Researchers have focused on how deaf signing children acquire and use American Sign Language (ASL). One sub-skill of ASL proficiency is ASL phonology. This includes the ability to isolate and manipulate parameters within signs (i.e., handshape, location, and movement). Expressively, signed language phonological fluency tasks have investigated…

Oral language is a critical component to the development of reading acquisition. Much of the research concerning the relationship between oral language and reading ability is focused on children, while there is a paucity of research focusing on this relationship for adults who struggle with their reading. Oral language as defined in this paper…

Learning in the earliest stage of life--the infancy, toddlerhood and preschool period--is relational and rapid. Child-initiated and adult-mediated conversations, playful interactions and learning through active involvement are integral to young children making sense of their environments and to their development over time. The child's experience…

In addition to the impaired ability to effectively communicate, adults with acquired brain injury (ABI) also experience high incidences of depression, social isolation, and decreased quality of life. Expressive writing programs have been shown to be effective in alleviating these concomitant impairments in other populations including incarcerated…

The oral expressive language of 47 aphasic subjects (who had suffered a single unilateral occlusive cerebral vascular accident two to four weeks prior to original testing) was measured on two occasions a year apart. Results found positive changes toward normal language functioning for several variables with type of aphasia affecting outcome on…

Examination of 11 standard vocabulary lists used as sources of vocabulary items for developers of augmentative and alternative communication systems found little overlap between them, small vocabularies, and a tendency toward simple words. Many words in lists of adult nonspeaking users were not on any of the lists. (Author/DB)

Results of a seven-week sentence stimulation treatment on sentence production in an aphasic adult female with agrammatism indicated that treatment influenced description of test picture sets and that some generalization to other picture sets occurred. (Author/DB)

The relation between physical identity and name identity encoding speed was assessed in 32 mentally retarded adults and nonretarded controls. A difference between retarded and nonretarded subjects in preparation time was apparent; however, this difference did not influence encoding speed. (Author/DB)

The study describes the Shewan Spontaneous Language Analysis (SSLA), establishes its reliability and validity, and reports on its use with 47 aphasic adults who had suffered a single unilateral occlusive cerebral vascular accident two to four weeks prior to testing and 30 normal adults. (Author/DB)

Language sample data from normal subjects (ages 40-79) were collected to determine how normal aging might affect performance on a picture description task, routinely used for assessment of aphasic individuals. Only an increase in the number of paraphasias and a decrease in communication efficiency correlated with increased age. (DB)

This study documents the communication strengths of 14 adults who resided in community group-home settings through the use of staff informant reports. These participants had as many as 12 different communication forms (e.g., reaching gestures, body orientation, facial expression, leading gestures, eye gaze, vocalizations) and 11 different…

Language Enrichment Therapy (LET), a program of language stimulation for aphasia developed in Finland, was tested by five British speech therapists with 13 adult stroke victims and their relatives. Results suggested the usefulness of a refined English version of LET as a cooperative tool for speech therapists and volunteer helpers. (JW)

This study evaluated a method of adult mediation with a deaf second grader which involved identification of language needs through transcription and analysis of the child's retellings of weekly basal stories, followed by targeted adult-mediated conversations. Evaluation indicated the student's performance on targeted semantic and syntactic…