Total Communication (or TC) emphasizes the use of all methods of communicating. The benefit of TC is that it opens all the doors, using every practical mode to teach vocabulary and language. The final goal is to communicate using any and all methods with the deaf and hard of hearing and perhaps the special-needs child.

The following is a list of some of the methods used in TC:

• American Sign Language

• Signed Exact English

• Contact Sign Language/Pidgin Sign English

• Fingerspelling

• Lip reading

• Body language

• Facial expressions

• Oral speech

• Simultaneous communication, or sim-com (speech and signs used at the same time)

• Auditory/Verbal

• Cued speech

• Amplification devices

• Writing

• Drawing

• Pantomime