IF THE TACTILEAR CAN BRING HEARING TO THE DEAF, WHAT CAN IT DO FOR THOSE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE?

Abstract

Can the phoneme sequences of speech when presented via the TactilEar (a multi-stimuli, vibrotactile device worn on the wrist) be understood as language? The eight prelingually deaf children in an oralist program participating in the first field test of the TactilEar received between two and four and one-half hours of instruction. Those 13-15 years old attain 50% accuracy with one hour of instruction on six-item tests given from a field of nine items. Children 3-6 years attained a 50% test accuracy within two hours of instruction. For these tests the coded speech carried the entire speech message, no lipreading was possible. The TactilEar, a multi-sensory, vibrotactile device worn on the wrist, offers a possible second means for speech reception that may short circuit the auditory reception parameters established by the adult. This means of tactile speech reception defines the phonemes of speech in sound-specific holographic tactile patterns and presents these patterns at frequencies proportional to the pitch of the voice. Its first field test with prelingually deaf children is reported in the following text. Its application in language acquisition is unexplored. However, the TactilEar adds this fresh input factor in that it can make the adult a child again in oral language learning
and speech development.