Communication mode use of two hearing-impaired adolescents in conversation

Communication mode use in the dyadic conversational speech of adolescent simultaneous communication (SC)-trained hearing-impaired twin boys was investigated. Proportional frequencies of modes and the English structural characteristics of the spoken components of utterances produced in each mode were examined. The results indicated that these adolescents were using an integrated bimodal form of English with a grammatical base that did not vary as a function of the presence or absence of simultaneous signs either in their speech or their partner's speech. Implications of the results are discussed.