Controversies in the education of deaf children

In Britain about one child in 1000 is born with sensorineural deafness. Around half of these children have severe or profound deafness, i.e. hearing losses >70 dbHL. A child with a 70 dbHL or more hearing loss will have no natural auditory access to the conversational spoken language surrounding her and this seriously undermines the process of language acquisition. Intervention is necessary if very deaf children are to acquire language and a means of learning. Controversy surrounds the education of deaf children over the choice of method used to unlock the barrier to language and communication. Currently there are three major protagonists: those who advocate an auditory-oral approach that involves no signing; those who believe in sign-bilingualism, a sign-only approach to first language acquisition; and those who favour total communication, a combination of speech and signs. This article focuses on children with severe and profound hearing losses for whom language and communication are so problematic and examines critically the three major communication options in order to clarify their respective claims.