Signing systems that attempted to represent spoken language via manual signs -- some invented, and some borrowed from natural sign languages -- have historically been used in classrooms with deaf children. However, despite decades of research and use of these systems in the classroom, there is little evidence supporting their educational…

This paper presents findings from a study on the use of sign supported Norwegian (SSN) in two individuals with Cri du chat syndrome (CCS). The study gives a first account of some selected aspects of production and intelligibility of SSN in CCS. Possible deviance in manual parameters, in particular inter- and/or intra-subject variation in the use…

The study demonstrated the utility of the alternating treatments design in determining the most efficacious language training approach with mentally retarded children. Oral communication, total communication, and modified total communication were each used with two children in three trials. The preferred approach was consistent within each subject…

A study investigated prosodic variables of syllable stress and intonation contours in speech produced during the simultaneous communication (SC) of ten hearing sign language users. Results indicated longer sentence duration for SC than speech only conditions. Vowel duration and frequency differences between stressed and unstressed syllables were…

A Pearson product-moment correlation of .913 between the two instruments demonstrated overwhelming commonality and supported the hypothesis that the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised Performance score may provide a convenient alternative to the Hiskey-Nebraska when the score is computed using the Anderson and Sisco deaf norms and a…

Discusses the implications of deafness for cognition and describes communicative systems (the oral method and sign language) for the deaf. Holds that parents of deaf children should teach them both signing and speaking. (GC)

Analysis of spoken repetitions of linguistically-controlled sentences by severely and profoundly hearing-impaired 6- to 19-year-olds (N=45) revealed that grammatical category significantly affected articulatory accuracy of target phonemes, while no effects due to syntactic complexity were noted. No differences were seen in performance between age…

This paper presents qualitative descriptions of the consonant inventories of 12 children who have used cochlear implants for at least five years, as well as descriptions of sound correspondences between children's systems and the ambient language (English). Qualitative differences were found between the inventories of oral communication users and…

Summarizes a discussion on cochlear implants from a National Institutes of Health conference. Reviews the cited benefits of the implants in children. Gives comments on research on the language performance of children who are deaf or hearing impaired in oral programs versus those in total communication programs, as well as dissenting opinions on…

The case study involves a developmentally apraxic eight-year-old girl using a multimodal communication system. The Partners in Augmentative Communication Training program was implemented. Results after two months suggested some improvement in communication interaction skills. Issues regarding developmental apraxia and the use of augmentative and…

Describes research into the correspondence between speech and sign language by looking at simultaneous communication as it is used by fluent deaf persons. The study aims to determine what relationship, if any, exists between the morpheme level and the message level of utterances in discourse. (SED)

This study examined the relationship between the teaching method, oral or total communication, used at children's schools and children's consonant-production accuracy and vocabulary development over time. The children (N=147) had used cochlear implants for between 6 months and 10 years. Results indicated a complex relationship among children's…

Total communication procedures were used with three severely mentally retarded children (mental ages 2 to 4) to examine the effects of receptive speech on the acquisition and maintenance of manual signing. Signs corresponding to known words were generally acquired faster and retained better than signs corresponding to unknown words. (Author/JW)

The speech intelligibility of 18 children with prelingual deafness was examined after using cochlear implants for an average of 3 years. The average speech intelligibility score of the nine children using oral communication was significantly higher than that of nine children using total communication. (DB)

A review of studies in which signing or symbol use has been taught to autistic individuals suggests that these techniques can provide a means of communication and language development for the autistic, including mute and retarded children. (RH)