Describes the spontaneous development of 13 symbolic gestures in a normal infant from 12 to 17 months. Sixteen additional symbolic gestures were purposefully taught. Vocal development was advanced, indicating that gesturing is not necessarily related to poor vocal skills. Data support the hypothesis that sensorimotor behaviors are natural…

Acquisition of the location aspect of American Sign Language signs was examined in nine young hearing infants and toddlers of deaf parents. Sign locations, overall, were produced with 83.5% accuracy. Highly contrasting locations were acquired first. Location played a central role in young children's early sign language acquisition. (Author/DB)

Assessment of the prelinguistic behaviors of 43 deaf children (ages 8 to 49 months) of hearing parents in Israel found only partial resemblance to the theoretical model of prelinguistic communication in hearing infants. Unique interrelationships among pointing and early noncommunicative behaviors were found with no correlation between use of…

This study evaluated the recognition and retention of transparent and nontransparent manual signs by 50 sign-naive hearing college freshmen. There was a significant decrease in the number of nontransparent signs retained as the period of time after training increased. Implications for sign language training with nonverbal hearing persons are…

The use of Makaton signs was investigated with 49 British children (ages 4-13) with severe learning difficulties. Teacher-directed settings were associated with more use of signs but limited pragmatic functions. Free play settings were associated with less sign use but more varied functions. In both settings, most spoken and signed language was…