sought the reintroduction of sign language into teaching in the schools, but to little avail. The advances in audiology of the 1950s reinforced hopes for good attainment by pure oral teaching, but the "great expectations of the 50s were not realized. . .. Towards the middle of the 60s there was, in consequence, a growing interest in alternative methods of work and communication, and with it came a more openminded attitude towards sign language" (Bergman, 1979, p. 9). This change of outlook led to some significant developments . Sign language was included as a subject in the official national curriculum of special schools. The Swedish National Association of the Deaf stongly advocated the acceptance of signing by parents for use at all stages of education and voiced a demand for the introduction of total communication into schools. In Denmark, there has been a significant acceptance of total communication. By 1980, the majority of children with slight hearing loss were integrated into ordinary schools with varying levels of support. Partially hearing children were placed in special education units in ordinary schools. The majority of deaf, but also some partially hearing , children attended the four residential schools for the deaf. There was also a national residential college for continuing education beyond the compulsory school age of sixteen years. Most of the special education units, all of the schools for the deaf, and also the college of further education had adopted total communication. In Denmark, total communication includes the use of Danish Sign Language, Signed Danish, and the Mouth-Hand System for supplementing lipreading (Hansen, 1980). [3.135.205.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 10:38 GMT) Philosophy 21 The size of the country and the organization of the services for hearing-impaired children are conducive to a unified approach, but the Center for Total Communication has had an especially stimulating influence. Again, there is a strong emphasis upon the concept of total communication as an attitude towards the use of communication media rather than a way of teaching. The Center holds that total communication is a communication philosophy-not a communication method and not at all a teaching method. . . . Total communication is an approach to' create a successful and equal communication between human beings with different language perception and/or production.... To use total communication amounts to a willingness to use all available means in order to understand and be understood (Hansen, 1980, p. 22). Denmark is renowned for its progressive audiological services and advanced hearing aid technology. The Audiologopedic Research Group at the University of Copenhagen supports and studies total communication, a fact which strengthens the view of total communication as a multimedia approach in which oral media and aural techniques have an essential place alongside manual media. Holland has had a reputation for its pure oralism, due largely to the work of the St. Michielsgestel School at Eindhoven , but even there, changes have occurred. At the St. Michielsgestel School itself, children who are not considered to be capable of making good progress through pure oral education are taught by a combined method using fingerspelling with speech and lipreading (Van Uden, 1974). It has been suggested by Tervoort (Note 6) that the home training programs set up in Holland in the late 1950s, to encourage mothers to use speech and to avoid gestural communication, were of limited success in facilitating future speech development. He records that there grew more and more doubt about the acceptability of such a drastic intervention in the vital first interactions between mother and child. There was growing conviction 22 Total Communication that the demands of the subsequent speech education were exaggerated . . . so the question arose if it would not be much better afterall not to interfere in this first interaction in signs (p. 4). Tervoort argued that normally the use of "all modalities is a matter of natural course at the beginning of life between mother and child./I He supported the concept of total communication as a selective process, which emphasizes the use of oral or manual media, or both, according to individual needs. As far as communication with the deaf child is concerned ... the most efficient modality or modalities in each case should be preferred. Usually that will be a combinatory form. Intensive use of all residual functional hearing is included as explicitly as the use of manual signs, but he who has to make out without the first or can do without the second modality still uses total communication (p. 10). These views of an eminent linguist reflect the wide acceptance of the total communication concept and the growing understanding of its relevance to language acquisition. In countries in other parts of the world, there has been acceptance of total communication. In Malaysia, the Federation School for the Deaf at Penang was originally founded on pure oral principles, but eventual dissatisfaction with the results obtained led to a change. Following extensive study of developments in the United States and Britain, the principal of the school introduced a combined approach to teaching (Isa, Note 7). The philosophy of total communication has also influenced practice in Jamaica (Campbell, Note 8) and in Costa Rica (Campos, Note 9). In Australia, there was, in the past, less extreme difference of educational opinion than in the United States and some European countries and a coexistence between schools using pure oral teaching and schools using combined methods. According to an Australian educator (Jeanes, Note lOL by the close of the 1970s, all of the states had a major school practicing total communication, com- Philosophy 23 plementing the work done for a proportion of hearingimpaired children educated in ordinary schools. The general approach in these schools is to use a manual representation of English based upon the lexicon of Australian Sign Language in conjunction with oral communication. Total communication has evolved as a liberal attitude toward the use of appropriate media to meet individual needs or different situations, rather than a precise way of teaching . It has been emphasized that total communication is a philosophy, not a method. But philosophy alone does not guarantee more successful or satisfying results; attainments in education are influenced more directly by teaching method. The philosophy advocates what media should be available; how they should be used is a matter of methodology . Total communication, as a philosophy, has to be implemented in practice. The next chapter looks, in broad terms, at the way in which total communication as a concept has developed in educational practice. This provides a foundation for more detailed consideration, in the later chapters, of the theoretical issues that might determine appropriate methodology. ...