That being said:

Children who were born deaf are taught to communicate through several modes, including sign language, lip reading, written words, and communication devices like picture boards and written word keyboarding.

Some are taught to vocally speak through “feel” (touching the teacher’s throat, and then their own, and matching the “buzz” for pitch and volume).

The primary method of communication for fully deaf individuals is sign language. It is taught the same way any other language is taught… matching signs at first to concrete objects and observable movement, and then building into more abstract ideas.

Because deaf people do not have a real experience of sound, they do not learn the phonics matching of letters to sounds. Instead, they are taught all words as sight words, matching words to pictures or modeled action.

I am deaf and grew up in the oral method which they teach deaf children how to speak, lip-read and listen. First we are fitted with hearing aids which is critical in order to learn how to speak. So they would show us pictures, speak it, mouthing it clearly, so we can lip read. And encourage us to repeat.

Also to learn how to speak, they would put paper or a feather in front of our mouth to create the correct pronunciation, feel it on our throats or the teacher’s throat, nose for feeling the sounds and recreate it.

To read, is accomplished by showing a picture with the word below it like a flash card. It’s really not that much different with teaching hearing children how to read. It is more work and energy to teach a deaf child to speak and lipread, but it pays off in the long run, because I can understand almost 90% of the people that I encounter and have no problem communicating.