INTRODUCTION: The appearance of language is "A" change in a child's behavior that is marked by the appearance of symbolic conduits and related transformations to understand and interact with the world. OBJECTIVE: To describe the communicative profile in regard to the first words, actions, and gestures of infants and children aged 8 to 16 months, who have normal hearing, and to compare them with hearing-impaired children of the same age. Patients: The study included 40 children, aged 8-16 months; 20 children had hearing impairment and 20 children had normal hearing (EG). METHODS: To evaluate the communicative behavior of children, the following was used as the protocol: Communicative Development Macarthur's: First Words and Gestures, which was adapted to Brazilian Portuguese by Teixeira (1997). RESULTS: The main results varied among the age groups. CONCLUSION: For the 40 children, the number of actions and gestures increased with increasing age. The responses of the parents of children with normal hearing (compared to the responses of parents of children with hearing impairment) in regard to items "A," "B," "C," and "D" of Part I ("First Words") show that children with normal hearing have a greater skill at understanding and expressing oral language and in vocabulary acquisition, compared to children with hearing loss. In Part II ("Actions and Gestures") on Items "A," "B," "C," "D," "E," and "F," children with hearing impairment had greater skills in understanding and expression than those with normal hearing.
