Describes code shifting study in communicative behavior of hearing child interacting with deaf child and mother, both of whom signed. Hearing child knew signing, but did not sign at home. Although communication change occurred, code shifting was influenced more by motivational variables and by hearing child's own flexibility with language than by…

Ways in which the lexicon of Irish Sign Language (ISL) has developed, and how it is being continually extended, are examined. Change occurs in several ways. Research to date indicates that there are 59 basic handshapes, from which all vocabulary items are created. Classifiers are used extensively in the nominal and verbal system of ISL, and 15 of…

This report discusses the outcomes of a practicum designed to address the lack of parent participation in American Sign Language (ASL) training by parents of children with hearing impairments. Using a pretest-posttest design, 46 parents of children who are deaf and receive services from a school for the deaf were surveyed. Based on the needs…

Demographic information indicates that 6% of the general population is hard of hearing or deaf; however, deaf people are significantly underrepresented in drug and alcohol treatment on any given day. Deaf people are a minority whose primary language is American Sign Language (ASL), and information about substance abuse is not easily represented in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate innovative performance assessments developed by the instructor in an American Sign Language (ASL) course at an urban undergraduate university. The performance assessments engaged students in higher order thinking skills as they demonstrated their learning. Course purpose, instructional objectives,…

A month by month series of notes by the teacher describes problems and progress of a day class for seven deaf or hard of hearing children (ages 5 to 15 years) which stressed total communication in a prescriptive approach to teaching. (Author/DB)

Handshapes with single finger extension are examined in data from 10 sign languages: American, Australian, British, Finnish, French, Japanese, Providence Island, Rennell Island, Indian, and Swedish. It is concluded that a theory of marking can be developed along the same lines as for spoken language, with only the physiology differing. (Author/MSE)

Investigates sentence processing in a visual-gestural language by testing signers' recognition for American Sign Language sentences. Results indicate that signers decompose a complex sign into its lexical and inflectional components during sentence comprehension and remember the meaning expressed by these components rather than remembering the…

Described is a means of telecommunication for the deaf. American video telephone (Picturephone) is a telephone for the deaf which transmits a picture of the sender who is able to use American Sign Language (ASL) and to fingerspell to the reader using video transmission. (DS)

Reports on an experiment describing the lexical development of a hearing child with a deaf mother and hearing father. Data confirm previous findings that (1) sign emerges before spoken word, (2) acquisition stages are similar in ASL and spoken English, and (3) the child initially develops one lexical system. (Author/AM)

Reports data and observations from videotapes showing interaction in everyday activities between deaf parents and both hearing and non-hearing infants. Discusses the several modes of communication used and the strategies employed to increase two-way communication. (PMJ)

Presents results of research of the use of simultaneous communication in deaf schools and its accuracy in representing English grammar. (AM)

Reports on an investigation into the gestural repertoire of a deaf child raised in an oral environment. (AM)

Instructional variables of program content, sequence, and time were carefully controlled over three years for 18 autistic children. The program, which employed a one-to-one and one-to-two teaching format, focused on language instruction. Students made significant language age gains over 24-month training periods. References are listed. (Author/JEG)

Examined whether the characteristics in perception of speech sounds found in preverbal hearing infants might extend to the perception of signed language in infants with congenital deafness. Seventeen Japanese mother-infant dyads participated in the study. Found that infants with deafness showed greater attentional and affective responsiveness to…