This article describes development of the Profile of Multiple Language Proficiencies (PMLP), a measure of both English and American Sign Language skills in deaf children. The PMLP showed reasonable initial reliability and appears to be an easy-to-use measure. Discussion addresses issues that influence the reliability and validity in evaluating…

Applies principles of whole-language instruction to the teaching of sign language skills. Emphasis is on the holistic use of sign language in natural communicative situations. Some materials for this approach to sign language instruction are suggested. (DB)

Students with hearing impairments designed a survey to investigate the hopes and concerns of other students with similar disabilities. Results of the 2,566 responses are discussed, some of which include the desire for more awareness of people with deafness, acceptance of American Sign Language, greater family involvement, and access to…

Highlights a music program for students with deafness that allows them to explore music in ways that are hands-on and visual. The formation of a sign choir that integrated students with deafness and hearing students is also described as well as an interactive deaf/hearing drama group. (CR)

Considers how learning to read can be difficult for Deaf students, but the task is even harder for Deaf minority students. Explores strategies to inspire an interest in reading and multicultural acceptance for Deaf and hearing students alike. (SG)

The editor of a treatise encouraging the use of American Sign Language for both school and home instruction and communication with the deaf discusses the instructional trends leading to the theory, differences between the suggested instructional methods and previously used methods, and responses to the treatise. (10 references) (CB)

Activities of the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School in developing a formal K-12 curriculum dealing with the history and culture of deafness are described. The planned curriculum will cover self-knowledge, communication strategies, American Sign Language, history, literature, and issues in deafness. A sample unit on self-knowledge is offered.…

A longitudinal study investigated how a hearing child of deaf parents simultaneously acquired American Sign Language and spoken English. Neither of two unique properties of signed language (personal pronouns or "negative" sign markers) facilitated acquisition of English, suggesting that children's acquisition of grammar is relatively…

Explores the acquisition of productive verbs and (spatial) agreement of American Sign Language (ASL) in the signing of two deaf children with hearing parents. The children, observed at two ages, initially showed markedly different developmental trends. Then their grammatical development converged, and they were able to suit ASL to the kind of…

The Deaf Way Conference at Gallaudet University (Washington, DC) gathered over 5,000 people from 81 nations to discuss the future of deaf people worldwide. This article offers brief summaries of conditions in Pakistan, Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Venezuela, and Denmark. National history, demographics, special education, and sign language…

Analysis of the performance of beginning American Sign Language students, who had only recently learned the manual alphabet, on a task in which proactive interference would build up rapidly on successive trials, supported the view that different languages have separate memory stores. (Author/CB)

Deaf culture is defined, and hearing parents of deaf children are encouraged to learn about deaf culture, by making contact with deaf people, learning sign language, and learning about deaf folklore and history. A resource list on deaf folklore and sign language includes books, articles, periodicals, and national organizations. (JDD)

The study examined the effectiveness of using sign language (Signing Exact English) to facilitate reading in students classified as trainable mentally handicapped. Results indicated that subjects learning to read words with an accompanying sign identified and retained significantly more vocabulary than did students learning to read in a…

Multilevel analyses compared performances of 12 deaf Jamaican adolescents (ages 15 and 16) and 12 hearing adolescents (ages 13 and 14) on writing, reading, and (for deaf subjects) sign language tasks. The deaf adolescents' ability to express complex ideas in sign language supported the need for use of a bilingual approach to the teaching of…

This study with 14 prelingually deaf adults seeking counseling found that the use of "lay" counselors using sign language was effective; these deaf individuals varied greatly in their problems, needs, and potentials; these adults accepted their deafness; and all had some positive resources in either their emotional network (family) or social…