The author measured hearing impaired students' reception of language presented via five modes: oral, aural, manual, oral-aural and simultaneous manual and oral. The study utilized a within-subjects design stimulus sentences controlled for length, phrase structure, syntax, vocabulary level and visemic content. Participants were 53 females and 53 males between 90 and 225 months of age ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="01i"/] = 175) with HTLs between 67 and 113 dB (ANSI) ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="02i"/] = 97.7). Each received 12 sentences via each mode. With a maximum score of 57, the simultaneous manual and oral ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="03i"/] = 33.2) and manual ([inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="04i"/] = 31.5) modes received the highest ratings. Results are discussed in the context of several theories of cognitive processing and selective attention.