Simultaneous Communication

Simultaneous Communication, Sim-Com or Sign Supported Speech (SSS) is a technique sometimes utilized by deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing sign language persons in which both a spoken language and a manual variant of that language (such as English and Manually Coded English) are used simultaneously. While the idea of communicating using two modes of language seems ideal in a hearing/deaf setting, in practice the two languages are rarely relayed perfectly. Often the native language of the user (usually spoken language for the hearing person and sign language for the deaf person) is the language that is strongest, while the non-native language degrades in clarity. In an educational environment this is particularly difficult for deaf children as a majority of teachers who teach the deaf are hearing.