This study investigated the knowledge and strategies that nonliterate adults use to identify print. Participants were 20 low-socioeconomic status Brazilian adults ranging in age from 20 to 74 years. Participants' ability to identify common environmental signs displaying varying degrees of contextual information was investigated along with their…

This article describes the predicative verbal system of Catalan Sign Language (LSC) as it is used by Deaf people in the province of Barcelona. We also present a historical perspective of the research on this topic, which provides insight into the changes that have taken place over the last few decades in sign language linguistics. The principal…

From the evidence Johnston has presented, it is clear that the number of children being born deaf in Australia has fallen off and that this decline is likely to continue as a result of the technological and social factors he outlines. It also seems that this reduction in numbers is reflected in other countries for which data are available. It is…

In my response to the commentaries made about my article, I observe that the commentators find no obvious errors with my estimates of the size of the signing deaf community. However, most of them are not as pessimistic as I am partly because of the position they take on a number of issues. Namely, the supposed uniqueness of Australia in its…

Recent research into signed languages indicates that signs may share some properties with gesture, especially in the use of space in classifier constructions. A prediction of this proposal is that there will be similarities in the representation of motion events by sign-naive gesturers and by native signers of unrelated signed languages. This…

This article is concerned with ethical aspects of the relations between language minorities using signed languages (called the Deaf-World) and the larger societies that engulf them. The article aims to show that such minorities have the properties of ethnic groups, and that an unsuitable construction of the Deaf-World as a disability group has…

This article presents a study that examined the impact of visual communication on the quality of the early interaction between deaf and hearing mothers and fathers and their deaf children aged between 18 and 24 months. Three communication mode groups of parent?deaf child dyads that differed by the use of signing and visual?tactile communication…

Previous research has demonstrated that both hearing adults and hearing children with no training in arithmetic successfully performed approximate arithmetic on large sets of elements. Here, the possibility is explored that the same phenomenon can be confirmed in deaf adults who have acquired a signed language as their first language. Results…

Deaf education is in a period of great transition in Japan as a result of the "Educational Reform Plan for the 21st Century" proposed by the Japanese education ministry. Unfortunately, the communication needs of deaf students have not been taken into account in the Plan's recommendations. One area where deaf students must attain the same…

This article first introduces some theoretical considerations concerning the emergence and evolution of sign languages from the semiogenetic perspective. It then presents results from a linguistic study of the phenomenon of lexical stabilization in three emerging sign languages used by Brazilian deaf adults who live in a hearing environment…

Until now, teachers and learners of NZSL have not had access to information on the most frequently used signs in the Deaf community. This article describes the first study of the distribution of signs in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). We hope that it will help teachers of NZSL make decisions about which signs to teach first and suggest…

There is no better way to start young children on the road to research skills than through the project approach. Designed with the distinctive characteristics of early childhood in mind, this article talks about child-centered approach to learning that allows individuals to work at their level of skill, comfort, and interest. The project approach…

The linguistic and cognitive profiles of five deaf adults with a sign language disorder were compared with those of matched deaf controls. The test involved a battery of sign language tests, a signed narrative discourse task and a neuropsychological test protocol administered in sign language. Spatial syntax and facial processing were examined in…

Guiding deaf and hard of hearing students in making important decisions about their adult careers can be a difficult task. Twenty years after its inception, the TCB, as adapted for deaf and hard of hearing students, may help. The TCB is a unique assessment tool designed to measure the transition skills of deaf high school adolescents and young…

Robert, a fifteen-year-old resident in a residential treatment program, was diagnosed with significant hearing impairment. He communicates primarily through American Sign Language, although he speaks relatively well and has some hearing ability. Katie, a youth worker who has participated in Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) training, worked…