Mongolian Sign Language (MSL) is a visual-gestural language that developed from multiple languages interacting as a result of both geographic proximity and political relations and of the natural development of a communication system by deaf community members. Similar to the phonological systems of other signed languages, MSL combines handshapes,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of manual sign mand training combined with prompt delay and vocal prompting on the production of vocal responses in nonvocal children with developmental disabilities. A multiple baseline design across participants verified the effectiveness of this intervention. All participants showed…

A sample of elementary school-and high school-age deaf students in special education programs in the Australian state of Queensland using Australasian Signed English (ASE) took the Test of Syntactic Abilities (Quigley, Steinkamp, Power, & Jones, 1978) and wrote a story in response to a wordless picture sequence. Several analyses of the…

An examination of 20 manuals designed to teach sign communication to persons with severe communication impairment revealed over 850 words appearing in two or more manuals. These words are listed in alphabetical order with their frequency of occurrence. (Author)

The text for a course in manual communication contains 45 lessons and 565 signs, each illustrated by a drawing indicating the shape of the hands, the place where the hands move to and from, and the movements. Practice exercises for each lesson, designed to foster progressive reinforcement of acquired vocabulary, are grouped together with…

A training sequence is presented for teaching the manual alphabet beginning with the hand shapes that look most like the letters they represent. Each manual letter is then paired with an associated word. (CL)

Signs selected from lists used in studies with mentally retarded and autistic children and previously rated for visual iconicity were presented tactilely to 13 blind adults and adolescents. Visual and tactile ratings were found to be very similar across blind, deaf, and hearing-sighted adults and hearing-sighted children. (Author/CL)

Six profoundly mentally retarded adults were trained to use 10 signs. Two Ss learned all signs with 100% accuracy without verbal prompting; four Ss learned seven to eight signs, varying with stimulus cue and setting. It was suggested that the four Ss may not have possessed adequate cognitive ability. (CL)

Criticism of Manually Coded English (MCE) with deaf children is examined in terms of its classification as a language, its inadequate rate of information flow, and its inexact use. Research on MCE is reviewed, and it is suggested that MCE systems are not being used to their best advantage. (CL)

The author cites research that casts doubt upon the use of total communication as a means of facilitating speech, communication between parent and child, academic achievement, and vocabulary development in hearing-impaired children. He states that the Alexander Graham Bell Association is not antimanual communication, but rather prospeech. (CL)

Reviews the book that reports the results of research conducted by Edward Klima, Ursula Bellugi, and others. The book aims to show American Sign Language as a true language and to detail the representational devices that the language employs. A chapter by chapter summary of the reported research is given. (PJM)

The report describes activities and accomplishments of a project examining facilitative effects of manual signs on oral language comprehension of communication disordered but normal hearing students. The initial section details background and pre-grant studies leading up to the project effort. Studies touched upon such aspects as presentation…

The syntax of lexical units, or signs, of American Sign Language (ASL) is analyzed. Previous areas of study concerning pauses, functional sentence perspective, theme and rheme, and topic and comment are discussed. A model is offered to depict topic-comment relationships in ASL using space, vectors, and relationship rules. (SW)

Immediate and one-day posttest measures were obtained from 20 nonhandicapped seven and eight year olds in a paired-associate transfer of training task using manual signs and Bliss symbols (often used with non-speaking persons). Results showed no overall difference between signs and symbols in number of correct responses on either the immediate or…