The education of deaf children has been the subject of debate and controversy for centuries. The systematic study of deaf children's educational and linguistic abilities has a much shorter history, but investigations of their academic achievement and spoken and written language have now been undertaken in many parts of the world. The results of these surveys leave no room for complacency. The main concern of this book lies with the classroom experiences of deaf children who are being taught using "oral" methods. It illustrates how attempts to help children acquire spoken language and to help them learn often lead to counter-productive interactions between teachers and their pupils. More positively, it identifies more successful education techniques and discusses ways in which these might be implemented in the classroom.