[The effects of early manual instruction on the oral language development of two deaf children].

The speech and language training for deaf children at our clinic is performed using a multisensory method, which consists of reception and expression training for sign language and fingerspelling as well as auditory training, lip reading, and written language training (the Kanazawa Method). We have already reported that acquisition of written language is not dependent on oral language, and that written language is easier to learn than oral language for deaf children. In the present investigation, we analyzed the acquisition of comprehensible and expressive vocabulary in sign language and fingerspelling.