Speech teaching for deaf children in the age of bilingual/bicultural programs: the role of tactile aids.

Three studies are summarized which show the potential value of tactile aids for the development of improved speech production skills by profoundly deaf children. The first study examined the use of a tactile display of high frequency speech energy (2-7 kHz). The results obtained showed greatly improved discrimination when the tactile display supplemented hearing aid use. In the second study an 18-year-old profoundly deaf man was provided with speech training using tactile aids to provide modeling and feedback. Recordings made pre- and post-training of the subject's productions of consonants in /aCa/ and simple sentences were played to panels of normal hearing listeners. The results showed large improvements in the post-training tokens. The final study outlines the results of speech training with tactile aids provided to a large group of deaf children.