Mothers Learning Simultaneous Communication: The Dimensions of the Task

The simultaneous communication of six mothers to their hearing-impaired children was studied to determine the extent to which the signed message matched the spoken message. From samples of 100 utterances, a mean 40.5 utterances were signed fully. Although the mean size of the samples was only 389 morphemes, approximately 18% of the spoken morphemes were deleted, on the average. These results indicate that we have underestimated the difficulty of simultaneous communication for parents and that our training methodology needs to be reevaluated. Training programs for parents need to be based on a realistic assessment of demands of the task and of parents' situation as language learners. A first approximation of such an assessment is presented, with recommendations for changes in the way sign training for parents is conducted.