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Multisensory and unisensory approaches to communicating with deaf children

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Abstract

The history of and current controversy in education of the hearing impaired between advocates of unisensory (audition only) and multisensory (audition, vision and touch) approaches to communication for learning and socialisation for hearing-impaired children is described. Arguments from developmental and perceptual theory, information processing, early intervention pedagogy and an examination of the evidence claimed to support the superiority of unisensory approaches is presented from which the authors conclude that the superiority of multisensory approaches is well established and these should be the methods of choice in communicating with hearing-impaired children.

Résumé

Les auteurs examinent les approches passées et actuelles de la prise d’information monosensorielle (uniquement par la vision) pour les enfants sourds, les pratiques liées à ces approaches et leurs fondements empiriques et théoriques. Il leur apparaît que les résultats des recherches ne plaident en faveur des bénéfices de prises d’informations uniquement monosensorielles, et que d’autres recherches sur le traitement auditif et visuel de l’information et le développement auditif des enfants sourds, démontrent la supériorité de combinaisons entre communication visuelle et auditive sur les approches utilisant de façon dominante la vision seulement.

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Power, D.J., Hyde, M.B. Multisensory and unisensory approaches to communicating with deaf children. Eur J Psychol Educ 12, 449–464 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172804

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