A quantitative model of speech development is proposed based on observations of normal hearing and congenitally deaf children. Nonlinear controls used during the development of suprasegmental and segmental aspects of speech are identified. Linguistic components of speech are ignored. The importance of the associative cortex in speech-motor control…

Examines the relation of Pidgin Sign English to American Sign Language and the written English of deaf persons. (AM)

Recent research concerning learning via a single mode or particular combination of modes prompted an experiment which used a dual stimuli methodology. Manual sign, graphic, and oral stimuli were presented, in pure and in combination, to normal adults without previous signing experience. An efficiency rating of method of presentation was obtained.…

Analysis of questionnaires completed by 195 teachers of deaf blind children indicated that speech, signs, gestures, and writing were the primary communication methods most frequently employed. Possible reasons for the teachers' disproportionate use of speech are considered. (CL)

A description of 14 communication systems used by the deaf blind is provided. (PHR)

The purposes of the study involving four severely handicapped students (11 to 16 years old) were to examine whether the acquisition of instruction- following behavior is facilitated by the presentation of manual signs with verbal instructions and whether manual and verbal expressive abilities are acquired as an indirect result of receptive…

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.…

This naturalistic study examined the classroom collaborative play activities of nine preschoolers with hearing impairments and language delays, but without sign-language skills. Findings indicated the children constructed collaborative play episodes which incorporated role, action, and object transformations using a nonverbal metacommunication…

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.…

This study compared verbal comprehension, verbal production, and gesture production in 40 children (ages 10-49 months) with Down Syndrome (DS) and 40 normally developing children (ages 8-17 months). DS children showed a dissociation between verbal comprehension and production but synchronous development between vocal lexical comprehension and…

Eleven deaf retarded institutionalized adults demonstrated significant language improvement at the conclusion of a 6 month total communication program in which child care aids were trained to use sign language and to reward Ss' communication attempts. (CL)

The study examined the relationship between language and mathematics with 11 classes of deaf students taking Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 at the Gallaudet University School of Preparatory Studies. Specifically, the study attempted to predict the difficulty of a variety of relatively simple algebra problems based on the abstractness of the math and the…

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…