A survey of 56 deaf adults in England and Canada found that respondents perceived themselves as members of a definable deaf community. Results also indicated the importance of shared language (American or British Sign Language) and the possible community inclusion of individuals without deafness if their attitude is one of commitment to the…

This 1978 article presents general principles of sign selection, standardization and development, guidelines for sign selection, standardization, and development based on the American Sign Language lexicon, and a process for selection, evaluation, development, recording of vocabulary, signs, and fingerspelled words. The selection of…

Suggests the need for a new profession called sign pathology to help deaf children who experience difficulty in acquiring a signed language. It offers a framework for the development of professional sign language pathologists, while differentiating between disorders related to signed language acquisition and bilingual language pedagogy for deaf…

Achievement in mathematics is an issue of great concern not only to students and parents but also to employers and researchers in Kenya. This is because the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has continuously reported dismal results in this area, and especially in geometry. Also, KNEC indicates that it presents difficulties to both the…

Twelve parents of young deaf children were recorded sharing books with their deaf child--six from families using British Sign Language (BSL) and six from families using spoken English. Although all families were engaged in sharing books with their deaf child and concerned to promote literacy development, they approached the task differently and…

In order to better evaluate bilingualism in deaf children, this study examined whether observers (N=37) from different backgrounds would agree on deaf children's use of either American Sign Language (ASL) or English signing. Observers represented a range of background experience in a variety of schools and programs; 6 were deaf; 31 were hearing;…

Reviews and compares two CD-ROMs designed to teach sign language skills: "The American Sign Language Dictionary on CD-ROM" and "Sign Language for Everyone." The first is seen to be the better reference tool whereas the second is judged the better choice for computer users wanting to learn sign language in a structured way. (DB)

Examines two views of the relations between a bilingual's language repertoires: the lexical and the conceptual mediation hypotheses. In an experiment using cloze completions that required either simple recall or inferences, the interaction between task and cloze type indicates that different processes mediate interpretation and transliteration.…

This paper discusses the role of American Sign Language (ASL) in educating deaf children, based on the history of using manually coded English (MCE). The paper concludes that use of ASL should not be the ultimate goal of bilingual bicultural programs, and, in some classrooms, the optimal program will be complementary use of ASL and MCE. (JDD)

Part of a curriculum unit on preventing sexual abuse of persons with disabilities, the manual is intended to help instructors present the material to hearing impaired students. Illustrations of sign language are presented for such terms as sexual contact, sexual assault, incest, same sex assault (man/woman), rape (acquaintance/marital), exposer,…

The paper examines the use of the Makaton Vocabulary, a language program designed to provide a controlled method of teaching approximately 350 signs from British Sign Language with speech, to mentally handicapped and other language handicapped persons. The approach stresses two-way functional communcation using a core of basic words. Extension of…

A pilot project is described in which an introductory course in sign language was successfully taught to five groups of nondeaf persons in Vermont and New Hampshire via closed circuit television. (Author)

The text for a course in manual communication contains 45 lessons and 565 signs, each illustrated by a drawing indicating the shape of the hands, the place where the hands move to and from, and the movements. Practice exercises for each lesson, designed to foster progressive reinforcement of acquired vocabulary, are grouped together with…

Simultaneous communication of six hearing mothers to their hearing-impaired chilren was studied to determine the extent to which signed messages matched spoken messages. From samples of 100 utterances, a mean 40.5 utterances were signed fully. Approximately 18 percent of the spoken morphemes were deleted, on the average. (Author/CL)

Notes that three papers and commentary (in this issue) emphasized importance of including data on manual modality when studying language development and its relationship to other domains. Discusses advantages of using robustness analysis rather than precursor relations to study domain relations. Suggests alternative theoretical context to which…