Purpose: Key word signing (KWS) entails using manual signs to support the natural speech of individuals with normal hearing and who have communication difficulties. While manual signs from the local sign language may be used for this purpose, some KWS systems have opted for a distinct KWS lexicon. Distinct KWS lexicon typically aims for higher…

Outcome measures for students enrolled in separate sections of a manual communication course taught by the same instructor were compared. One group received instruction in a traditional university classroom setting. The other group received instruction through asynchronous, videostreamed online delivery. No statistically significant differences in…

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…

Questionnaires completed by 195 teachers of deaf blind students revealed that additional handicapping conditions and the presence of undesirable behaviors had an important effect on the selection of communication methods. (CL)

A study compared intelligence scores of three groups of Israeli deaf children--23 with deaf parents/deaf siblings and manual communication (DpDs), 76 with hearing parents/deaf siblings, and 144 with hearing parents and siblings. The DpDs children were superior to other deaf children and comparable to hearing children on most intelligence measures.…

A model is proposed to explain when communication in the manual modality will assume grammatical properties and when it will not. An experiment with 16 hearing adults suggests the necessity of segmentation and combination in all communication. Manual communication need not be characterized by grammatical properties only when it accompanies speech.…

Describes a series of seminars held by the University of Rhode Island which attempted to improve communication between local professional persons, deaf adults, and graduate students in speech pathology and audiology. (RW)

The author proposes that a more complete manual system be used with the youngest child and that, when a child has demonstrated mastery in any modality, i.e., speech (sound and/or lip formation), sign, reading or writing, the system can be made leaner. (Author/SB)

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…

Four developmentally disordered, speech deficient children (11-16 years old), who were being taught sign language as an alternative to speech, were taught to use manual signs as mediators in a delayed auditory-picture matching-to-sample task. (Author/CL)

Stresses the importance of drama in deaf education, noting that it facilitates communication and builds self-confidence in the students. Traces the development of Gallaudet's drama department and expresses the hope that its graduates may become teachers of drama in schools for deaf children. (RW)

The reliability of the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) Everyday Sentence Lists was studied under receptive English simultaneous communication with 43 National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) students and under manual communication conditions with 40 NTID students. Results indicated that the CID lists are reliable measures under both…

The article reviews variables (such as purpose of expression, antecedents, prompts, and consequences) related to the development of non-linguistic communication skills for students with severe or profound handicaps and suggests that future research efforts be directed toward prediction analysis using a two-tiered process. (Author)