When the federal government began in the 1880s to regulate immigration, the exclusion of what were termed "defectives" was one of the primary aims. Deaf people were among the thousands of disabled immigrants turned back each year at U.S. ports as "undesirables." Stereotyped as economically dependent and as carriers of potentially defective genes,…

The purpose of this longitudinal case study was to closely examine one deaf child's experience with a cochlear implant and his speech, language, and communication skills from kindergarten through middle and high school using both developmental and sociocultural frameworks. The target child was one of the first children to receive a cochlear…

Deaf people have difficulty reading and remembering English script because of its sound-based orthography. Logographs (e.g., kanji, Arabic numerals) should not pose the same challenge because they are based on meaning, not sound. Little research has been conducted to test this theory's validity cross-culturally. The present study was an attempt to…

Examines whether manually coded English (MCE) sign language systems are learnable. Reading achievement and expressive English skills of deaf students educated using only a MCE sign system were examined. Deaf students had expressive English skills comparable to hearing students in respect to syntactical and lexical skills but were deficient in…

When mental health clinicians perform mental status examinations, they examine the language patterns of patients because abnormal language patterns, sometimes referred to as language dysfluency, may indicate a thought disorder. Performing such examinations with deaf patients is a far more complex task, especially with traditionally underserved…

In children, concepts develop in a spiral, with the child at the center. A positive self-concept begins within a responsive caregiving environment. Concepts build upon one another. The more ideas and memories that a child has about the way the world and relationships work, the easier it is to develop further ideas. Once a child realizes, for…

The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training,…

Governor Baxter School for the Deaf is one of six Maine pilot sites chosen by NYNEX to showcase asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology. ATM is a network connection that allows high bandwidth transmission of data, voice, and video. Its high speed capability allows for high quality two-way full-motion video, which is especially beneficial to a…

Intended to raise researchers' and teachers' awareness of fingerspelling as an important part of signed communication, a study examined its use with deaf children in the classroom. Five trained teachers of the deaf, participating in a demonstration total communication project in a public school in the Midwest, were videotaped in their own…

The paper examines issues concerned with the incidence of visual perceptual learning disabilities among deaf and partially hearing children. Evidence indicating a high incidence (15.5 percent of 682 deaf students) of visual perceptual deficits is offered, as is a definition of visual perception. The impact of visual perceptual deficits on…

The natural sign language used by deaf children in Poland makes no distinction between present, future, and past tenses. Deaf pupils do not understand the notions of temporal sequence and duration of time intervals, and so are prevented from thinking of and planning for the future. The study with 15 deaf 12-year-old pupils and 15 deaf 14-year-old…

A training manual for teaching functional sign training to the severely multiply handicapped was developed using the Signing Exact English (SEE) system. The program, which was adapted from the Functional Speech and Language Training Program, is designed for persons who lack refined motor, speech, and language skills. Procedures are outlined to use…

The study compared two groups of young deaf adults, one whose primary family of socialization was deaf (N=12), and one whose primary family of socialization was hearing (N=12), to determine if differences existed in the sociocultural factors of identification with deaf cultural beliefs, experience with sign language, participation in adaptive…

Based upon responses from 363 schools and centered on all types of dramatics activities. (CH)