This study examined facial expressions produced during a British Sign Language (BSL) narrative task (Herman et al., International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 49(3):343-353, 2014) by typically developing deaf children and deaf children with autism spectrum disorder. The children produced BSL versions of a video story in which…

We draw on an article published in 1973 in this journal. We described how we taught "Geoff," a 6-year old boy with autism, an elementary form of sign language during the course of 24 one-hour sessions held over a 12-week period (Webster et al. in "J Autism Child Schizophr" 3:337-346, 1973; Fruchter in "Autism: new…

We report the first study on pronoun use by an under-studied research population, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exposed to American Sign Language from birth by their deaf parents. Personal pronouns cause difficulties for hearing children with ASD, who sometimes reverse or avoid them. Unlike speech pronouns, sign pronouns are…

Facial expressions in sign language carry a variety of communicative features. While emotion can modulate a spoken utterance through changes in intonation, duration and intensity, in sign language specific facial expressions presented concurrently with a manual sign perform this function. When deaf adult signers cannot see facial features, their…

Results of a study involving 14 three- to 11-year-olds with language impairments revealed that, for both functor acquisition and functor recall, speech and sign training was superior to speech training. Type of functor trained was also important, with prepositions faring better than pronouns. (Author/CL)

Signs were used successfully with a blind 10-year-old autistic girl. After eight months of training, she was able to acquire a functional sign vocabulary relying primarily on the tactile-kinesthetic and the auditory modalities. This newly acquired skill had a beneficial impact on the child's general functioning. (Author)

The results indicated that overcorrection plus positive reinforcement was effective in teaching one sign (milk); however, an added contingent exercise (having to stand up and sit down 10 times for an incorrect response) was required to teach the second sign (cookie). (Author/SW)

Four nonverbal autistic boys (ages 11-16) were successfully taught sign language action-object phrases following an intervention composed of prompting, fading, stimulus rotation, and differential reinforcement. The skill generalized to new situations. (Author/DB)

Three questions regarding the use of sign language as an alternative communication system for nonverbal autistic children are examined. Data on effects on speech, the upper limits of sign acquisition, and effects on adaptive function are discussed. (Author/CL)

The longitudinal study investigated the language acquisition strategies employed over one and one-half years by an eight-year-old autistic child learning sign language. There were specific deviations in language development noted, in spite of providing the child with appropriate sign language training. (Author)

Sixty minimally verbal autistic children (mean age five years) were exposed to one of four language training conditions: speech alone, sign alone, or simultaneous or alternate presentation of speech and sign. Regardless of training condition, pretreatment verbal imitation ability positively predicted the size of child-initiated spoken vocabulary…

Two groups of seven autistic children (4-16 years old) wore auditory trainers for specified times. Videotapes were coded for three attentional states (normal, withdrawn, attacking), for verbalization and signing, and for appropriate and acceptable behaviors. Results demonstrated a decrease in time spent withdrawn and increases in signing and in…

Sign language production of 14 low-functioning students (ages 9 to 20) with autistic disorder were examined. The location aspect of signs was produced more accurately by subjects than either the handshape or movement aspects. Wide individual differences were observed. Sign vocabulary size and accuracy was correlated with performance on two…

Empirical studies evaluating speech and language intervention procedures applied to children with autism are reviewed and the documented benefits are summarized. In particular, interventions incorporating sign language, discrete-trial training, and milieu teaching procedures have been used successfully to expand the communication repertoires of…