One reason for the presence of manual communication in deaf families and the absence of manual communication in hearing families with deaf children is related to a bitter controversy regarding the use of the language of signs with young deaf children.Most hearing parents are warned against the use of manual communication by the professionals with whom they come in contact. The reason for this prescription is the belief that if deaf children are not forced to rely exclusively on oral methods of communication, they will not be motivated to learn speech and speech reading: ‘‘the evidence is .... impressive that speech seldom develops if signs come first’’ (DiCarlo, 1964, p. 115). Some social scientists,
however, are not convinced that this statement is true. Furth (1966), for instance, said that the insistence that the early use of signs is detrimental to the acquisition of speech because they are easier for the deaf to learn relies on ‘‘a mysterious doctrine of least effort.... Carried to its logical conclusion, this would mean that infants who are allowed to crawl would forever lack the motivation to learn to walk.’’ Altshuler and Sarlin (1963) and Kohl (1966) also believed that insistence on the exclusive use of oral communication with young deaf children has been carried to extremes. A comparison of the communicative functioning of deaf children whowere exposed to manual communication early in life and those who had no exposure to it in the early years should provide parents and educators with additional evidence in this sensitive area.