Communication breakdown repair skills: Comparison between deaf and hard-of-hearing, and normal-hearing adolescents.

Objectives: Communication breakdowns and their repair by deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) and hearing adolescents were examined in conversation with an unfamiliar communication partner.

Method: This study compared the number and type of clarification requests and responses to those requests of 16 DHH and 16 normal-hearing adolescents aged 11-16 years, in a 10-minute conversation with an unfamiliar adult. It also analyzed the relationship between speech intelligibility, communication breakdowns, and clarification requests by an unfamiliar adult.