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Implications Of An Oral-Gestural Training Program In The Acquisition Of Speechreading Skills, Mary Lu Wood

Dissertations and Theses

In order for the hearing handicapped child to derive maximum benefit of language acquisition through maturation, a method of receptive communication is essential at the earliest age possible. It is felt that speechreading is this method. The need for a method of training speechreading cues to prelingual, aurally handicapped children is based on the fact that most visual speechreading methods require the use of language. If speechreading can be regarded as a learning process involving the discrimination of visual cues that maybe disassociated from language expression then training the child to discriminate various facial expressions may actually enhance speech-reading ability. …