Five severely language disordered children (20 months to 11 years old) and their parents participated in a 10-week sign training program. Group parent training sessions were conducted in four phases and individual training was provided on a weekly basis. All children showed substantial gains in use of productive language. (Author/CL)

A study examined whether deaf high school students' written English reflects their teachers' use of English sign markers in simultaneous communication by comparing the teachers' signed story with the students' interpretation. The students' output and teachers' input differed only in ways familiar from research on children's imitation and semantic…

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)

Eight teachers' interaction with their preschool students with deafness, while sharing selected books, revealed that story-reading was more successful when children became involved, teachers followed the text closely in their own words, children had more than one exposure to the text, and when the confusing use of simultaneous communication was…

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…

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…

The study examined the relationship of cognitive style (reflection-impulsivity) to communication mode (oral or total) with 72 deaf and hearing children at two age levels: 6-10 years and 11-15 years. Results indicated deaf children and younger children were more impulsive than hearing or older children. No differences between oral and total…

Reports on a study of the status of sign language in universities and colleges that offer major concentration in education of the deaf. Results show that there is no standard for or consistency in the place of sign language at schools offering majors in the education of the deaf. (SED)

The study compared effects of oral speech with total communication (speech plus sign language) training on the ability of mild mentally retarded children (four-eight years old) to repeat four-word sentences. Results pointed to the superiority of the total communication approach in facilitating sentence repetition. (Author)

Reports on a study that tests the hypothesis that simultaneous speech-sign instruction is beneficial for learning for a hearing but language-delayed child. The hypothesis assumes that the child would first demonstrate a preference for sign in labeling vocabulary items but would eventually drop the sign supplement as vocabulary became less…

Teachers were surveyed for their opinions of Signed English and American Sign Language. Of the 85 responses, most felt that deaf children should begin signing as early as possible, use Signed English as their base language, and eventually be bilingual in the sign languages. It was also felt that teachers should be bilingual. (MSE)

The effectiveness of verbal, sign, and simultaneous systems for the acquisition of receptive language by an autistic boy was investigated. Results suggest nonsignificant differences among the three methods. (Author/SEW)

A case study of a prelingually hearing impaired boy with bilateral severe to profound sensory neural hearing loss is presented. Separate analyses of spoken and signed language were made indicating that signs had become vehicles for attaching meaning to sounds. (Author/CL)

Research is reviewed on bilingual education and its application to the education of hearing-impaired students. Assessment procedures for obtaining valid samples of language behavior, distinguishing between competence and performance, and considering language variation are emphasized. (CL)

This study examines the receptive skills of severely deaf subjects employing either oral or total modes of communication in the comprehension of a wide range of syntactical and semantic structures. For almost all types of structures investigated, the total system was found to be the more effective method of communication. (Author/SJL)