Several studies have explored the use of iconic gestures to improve the learning of foreign vocabulary. In this quest, words for abstract concepts have been largely neglected, under the assumption that abstract concepts have poor or non-existent sensory-motor representations. Yet, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory suggests that they are grounded on…

This paper discusses issues of language revitalization and linguistic prescriptivism related to the teaching of American Sign Language (ASL) in Canada. I describe the current and historical context for ASL teaching, including the increase in ASL course offerings at some postsecondary institutions, and discuss findings related to challenges in…

This article describes the project of producing Polish Sign Language (PJM) translations of a series of Polish primary-school textbooks. We discuss the multimedia software application that presents the resulting bilingual textbooks, which allows video clips to be played back by clicking on the corresponding original Polish text. We also explain the…

Through detailed multimodal analyses, this article shows how participants of an English language course create and manage sites of attention for achieving collaboration across multiple spaces. The ethnographic data for the study comes from an English language course 'Academic reading' offered for university students majoring in Finnish Sign…

Very little is known about how unidentified dual sensory loss (DSL) may affect education and academic outcomes for students with extensive support needs (ESN). We used data from a teacher survey on over 100,000 students with ESN who take U.S. statewide alternate assessments to identify the number of students with known and suspected DSL and the…

Purpose: The use of sign-supported speech (SSS) in the education of deaf students has been recently discussed in relation to its usefulness with deaf children using cochlear implants. To clarify the benefits of SSS for comprehension, 2 eye-tracking experiments aimed to detect the extent to which signs are actively processed in this mode of…

Parents' experiences of using Lámh, a key word signing approach used in Ireland, were captured through in-depth face-to-face interviews with parents of children with a range of intellectual disabilities. It emerged that Lámh provides child users with one of the rudiments of inclusion, that is, a means of engaging with others. A number of factors…

This research is motivated by the interaction between deaf students with blind people in the context of friendship and buying and selling, but these two individuals can not communicate well due to the obstacles of the message is not acceptable or delivered by means of existing communication. Communication between the visually impaired and deaf is…

In this article, we provide an overview of the last twenty years of research on Indigenous sign languages, deaf community sign languages, co-speech gesture, and multimodal communication in the Australian context. From a global perspective, research on sign languages and on the gestures that normally accompany speech has been used as the basis for…

This survey study examined augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) practices reported by early intervention speech-language pathologists (SLPs) across the United States (N = 376). The study examined (a) types of AAC that SLPs reported using (i.e., sign language, photographs, pictures, symbols, talking switches, and iPad apps or dedicated…

Lev Vygotsky (1993) described deaf ontology as dynamic interactions that uniquely but inexorably synthesize biology and society. The "deaf biosocial condition" is a deceptively simple theory. Principally, it clarifies imbricated issues of axiology, power, and knowledge by centering positive adaptive compensations that sublate deafness.…

The evaluation of sign language proficiency needs to be based on measures with well-established psychometric proprieties. To date, no valid and reliable test is available to assess Polish Sign Language ("Polski Jezyk Migowy," PJM) skills in deaf children. Hence, our aim with this study was to adapt the British Sign Language Receptive…

This paper presents the design and development of the Hong Kong Sign Language-Sentence Repetition Test (HKSL-SRT). It will be argued that the test offers evidence of discriminability, reliability, as well as practicality and can serve as an effective global measurement of individuals' proficiency in HKSL. The full version of the test consists of…

This study was aimed at validating the Individual Recovery Outcomes Counter (I.ROC) for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and tinnitus patients in a mental health care setting. There is a need for an accessible instrument to monitor treatment effects in this population. The I.ROC measures recovery, seeing recovery as a process of experiencing a meaningful…

The current study continues our effort to document a shared sign language in Japan--Miyakubo Sign Language (Miyakubo SL) on Ehime-Oshima Island, located in the western part of Japan. After a brief sociological, geographical, and cultural introduction to Miyakubo SL, the topics of numeral expressions and timelines in Miyakubo SL are discussed. A…