Citation: Silvestri, Julia, and Jodi L. Falk. 2023. A Transition to Multimodal Multilingual Practice: From SimCom to Translanguaging. Languages 8: 190. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/languages8030190 Academic Editors: Hannah M. Dostal, Leala Holcomb and Gloshanda Lawyer Received: 19 December 2022 Revised: 2 June 2023 Accepted: 11 July 2023 Published: 11 August 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). languages Article A Transition to Multimodal Multilingual Practice: From SimCom to Translanguaging Julia Silvestri 1, * and Jodi L. Falk 2 1 Teachers College, Columbia University, New York 10027, NY, USA 2 St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf, New York 11225, NY, USA * Correspondence: jas2277@tc.columbia.edu Abstract: Historically, the field of deaf education has revolved around language planning discourse, but little research has been conducted on Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students with additional disabilities as dynamic multilingual and multimodal language users. The current study focuses on the language planning process at a school serving DHH and Deaf–Blind students with varied additional disabilities. A previous Total Communication philosophy at the school was implemented in practice as Simultaneous Communication (SimCom) and later revised as a multimodal-multilingual approach with the goal of separating American Sign Language (ASL) and English and using multimodal communication such as tactile ASL and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). To implement this philosophy without reverting back to SimCom, the school employed a language planning process using action research to reflect on cycles of improvement. A grounded theory approach was used to identify and analyze themes over a three-year period of language planning and professional development in multimodal communication. Triangulated data includes language planning artifacts and an online survey of staff perceptions—analyzed by coding concepts and categories, relating concepts to define translanguaging mechanisms and attitudes, and developing an overarching theory on how a school values translanguaging after 3 years of valuing complete access to language. In the context of a multilingual, multimodal language planning cycle, developing a shared language ideology guided by how Deaf, DeafBlind, and Deaf-Disabled (DDBDD) people use language emerged as an overarching theme that promoted dynamic languaging and understanding of strategies for effective communication. Keywords: translanguaging; deaf; deaf-blind; language planning; AAC 1. Theoretical Background Language planning has been fundamental to deaf education, historically through the present day. While a human rights framework in language planning discourse has provided Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) adults with strategic direction in advocating for their needs (Murray 2015), the prevalence of auditory-oral education and rise of pediatric cochlear implants continue the trend to exclude sign languages and minimize d/Deaf acculturation among DHH children (Dammeyer and Ohna 2021). This concern is affirmed by Murray and others who stress the need for sign language and Deaf culture, sometimes referencing the trend for DHH people to eventually acquire sign language later in life (Murray 2015; Snoddon and Underwood 2017). Some have suggested that depriving DHH people of sign language at any point in their lives is a human rights violation (Murray 2015), while also calling for more attention to the existence of intersectionality in DHH people and the importance of recognizing diverse social and linguistic needs (Murray et al. 2020). In an essay on the need for a more flexible understanding of language that emerges directly from people with disabilities, Deaf scholars Jon Henner and Octavian Robinson suggest that the language, the body, and the environment are interactive conditions that cannot be isolated from one another. Pushing for greater respect for people with disabilities, Languages 2023, 8, 190. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030190 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages