The article stresses the importance of teaching deaf children to think and learn through the development of meaning-making and meaning-sharing capacities. Classroom practices should thus be content focused and actively engage students in American Sign Language to develop general literacy. (CL)

Spanish Sign Language (SSL) is now the second most used sign language. This article introduces resources for the study of SSL, including three SSL dictionaries--two from Argentina and one from Puerto Rico. Differences in SSL between and within the two countries are noted. Implications for deaf educators in North America are drawn. (Author/DB)

The article reviews issues related to the cognitive styles, processing modes, and learning strengths and weaknesses that should be considered when selecting augmentative and alternative communication techniques for persons with autism. Stressed is the need to change communication techniques to accommodate the expanding needs and capabilities of…

This article encourages hearing individuals in the elementary school community to learn sign language. Suggestions include having students teach students, having family sign classes, incorporating sign instruction throughout the day, giving everyone a name sign, and having schoolwide events in which signing is featured. (DB)

This article presents initial guidelines for combining current conventions for analyzing sign language and spoken language, to represent signs accompanied by speech. Rules are outlined for transcribing utterance groupings in terms of their context, inflection, sign gloss, spoken component, and phonetic transcription. (JDD)

The use of sign language is suggested as a way to stimulate and educate the right brain, thereby cultivating student creativity. Sign language's benefits are that it forces the hearing person to think differently, can add clarity to oral communication, and could be applied to help children with learning disabilities. (JDD)

The mother of a young head injured nonverbal child describes ways used to increase the child's communicative ability including gestures, sign language, and communication boards. (DB)

This report discusses an approach for the psychoeducational evaluation of students with deafness in the Francophone population of Ontario, Canada. An introduction describes the historical context of education of deaf students and presents the idea that learning a sign language, ideally while the child is very young, furnishes a foundation for…

When evaluating the work of congenitally deaf students whose native language is spatial and semiotic, composition teachers must avoid being what Marjorie Siegel calls "verbocentric," since congenitally deaf students are, in effect, learning to write in a language completely foreign to them in structure, syntax, and grammar. The…