USING VISUAL-DISPLAYS TO TEACH ENGLISH SYNTACTIC RULES TO SEVERELY AND PROFOUNDLY DEAF-CHILDREN - A PILOT-STUDY

The prelingually profoundly or severely deaf child has a linguistic hi story which precludes the acquisition of English syntax in the gradual , needs-related and interactive manner of the hearing child. According ly, more ''artificial'' (though still sufficiently motivating) methods of imparting syntactic knowledge should be considered. This paper rep orts the use of a display kit to demonstrate to two deaf pupils how si mple declarative statements can be converted into questions to which t he answer is ''Yes'' or ''No.'' The results suggest that this may be a promising approach to the teaching of English syntactic rules to seve rely and profoundly deaf children. It is also suggested that the compu terisation of the display would open up many possibilities for improvi ng the sensitivity of the presentation to the child's individual requi rements, and for more accurate monitoring of progress.