Reported are data obtained from a questionnaire survey of 152 deaf adults. Subjects were questioned concerning medical and audiological history, communication abilities and preferences, and educational, vocational, and social backgrounds. (Author)

The efficacy of employing linguistic elements (verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.) arranged in systematic combination matrices on the development of expressive verb-noun phrase usage was demonstrated when two of three moderately to severely handicapped six- and seven-year-old students showed gains in trained and novel responses. (CL)

Immediate and one-day posttest measures were obtained from 20 nonhandicapped seven and eight year olds in a paired-associate transfer of training task using manual signs and Bliss symbols (often used with non-speaking persons). Results showed no overall difference between signs and symbols in number of correct responses on either the immediate or…

A study involving five speaking and five non-speaking moderately/severely retarded adults revealed few differences in the ways either group revised or failed to revise their messages. Both groups were highly responsive to listeners' requests for clarification, although they tended to repeat their ambiguous messages rather than revising them. (CL)

Suggestions of writers such as A. Holland and M. Lahey and L. Bloom are examined regarding their appropriateness for visual-manual communication and are applied to approximately 50 signs most frequently taught to retarded and autistic persons to aid in lexicon planning. Additional signs are proposed for extending this basic list. (Author/DLS)

The study evaluated the prevalence of stuttering in the current hearing-impaired school age population through a survey of 77 schools for the hearing impaired. Results indicated that the prevalence of stuttering in this population is 0.12 percent and that manual disfluency is perceived to be more prevalent than oral disfluency. (Author/DB)