Reports an 18-month longitudinal study of sign language acquisition in very young children of deaf parents. Results indicate that some revision of views on cognitive prerequisites for language is necessary. Implications for nonspeaking populations and for developmental theory are discussed. Reviews briefly sign language training programs for…

Eighty-four sign glosses in the elementary-aged lexicon and 87 in the adolescent/adult lexicon for language-impaired severely mentally retarded individuals were examined for usefulness in terms of eight variables. Concept concreteness and word frequency were significantly represented for adolescent/adult lexicons but not for elementary lexicons.…

The authors address several issues pertinent to designing environmentally based total communication assessment and training programs for language delayed hearing children for whom oral language training alone is inadequate. (Author/CL)

The study involving 60 undergraduate students investigated sign language as a function of sign translucency (the perceived relationship between a sign and its referent) and referential concreteness. Translucency and concreteness levels were varied and naive sign language learners attempted to learn a list of sign referent pairs. Results indicated…

Results of a study involving 14 three- to 11-year-olds with language impairments revealed that, for both functor acquisition and functor recall, speech and sign training was superior to speech training. Type of functor trained was also important, with prepositions faring better than pronouns. (Author/CL)

Summarizes the available data on the spontaneous signing of nonverbal mentally handicapped children and discusses possible reasons for the spontaneity. Instructional techniques for promoting spontaneity are outlined, and implications of sign spontaneity for research are considered. (Author/EJS)

Examines the similarities between British Sign Language and West Indian Creole, both in their social development and structural similarity. Pertinent educational implications are discussed. (EKN)

Five severely language disordered children (20 months to 11 years old) and their parents participated in a 10-week sign training program. Group parent training sessions were conducted in four phases and individual training was provided on a weekly basis. All children showed substantial gains in use of productive language. (Author/CL)

Issues concerning the teaching of sign systems to severely communicatively handicapped persons are considered. It is explained that the differences causing severe communication handicaps will affect which aspects of language processing and which aspects of language will be affected. Suggestions are made as to why some individuals who have great…

A discussion of techniques developed to foster spontaneous verbal language in autistic children. Signed speech refers to the simultaneous production of signs and speech. After several months of this, the signs are faded out and the verbal language remaining is employed in a creative fashion. (AMH)

The article addresses the use of sign language and drama with young children with such disabilities as mental retardation, aphasia, autism, and other language learning disorders. Examples of activities that integrate creative drama techniques with sign language techniques are offered. (DB)

Described are the background and results of use of a total communication approach (combining speech, speechreading, gestures, formal sign language, fingerspelling, printed word, cursive writing, and reading) with a non-deaf, mentally retarded boy (15-years-old) lacking communication skills. (LS)

"Verbal" and "nonverbal" are confused and confusing terms. Gestural phenomena in semiotic use--gSigns--are called nonverbal but work in three major ways, only the first of which is unrelated to the highly encoded (verbal) activity called language. A gSign may: (1) have a general meaning: "yes,""no,""who…

Reviews cases which support the view that parts of the left hemisphere control languages, no matter how it is expressed, while right-side regions are involved only in skilled nonlinguistic movements and perceptions. Compares recent findings with previously held theories. (ML)

Sixty minimally verbal autistic children (mean age five years) were exposed to one of four language training conditions: speech alone, sign alone, or simultaneous or alternate presentation of speech and sign. Regardless of training condition, pretreatment verbal imitation ability positively predicted the size of child-initiated spoken vocabulary…