Argues for the use of American Sign Language (ASL), rather than spoken English or Manual English, with deaf children in to build language and thinking skills and thereby mediate the meaning of English in print and facilitate literacy development. (DB)

This article uses a developmental model of language (Situational- Discourse-Semantics or SDS), along with a constellation or neuro-network model, to describe the developmental emergence of phonemic awareness. Ten sources of phonemic awareness are profiled along with developmental continuum, providing an integrated view of this complex development.…

This article explores the effect of augmentative and alternative communication systems on literacy acquisition by young children with severe speech and physical impairments. The possibility of a relationship between the type of graphic symbols used for communication as a preschooler and the child's early reading competency is considered. (DB)