Family Journeys:
Exploring Communication Opportunities
Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Presented by Cathy Glover & Corri Saunders
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Introduction
 During this webinar, we will provide an overview of the
wide array of communication opportunities available to
Deaf and hard of hearing children and their families.
 These opportunities include: Auditory Verbal, American
Sign Language, Auditory Oral, Cued speech, Signed
English, and Bilingual Bimodal.
 This webinar will highlight parent’s individual experiences
exploring each communication opportunity. The most
important goal is that your child develops language!
Auditory Oral
 Development of listening and spoken language
 Encourages consistent use of hearing assistive
technology.
 Encourages use of natural gestures, face to face
communication, and speech reading.
Auditory Oral Video
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American Sign Language
 Development of whole and fully visual language.
 Does not rely on the ability to hear.
 Signs can represent words or concepts.
 Unique grammar and syntax
 Encourages the use of hands, body and facial expressions
as well as fingerspelling.
American Sign Language
Video
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Auditory Verbal
 Early fitting and
consistent use of hearing
technology is critical.
 Development of
listening skills without
the use of visual support
or speech reading.
 Development of spoken
language through
audition (listening) only.
Unisensory.
 Need for a language-rich
environment with
families encouraging
meaning listening.
Auditory Verbal Video
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Bilingual Bimodal
 Two language using two modalities
 ASL and Spoken English
 Hearing assistive technology is encouraged for the
development of spoken language.
 Parallel development of both languages…
…independent of one another.
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Bilingual Bimodal Video
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Cued Speech
 A communication system to represent the sounds of
any spoken language.
 Uses eight hand shapes representing consonant sounds.
 And four positions representing vowels.
 Cued Speech is used in conjunction with speech
reading, amplification and spoken language.
Cued Speech Video
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Signed English/Pidgin
 Several signed systems are used to produce,
“English on the Hands”
 Encourages speaking and signing simultaneously.
 Uses manual signs in English word order.
 Additional ‘sign markers’ are often used to represent the
verb tenses, plurals and other parts of English.
Signed English Video
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Resources
 Schwartz, S. (2007) Choices in Deafness: A Parent’s Guide
to Communication Options. Woodbine House, 3rd Ed.
 Seaver, L. (2013) The Book of Choice- Support for
Parenting a Child Who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Hands
and Voices., 3rd Ed.
 A Parent’s Guide for Infants & Children with Hearing Loss;
Maine Newborn Hearing Program, Bureau of Health,
Division of Family Health; Maine Department of Health
and Human Services.
 Hands and Voices – www.handsandvoices.org
Questions?
 Cathy Glover, M.Ed.
 207-945-3581
 cathy.glover@mecdhh.org
 Corri Saunders, M.E.D., M.Ed.
 207-781-6210
 corri.saunders@mecdhh.org