Tactile aids for profoundly deaf children.

This paper treats acoustic-tactile communication aids for the deaf. Children who obtain negligible help from conventional hearing aids are of particular interest. For the prelingually deaf child tactile aids may facilitate the acquisition of lipreading, and improve vocal production. Although attempts to use tactile aids for the deaf go back many years, only recently have developments in technology led to greatly improved processing possibilities and the feasibility of aids that can be worn. Here, we report case studies in which prelingually, profoundly deaf young children used wearable tactile aids.