To date, much information about Sign Bilingualism, gleaned from parents and/or teachers, has been written from a strong hearing viewpoint. As deaf children should be the main beneficiaries from a Sign Bilingual Education, this project was designed to enable the children to recall their experiences and share their multi-aspect views with other deaf…

This article discusses Johnston's estimate of the number of signing Deaf people in Australia and queries whether it adequately accounts for nonnative signers or reflects the numbers who make use of services in Auslan. It concurs with Johnston's projection of a decline in the size of this population, and discusses the ways in which the Deaf…

We tested the hypothesis that syntactic and narrative comprehension of a natural sign language can serve as the linguistic basis for skilled reading. Thirty-one adults who were deaf from birth and used American Sign Language (ASL) were classified as skilled or less skilled readers using an eighth-grade criterion. Proficiency with ASL syntax, and…

This paper compares the views of parents and teachers of the deaf on deaf children's literacy at home. We made DVD recordings of 12 young deaf children (aged 3-5) sharing books with their parents at home. Six families used British Sign Language (BSL) as their main means of communication and for interacting around books, and six used spoken…

Deaf high school students participating in an oral history project interview deaf adults, collect oral and signed histories on videotape, and translate the American Sign Language text into written English captions. The project's goals are to help deaf students build self-esteem, improve English writing skills, and become acquainted with role…

A "Signability Index" is presented for sign language interpretation of children's books. The index is based on such variables as reading rate, sentence length, quantity of text used to express thoughts, word imagery, and complexity and concreteness of passages. Suggested books for classroom reading are listed, categorized by six levels of…

A 4 1/2 year old autistic-like child participated in a sign language training program using nine words, each with a corresponding toy and play activity. For each word the teacher held up the appropriate toy and said, or under the sign condition said and signed, the corresponding word. The S learned to sign, but the introduction of sign training…

Encourages the use of sign language to improve classroom discipline among elementary school students. Explains steps for introducing signing instruction in class among hearing students. (CBC)

The article describes a structured approach to teaching sign language to severely disabled students through task analysis. The approach emphasizes four basic principles from developmental and behavioral theories: (1) environmental influence, (2) imitation, (3) reinforcement, (4) practice. A functional sign vocabulary of 250 words grouped according…

Uses data from Toddler Sign Program, a nine-month program of bimodal input and assessment involving 25 handicapped and nonhandicapped toddlers (11 to 33 months old at program onset). Explores boundary conditions (most extreme conditions under which a phenomenon holds) of sign advantage phenomenon (where signs are learned earlier and more easily…

Six autistic children were trained to use their sign repertoire to make spontaneous requests of adults. Training consisted of imitative prompting, fading, and differential reinforcement, with aspects of incidental teaching. Ss displayed increased rate and variety of spontaneous sign requests and generalization of spontaneity across different…

Nine hearing impaired sixth graders who received sign language vocabulary words grouped according to hand shapes remembered 96 percent of the signs they learned over 6 weeks, compared to 64 percent retention for 11 students who received vocabulary imitation instruction. (CL)

Recounts the history of deaf education in Britain and of studies into the abilities of those born deaf, beginning with the influence of Kenelm Digby's "Treatise on the Nature of Bodies" published in 1644 to about 100 years later when Henry Baker became the first professional teacher of the deaf in Britain. (SED)

Signs from lists used with mentally retarded and autistic children and previously rated for visual iconicity were presented tactilely to 13 blind adults. Visual and tactile ratings were very similar across blind and sighted groups, as were statements of relationship between signs and their meanings. (Author/CL)

A longitudinal study of sign language acquisition was conducted with 13 very young children (median age 10 months or outset of study) of deaf parents. A majority of signs in Ss' early vocabularies were not iconic, suggesting that the role of iconicity may have been overrated. (Author/CL)