A Signing Deaf Child’s Use of Speech

Speech and its function were studied (1;6 to 7;5) in a deaf child with deaf signing and speaking parents. At first, before age 3, imitation of facial speech behavior, speech-readable speech, and vocal speech were attempted but little: switching modes (sign to speech; speech to sign) was used early for clarification and emphasis; English functors were spoken before they were signed. Speech behavior assumed considerable importance after age 5; new words entered the child’s lexicon through speechreading, and she learned to adjust mode to language code and to listener needs for flexible communication.