The basic impoverishment of deafness is not lack of hearing but lack of language. To illustrate this, we have only to compare a 4-year-old hearing child, with a working vocabulary of between 2,000 and 3,000 words, to a child of the same age, profoundly deaf since infancy, who may have only a few words at his command. Even more important than…

This study analyzed the quality and quantity of intentional communication in four toddlers with Down Syndrome (DS) and eight subjects matched for either chronological or developmental age. Analysis of Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scale scores indicated that DS subjects expressed different communicative functions and used different…

Twenty-four severely mentally retarded adolescents (with no uncorrected visual or hearing losses) were trained to use 16 manually signed English signs. Ss were randomly assiged to sign only, or sign plus speech conditions and performances were videotaped. Analysis of results revealed that all Ss learned some signs to criterion and all showed…

The English language development of an unselected group of 20 hearing impaired children (mean age approximately four) taught Signed English was studied over a four-year period. (Author/PHR)

This article presents a critical evaluation of the use of Pidgin Signed English (PSE) and three manually coded English (MCE) systems, signed English, Seeing Essential English, and Signing Exact English with deaf students. It concludes that the use of MCE systems is unlikely to result in English proficiency for many students with severe to profound…

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.…

Systematic sampling was done of signing between five home-reared chimpanzees who had had 4-7 years of complete immersion in integrating their signing interaction into their nonverbal communication. Eight-eight percent of all signs reported fell into the social categories of reassurance, social interaction, and play. (SL)

The article describes methods used to bring a seven-year-old boy with severe auditory and visual impairments and no communication skills to a level of oral communication within one year. The manual, graphic, and oral-aural strategies used are described. (Author/DB)

The literature on symbolic forms of communication was reviewed, and an experimental program was designed to teach a single set of vocabulary to a group of four institutionalized profoundly retarded blind/mute adults through the use of gestures. Literature about deaf/blind persons suggested the use of coactive movement techniques and facilitation…

A longitudinal study of the effect of mothers' communication modes on the language development of children (N=149) with severe or profound hearing loss indicated that children whose mothers used oral communication had higher scores on measures of spoken language, whereas children whose mothers used manual communication had higher scores on…

The article gives an example of how, even though an individual's capacity to use or to learn a spoken language may be significantly impaired by brain damage, the ability to acquire a non-oral language system may remain intact. (Author/NCR)

A mother of a deaf child recounts her earlier commitment to an oralist position, her gradual realization that she was asking her child to do the impossible, and the child's rapid acquisition of language when allowed and encouraged to use signs. The importance of hearing parents learning sign language is stressed. (DB)

Two studies were made of the Rochester Method of combining fingerspelling with speech and of its effects on development of language and communication in profoundly, prelingually deaf children. A survey tested school performances of 200 subjects from six residential schools for the deaf, three of which used the Rochester Method and three which used…

The use of total communication in educating deaf preschool and elementary school students in the Santa Ana Program for the Hearing Impaired, Orange County, California, is described. Total communication is explained to consist of auditory training, speech, speechreading, fingerspelling, and the language of signs. Aspects of the program described…