Four adults with moderate/severe disabilities were taught to request objects by using the manual signs "want" or "please" plus an object label sign, within the context of familiar activities in which needed objects were missing. All participants acquired a generic requesting response, and three acquired an explicit requesting…

Examines the possibilities and advantages of computers in teaching hearing-impaired children. A method of using computers to improve the spoken and written communication skills of the hearing impaired is presented. Suggests that Hypertext and multimedia technologies can be successfully applied to speech therapy teaching, lip-reading teaching,…

This paper proposes new policies which stress making explicit the roles of sign communication and speech in total communication programs for students with hearing impairments. A review of the literature supports the need to redefine total communication, provide improved preservice and in-service training of teachers in effective communication…

The use of Makaton signs was investigated with 49 British children (ages 4-13) with severe learning difficulties. Teacher-directed settings were associated with more use of signs but limited pragmatic functions. Free play settings were associated with less sign use but more varied functions. In both settings, most spoken and signed language was…

Gaze during utterance was examined in a set of bilingual-bimodal twins acquiring spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL) and a set of monolingual twins acquiring ASL. The bilingual-bimodal twins differentiated their languages by age 3. Like the monolingual twins, the bilingual-bimodal twins established mutual gaze at the beginning of their…

Discusses partial-insertion cochlear implants and examines the aural rehabilitation of a 13-year-old girl who was postlingually deafened in 1991 and subsequently fitted with a Nucleus 22-Channel cochlear implant. The case study traces her progress and the decision making process in changing from aural communication to sign language communication.…

Data from the job Analysis of Teaching American Sign Language (ASL) survey, which surveyed practicing ASL teachers, was used to compare group perceptions regarding skills and knowledge important to teaching ASL. Results show strong consensus regarding the skills and knowledge important to teaching ASL and support the use of the survey results to…

Focuses on the literacy problems of deaf people who are seeking employment. The article argues for the provision of adequate English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy skills training, makes programming recommendations, and suggests employment strategies that deaf people need. (12 references) (Author/CK)

Nationwide, there are some 1,055,000 young people under the age of 18 who have hearing loss according to statistics from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (http://www.nidcd.nih.gov). Reported rates of psychiatric disorders for children who have hearing loss range from 15.4% to 54% (Hindley, 1997). Selected…

This article investigates the way in which deaf tertiary students' identity is constructed within the university--an overwhelmingly "hearing" institution. It is a descriptive and analytical account of the experiences of two deaf teacher education students as they reflect on their progress and experiences in higher education. Data have…

In this article, the authors investigate visual and tactile ASL-English interpreters' influences on interactive discourse through an interactional sociolinguistic analysis of videotaped, interpreted interactions. They examine the participation framework of each of the interactions to determine whether the interpreters' utterances influence the…

This article describes the translation goals, challenges, strategies, and solutions employed in the development of a computer-based, self administered, psychiatric diagnostic instrument, the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for the Deaf (D-DIS-IV) in American Sign Language (ASL) with English captions. The article analyzes the impact of the…

This paper explores the problems of Arab children with hearing impairments living in Israel. It addresses the linguistic challenges involved such as the intrinsic problems of the Arabic language, the diglossia phenomenon expressed in colloquial dialects and literary registers, and the problems associated with a minority language in Israel. It…

This report summarizes two studies which documented the development of prelingually deaf children (N=4, N=40) in Sweden exposed to sign communication during preschool years. The first study involved analysis of video recordings, forming a qualitative description of social strategies used by four children with different social positions in the peer…

This final report presents eight papers resulting from research conducted during the third and final year of the "Handicapped Children as Tutors" project, which investigated effects of involving handicapped students as tutors of disabled and non-disabled elementary and secondary school students. Results of all the research showed…