Total Communication

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Total Communication (TC) is an approach to communicating that aims to make use of a number of modes of communication such as signed, oral, auditory, written and visual aids, depending on the particular needs and abilities of the person.

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History

The term "Total Communication", though, and its specific philosophy, was first used by Roy Holcomb in California. [1] [2] It was adopted by the Maryland school as the official name for their educational philosophy.[ when? ] TC was supposed to find a middle ground in age-old disputes between oralism and manualism, and as an alternative to Simultaneous Communication. [ citation needed ] In practice, however, most Total Communication programs use some form of Simultaneous Communication.[ citation needed ]

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Deaf culture Culture of deaf persons

Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label especially within the culture, the word deaf is often written with a capital D and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audiological condition, it is written with a lower case d. Carl G. Croneberg coined the term "Deaf Culture" and he was the first to discuss analogies between Deaf and hearing cultures in his appendices C/D of the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language.

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Cued speech is a visual system of communication used with and among deaf or hard-of-hearing people. It is a phonemic-based system which makes traditionally spoken languages accessible by using a small number of handshapes, known as cues, in different locations near the mouth to convey spoken language in a visual format. The National Cued Speech Association defines cued speech as "a visual mode of communication that uses hand shapes and placements in combination with the mouth movements and speech to make the phonemes of spoken language look different from each other." It adds information about the phonology of the word that is not visible on the lips. This allows people with hearing or language difficulties to visually access the fundamental properties of language. It is now used with people with a variety of language, speech, communication, and learning needs. It is different from American Sign Language (ASL), which is a separate language from English. Cued speech is considered a communication modality but can be used as a strategy to support auditory rehabilitation, speech articulation, and literacy development.

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Simultaneous communication, SimCom, or sign supported speech (SSS) is a technique sometimes used by deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing sign language users in which both a spoken language and a manual variant of that language are used simultaneously. While the idea of communicating using two modes of language seems ideal in a hearing/deaf setting, in practice the two languages are rarely relayed perfectly. Often the native language of the user is the language that is strongest, while the non-native language degrades in clarity. In an educational environment this is particularly difficult for deaf children as a majority of teachers who teach the deaf are hearing. Results from surveys taken indicate that communication for students is indeed signing, and that the signing leans more toward English rather than ASL.

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Deafness in Cuba encompasses many different topics. There are approximately 109,000 deaf people in Cuba. Some Cuban deaf people learn Cuban Sign Language, while others learn Spanish. Deaf culture is important to deaf people in Cuba.

References

  1. Holcomb, R. K. (1970). The Total Approach: Beginning and structure. In R. Madebrink (Ed.) (1972). Proceedings of the International Congress on Education of the Deaf, Stockholm, 1970.. Stockholm, Sweden: International Congress on Education of the Deaf, pp. 104-107.
  2. Nagengast, Larry. (1973) Deafness no handicap to newcomer. The Morning News (September 4, 1973), p. 11.