As indicated in this Special Issue, there has been much debate on the development of English language and literacy in d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students. Questions remain on the nature of the first language and the relation of this language to the development of English literacy. There is also considerable controversy on the role of…

Communication is crucial for any human being and the children with disabilities are no exception. Due to the number and combination of their disabilities and/or conditions, children with multiple disabilities and visual impairment (MDVI) have especially limitations of the ability to communicate the meaningful and functional way with their…

The academic terms and the periods of the courses related to the language development and communication differs considerably in the programs of the countries which train teachers for the special education department. The aim of this study is to examine the contents and credits of the communication and the language development courses in Teacher…

Some students with intellectual disabilities require explicit instruction of language skills, including preposition use; however, little is known about effective ways to teach preposition use to this population. This study examined direct instruction (DI) to teach students to use and respond to prepositions. Results indicated that DI was an…

This article describes a method for identifying test items as disability neutral for children with vision and motor disabilities. Graduate students rated 130 items of the Preschool Language Scale and obtained inter-rater correlation coefficients of 0.58 for ratings of items as disability neutral for children with vision disability, and 0.77 for…

This article investigates the relationships between play and language development in students with multiple disabilities and visual impairments or deaf-blindness. The findings indicate that students with higher levels of communication demonstrate more advanced play skills and that the use of play-based assessment and exposure to symbolic play are…

Long before children learn language, they communicate with gestures, vocalizations, facial expressions, and body language. This is known as prelinguistic (prior to language) communication. Most children learn this type of communication without formal teaching, but children who are deaf-blind may need guidance to learn it. This publication…

Objective: This study examined the relative risk of placement disruption for 3-10 year-old children placed in out-of-home care based on the biological relatedness of the placement caregiver and child disability status: no disability, a non-behavioral disability only, a behavioral disability only, or both a non-behavioral and behavioral disability.…

Background: This study addresses the question to what extent visual impairment leads to additional disability in adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). Method: In a multi-centre cross-sectional study of 269 adults with mild to profound ID, social and behavioural functioning was assessed with observant-based questionnaires, prior to expert…

Nine children with complex communication needs and concurrent vision and hearing losses participated in an intervention program aimed at increasing intentional prelinguistic communication. The intervention constituted a pilot, descriptive study of an adapted version of prelinguistic milieu teaching, hence referred to as A-PMT. In A-PMT, natural…

Rhythmic movement in practice (RMP) is an alternative approach for teaching communication skills to severely-profoundly multiply handicapped children. It integrates a motoric program (rhythmic motions) and experience with objects (cues for signals, materials, and equipment used) and utilizes the principles of coactive movement (teacher-child…

The paper reports on a case study of the language environments of two severely involved, non-oral cerebral palsied preschoolers. Observation of interactions, comprehension development, acquisition of productive signals and of use of supplementary communicative devices revealed deviances in language directed to severely multiply physically…

The software programs "Toddlers' Tutor" and "Story Machine" have been used along with fingerspelling and sign language interpretation with deaf and mentally retarded students. Improvements have been noted in the reception/expression of basic and expanded forms of signed and written language. (Author/CL)

The paper examines the use of concrete symbol systems to make the transition from presymbolic to formal symbolic communication for deaf blind students. Comments focus on expressive use of concrete symbols and address two issues requiring further research: (1) the critical features of referent objects, concrete symbols, and concrete symbol arrays…

Briefly described are the blind mentally handicapped child's perception of the physical world and his language development. (CB)