The sign and oral language development of five two-year-old hearing children of deaf parents was studied and compared with the sign and oral language of their mothers. A surprising finding was that the mothers, despite their limited oral linguistic competence, communicated predominantly in the oral mode with their children. (Author)

Analysis of constituent order in performance of native signers suggests that the notions of subject and object are less helpful for understanding the grammar than are "topic" and "comment," especially when the latter notions are related to old and new information and the semantic logic of location. (Author/MSE)

Uses data from American Sign Language complement structures to show that a syntactic theory is needed to account for these in a formal way. Constraints on the forms of these structures are discussed in terms of syntactic constraints, rather than pragmatic or functional conditions. (Author/AMH)

A severely retarded adolescent boy who had not acquired oral expression skills was taught five manual signs to express a food preference. A multiple baseline design employed across behaviors demonstrated that instruction was effective for all five signs. (Author)

The authors describe the results from a study using sign language and the manual alphabet to improve spelling skills of learning disabled second graders. (SBH)

Presents evidence showing that there is no need, in planning or implementing a language program for a retarded child, to exclude nonoral communication. Concludes that consistently supplementing spoken language with nonoral communication systems will not inhibit spoken language development but may well facilitate spoken language by providing a…

Discusses the Sign Language Interpreter Training Program at Arizona's Pima Community College (PCC). Presents results of the 1977 PCC feasibility study ascertaining the need for such a program. Enumerates and analyzes its goals and objectives and lists the required courses. (CAM)

Originally part of a symposium on educational media for the deaf, the paper describes the seven step process for adding sign language inserts and relates a series of five informal experiments conducted at the Instructional Media Center for the California State University. (PHR)

Symmetrical signs were acquired significantly faster than were asymmetrical signs, and touch signs were acquired significantly faster than were nontouch signs. Results of the acquisition of iconic v abstract signs were inconclusive. (Author)

Outlines a procedure for predicting the appropriateness of signing as a communicative technique for individuals with speaking impairments. The procedure compares a potential learner's motor control with those necessary for the handshapes, location, and movements of a compiled vocabulary. A procedure for predicting future possible vocabulary is…

Results of an analysis of variance revealed that iconicity enhanced learning, similarity interfered with acquisition, and there was no effect of vocabulary age within the range studied. (Author)

Discusses erroneous beliefs regarding sign language, namely, (1) sign language is one and universal, (2) its grammar is poor or nonexistant, (3) its vocabulary is concrete and figurative, (4) its "signs" consist of simply gestures, and (5) sign language mimics oral language. (AM)

Nine profoundly retarded and institutionalized persons (16-57 years old) were taught over a six-week period to associate gestural signs with a series of pictures depicting these acts and objects. (Author)

Reports on the progress of a project to produce a dictionary of the Jicarilla Apache language. Jicarilla, an Eastern Apachean language is spoken on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in Northern New Mexico. The project has revealed much about the role of literacy in language standardization and in speaker empowerment. Suggests that many parallels…

Examines whether early simultaneous bilingual language exposure causes children to be language delayed or confused. Cites research suggesting normal and parallel linguistic development occurs in each language in young children and young children's dual language developments are similar to monolingual language acquisition. Research on simultaneous…