The primary language hypothesis of short-term memory coding was challenged by an experiment with eight normally hearing college students and a review of the literature about deaf subjects. Whether or not deaf signers recode printed words into sign depends on a variety of task and subject factors. (SLD)

This study of four moderately to severely aphasic subjects found that success in manual sign training programs is related to severity of aphasia, that aphasic subjects' propositional use of manual signs rarely follows simple acquisition, and that generalization to untrained stimuli or environments does not occur without additional training.…

Two studies explored linguistic development in sign and speech of 10 youth (ages 12-16) with severe intellectual impairments who used manual signs (Makaton vocabulary) for communication. Analysis of semantic relations, lexical development, and word order suggested the children's language had not developed beyond mean length of utterance stage 1.…

The effectiveness of sign language was compared with verbal language instruction with 12 nonverbal severely retarded students (4 to 9 years old). Ss received either speech training, sign language training, or instruction in an area other than communication. During the second year, 10 Ss received training from their parents. Results indicated no…

"Verbal" and "nonverbal" are confused and confusing terms. Gestural phenomena in semiotic use--gSigns--are called nonverbal but work in three major ways, only the first of which is unrelated to the highly encoded (verbal) activity called language. A gSign may: (1) have a general meaning: "yes,""no,""who…

People take their folk gestures seriously, which is illustrated in the fact that several folk gestures, such as raising the right hand and kissing the Bible, are used in religious and legal ceremonies. These and other gestures, such as making the sign of the cross and knocking on wood, are folk gestures used today which have their roots in early…

The Lake County (Indiana) Public Library provides a guide to materials for the deaf. The fiction list is annotated. Unannotated lists include materials on the deaf child, books on manual communication, resource books (law, education, directories, guides), poetry, lipreading materials, general information on deafness and the deaf, biographies,…

In this case study of a young deaf child, his mother relates his progress in language acquisition through the use of signs, finger spelling, speechreading, and auditory training. Other members of the child's family are deaf and the child received training at the Gallaudet preschool from the age of 30 months. The author believes that there are…

Offered are guidelines to the development of theatre for, by, and about deaf persons. Various terms used for sign-language theatre and deaf theatre are defined and discussed in an introductory section, and the use of sign language as a theatrical medium is explained. The production of theatre is covered by sections on the history of deaf theatre,…

Four nonverbal autistic children (10-15 years old) were taught expressive sign labels for common objects, using a training procedure that consisted of prompting, fading, and stimulus rotation. (Author/BD)

Six research areas in manual/simultaneous communication (M/SC) for hearing-impaired individuals are discussed. (Author)

The need for selection, standardization, and development of signs and manual communication systems for use in the educational setting is discussed. (Author)

The article presents eight lessons for teaching practical signs to deaf-blind individuals. (CL)

Surveys completed by 1,760 teachers of hearing impaired students revealed an overwhelming preference for English over American Sign Language as the language used in classroom communication. Signs appeared to be used most consistently in residential and day schools. (CL)

Differences in teachers' ability to use separate signs for English grammatical endings and the use of characteristics of American Sign Language were found. Deaf teachers deleted far fewer signs and used more elements of ASL while the inexperienced hearing teachers did the reverse. (Author/DB)