To test three hypotheses concerning fingerspelling's contribution to word recognition, 24 deaf children in three age groups (7-9, 10-12, and 13-15 years) were administered a vocabulary recognition test and a lexical decision task. Subjects' performance was measured by the number of words accurately identified and the response latency. Results did…

This bibliography covers alternative and augmentative communication and includes English-language citations for books, journal articles, and conference proceedings. The list contains over 400 citations, organized in alphabetical order by author, with references to publications dated from 1973 to 1986. Each bibliographic entry is coded for the…

This essay outlines general criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of an existing or proposed sign system for libraries with respect to the needs of physically disabled library users, specifically the deaf, the blind, and those confined to wheelchairs. The function of the International Symbol of Access is described, and design considerations…

Discoveries about the acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL) by deaf children are reviewed. Current research shows that ASL has developed as a fully autonomous language with complex organizational properties not derived from spoken language. Like spoken languages, ASL exhibits formal structuring at two levels and similar organizational…

Twenty-four deaf children (6 to 10 years old) were individually administered a task in which possession of accumulating candy rewards was made contingent upon the child stopping further accumulation. Ss, who under instruction periodically signed statements about the goodness of the reward, waited significantly longer before terminating the waiting…

Quiet signs and verbal cautioning by library staff do not decrease library noise levels as revealed by two tests using sound measuring equipment at San Joaquin Delta College. The levels in fact increased, confirming previous opinions that signs and staff intervention have little effect on patron behavior. Test methods, data, and five references…

The study involving 60 undergraduate students investigated sign language as a function of sign translucency (the perceived relationship between a sign and its referent) and referential concreteness. Translucency and concreteness levels were varied and naive sign language learners attempted to learn a list of sign referent pairs. Results indicated…

The document reports on a seminar sponsored by the West Central Region for Low-Incident Handicapped Children, on the acquisition, construction, and use of American Sign Language with severely handicapped children. Topics addressed include the cognitive preconditions to language, sign formational rules, the structure of sign, and American Sign…

Field researchers of sign language are the target of this methodological guide. The prospective researcher is briefed on the rationale of sign language study as language study and as distinct from the study of kinesics. Subjects covered include problems of translating, use of interpreters, and ethics. Instruments for obtaining social and language…

This report by the Committee on Library Orientation at the University of Virginia reviews the need for a unified, well designed sign system to assist users of the university libraries and discusses the categories and functions of such signs as identified in the relevant literature. A discussion of the current situation at the university and…

The acquisition of expressive sign language was studied in four autistic children (ages 10-15 years). Ss were taught expressive sign labels for common objects using a training procedure consisting of prompting, fading, and stimulus totation. The signing of three of the Ss was found to be controlled solely by the visual cues associated with the…

The story of Margaret, the daughter of deaf parents, depicts the frustrations and difficulties encountered in the silent world of the deaf. The text describes the family struggling through a life made more difficult by the naivete of the parents who, insulated from sound, received an inadequate education and were perplexed by things that most…

Examines the form that poetic function assumes in American Sign Language, a language that has a structural organization different from oral languages and where the possibilities for poetic organization are radically different. Examples of a complex type of composition called art-sign distinguished by three levels of structure are analyzed.…

The role of verbs in American Sign Language (ASL) is investigated. Verb mutations in ASL are very different from the kinds of grammatical deformations that occur in English, and are different from those that occur in spoken languages as a whole. (HP)

Listed with ordering information and in some cases brief annotations are 61 resources pertinent to use of manual communication by retarded, autistic, and aphasic individuals who cannot communicate effectively by speaking. (JG)