The ALPHA Interactive Microcomputer System for Teaching Reading, Writing, and Communication Skills to Hearing-Impaired Children

In this study, hearing-impaired children received supplementary instruction designed to simultaneously enhance text skills and general communication skills. Microcomputer-assisted instruction was used, emphasizing exploratory learning—not typical programmed instruction. Microcomputer presentations of pictures, text, and sign language were directly initiated by the children from a special keyboard during exploratory learning phases. A teacher also was an essential part of the instructional process, sustaining dialogue to stimulate the children's communication and their attention to the text, sign, and pictures. Tests required the children to "write" their text answers on the TV screen by pressing the words on their keyboards to match an action sequence on the TV. A total of 79 hearing-impaired children with ages between 3.2 and 14.3 years participated in the project. The children mastered a series of lessons and learned to write text sentences that were highly accurate interpretations of either animated pictured action sequences (an average of 94% correct) or sign language sentence animations (96%-98% correct). Moreover, the children made significant advances on two measures of general communication—sentence imitation and referential communication.